80s
Favorite 100 Albums of the 80s: (#45) Paula Abdul – Forever Your Girl
Year Released: 1988
Notable Songs: “Knocked Out”, “The Way That You Love Me”, “Straight Up”, “Forever Your Girl”, “Cold Hearted”, “Opposites Attract”
Album MVP: “Straight Up”
Why I Loved It: A younger generation will mostly remember Abdul as the quirky and quite possibly occasionally comatose judge alongside Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson on American Idol. It’s a shame, because Abdul was an incredibly talented choreographer and performer, and this debut album is one of the late 80s best efforts and certainly most successful. This album had 10 singles and five of them were Billboard top three hits, including four number-ones. Are you freegin’ kidding me? Is this one of the decade’s most critically acclaimed albums? Is it part of the quintessential 80’s collection to leave behind for the most ardent lovers of music? Of course it’s not.
It’s exactly what it’s supposed to be –very light pop with fun beats, cool music videos and catchy hooks that have you singing along whether you mean to or not.
Sure, Forever Your Girl is an assortment of what may be the cheesiest music of the latter half of this glorious decade but whatever, dudes— it consistently brings back fun memories from my youth. That and it’s resounding commercial success merits having it on this countdown.
Commercial Success: Looking for a little commercial success? Well, how about at the time having the most commercially successful debut album in the history of the Billboard charts—does that hold your attention? Forever Your Girl was the first time a singer held the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with four singles on a debut studio album. “Straight Up” hit number-one and spent three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100, also finishing 1989 fourth on the year-end chart. “Forever Your Girl” spent two weeks at number-one while “Cold Hearted” hit number-one and finished ’89 ranked sixth on the year-end chart, giving Abdul two of the top six songs of 1989. Her sixth and final single, “Opposites Attract” became her fourth number-one and stayed there for three weeks. “The Way That You Love Me” had to settle for peaking at number-three on the Billboard Hot 100. In total, Forever Your Girl sold more than seven million copies in the United States. This album also propelled Abdul to winning four MTV Awards (nominated for six) and two American Music Awards (nominated for five).
Fun Facts: From Songfacts.com on “Opposites Attract”, her record-setting fourth number-one single off the album. “This was written by Oliver Leiber, who is the son of legendary songwriter Jerry Leiber of Leiber and Stoller fame. Oliver Leiber had already written “Forever Your Girl” and “(It’s Just) The Way That You Love Me” for Paula when he got a frantic call from Gemma Corfield, who was the A&R head at Virgin Records. She needed one more song to complete the album. Oliver told us: “My MPC60 had just shown up a day before, and that was supposed to be the new improved version of the Linn 9000. It was a brand new sequencer drum machine. I had programmed a two-bar groove bassline and drum part to learn the MPC60, nothing more. It was just like, Okay, let’s program and, as we all do with new pieces of gear, sort of find your way around. So I had this groove sitting there, I could press play, and I had a bunch of titles that I had written down, because my car had broken down near a second-hand cheesy bookstore, and I had like four hours to kill. It was all just drug store novels, and I wrote down all these titles, because they were incredibly dramatic. It was like ‘A Bloody Moon,’ or ‘Midnight Mistress,’ just really over the top. I had this list in front of me, and I had Gemma on the phone, I had the two-bar groove right there, and I winged it, to be very honest. One of the titles jumped out at me, and it was ‘Opposites Attract.’ I was like, ‘You know, I’ve got this idea and it’s ‘Opposites Attract,’ and here’s the groove,’ and I was pretty much tap dancing. But I played her the groove and I spun an idea that maybe it could be a duet, and here’s the melody over it. She was like, ‘Okay, that sounds great! I love it! How fast can you do it?’ Honestly, I probably could have said anything at that point, although in retrospect, when a record sells 15 million copies everybody comes out and tells how they A&R’d everything, but this was not a whole lot of A&Ring going on, to be quite honest. So I got the green light.”
Never did a song make me wish I had girlfriend with a specific first name solely so I can play a song for her more than Toto’s “Rosanna” in `1982. Unfortunately I struck out in the girlfriend department during those days seeing I was 11, and in hindsight I’m not confident I even knew a girl in my age realm named Rosanna.
If you’re a fan of Rosanna and maybe even if you’re not it’s well known the song was written for actress Rosanna Arquette. As the story goes Arquette was dating Toto keyboardist Steve Pocaro at the time, ironic considering the song was actually written by band member David Paich and sung by lead vocalist Bobby Kimball. Confused yet?
For the record—the song did nothing to secure Pocaro and Arquette’s long-term future. Arquette broke up with Pocaro not long after Rosanna was released. What a vixen!
I hope it wasn’t because she didn’t like the song, because her taste in music is deplorable if so. Rosanna went on to win the Grammy for Record of the Year in 1983 and based largely on Rosanna the group also won Album of the Year for Toto IV.
