May 30th, 1991
In Brief
Backup Singer Sues Abdul Over Vocal
By Kim Neely
Rolling Stone - May 30, 1991
Virgin Records has been slapped with a lawsuit by a singer who claims she supplied uncredited lead vocals on three tracks for Paula Abdul's album, "Forever Your Girl."
In a suit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in early April, Yvette Marine - a former member of the Mary Jane Girls who is listed as a background vocalist on teh Abdul album--