Easily one of the best power ballads of the decade. If you don’t agree please stop reading—forever.
Chart Success: Rosanna didn’t quite reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number two. It did remain on the charts for 23 weeks and finished 1982 ranked 14th on the year-end Billboard Hot 100.
Great Lyrics: I would’ve done anything to be able and hit those glory notes like Kimball so effortlessly did.
“I can see your face still shining through the window on the other side
Rosanna, Rosanna
I didn’t know that a girl like you could make me feel so sad, Rosanna
All I want to tell you is now you’ll never ever have to compromise
Rosanna, Rosanna”
Fun Fact: True Toto and more specifically, Rosanna fans will know Patrick Swayze was in the music video, well before he became one of the world’s most recognizable actors. If you watch the video closely Swayze is one of Rosanna’s many suitors and wearing a red jacket. Dirty Dancing fans will recognize the lady who played Rosanna in the video far easier. It’s Cynthia Rhodes, who played Penny Johnson in the iconic 80s movie.
Chances are if grew up during the 1980’s, Men at Work were part of your album collection. Off their first-rate Business As Usual debut came my favorite single, Who Can It Be Now. Truthfully, it’s of the most entertainingly senseless tunes ever recorded. Lyrically it’s no masterpiece. It took many years and air-sax practice to come that conclusion but I’m at peace with it.
I was 11-years old when the single came out and it instantaneously felt rooted into my DNA. I was hooked the first time I heard it—loved the sax playing and unique singing voice I was hearing. Playing Who Can It Be Now became part of my daily routine, such as my morning bagel and glass of chocolate milk.
Everything about this song was is gratifying, from the aforesaid impressive sax playing to the broad rock feel with a marriage to the new wave sound. I’m too young to know if karaoke was a thing in the 80’s but if it were I’d wager this would be one its most popular selections. As a group Men at Work were the Cinderella story of the new wave movement, and by Cinderella I’m talking glass slipper not authors of heavy metal jams like Don’t Know What You Got Til It’s Gone. They came out of Australia and seemingly overnight broke down the walls of American pop music, becoming the top-selling group of 1982.
Their ambush on the Billboard charts was led by Who Can It Be Now (and also Down Under), both soaring to number-one. The former was their first single.
Their success was significantly abetted by MTV, who had their quirky video about a paranoid man alone in his house in heavy rotation.
Who Can It Be Now signified a stimulating time of my pop music/new wave education as a youth back in 1981, and it’s a standard on my IPod playlist during social gatherings to this day.
Chart Success: Who Can It Be Now reached number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 for a week, sandwiched before Joe Cocker/Jennifer Warnes (Up Where We Belong) and after John Cougar (Jack and Diane). It stayed on the charts for a whopping 27 weeks and finished 1982 ranked 30th on the year-end Billboard Hot 100.
Great Lyrics: They lyrics were inspired by lead singer Colin Hay being hunted down by debt collectors. Dude just wanted to be left alone.
“Who can it be knocking at my door?
Go ‘way, don’t come ’round here no more.
Can’t you see that it’s late at night?
I’m very tired, and I’m not feeling right.
All I wish is to be alone;
Stay away, don’t you invade my home.
Best off if you hang outside,
Don’t come in, I’ll only run and hide.”
Fun Facts: Business As Usual album spent 15 weeks at number-one on the U.S. Billboard charts, a record at the time for a debut album. Down Under also gave the album a lot of support, joining Who Can It Be Now as chart topper Billboard singles. Unfortunately the band didn’t exactly have staying power. They put out two more albums before the band bottomed out and broke up: Cargo (1983) and Two Hearts (1985).
(Daily disclaimer— This is a countdown of my personal 100 favorite songs of the 90’s, not necessarily the most commercially and/or critically successful tunes.)
“Secret Garden” marinated for a few years before Bruce Springsteen finally unleashed it. Per Songfacts.com, Springsteen originally wrote this for his “Human Touch” LP in 1992 but decided against including it on the album. He waited three years to actually record it and eventually released it on his 1995 album.
Of course, the song is best known for being featured in the iconic movie Jerry McGuire. I fell in love with this song far more than Renee Zellweger. It’s a superb, affectionate ballad about a woman clearly burned before and now has her wall up in relationships with men.
“Secret Garden” only enjoyed moderate success commercially. It landed as high as No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 (as high as five on the Adult Contemporary chart) and finished 1997 ranked 77th on the year-end Billboard Hot 100.
Who cares.
Springsteen had already long left a lasting mark on mainstream American in the 1980s, yet “Secret Garden” displays some of his best work and certainly among his most tender.
“Secret Garden” is an undervalued gem from The Boss.
Fun fact— Springsteen’s one of just five acts who makes at least one appearance on both this 90s and my previous 80’s countdown.
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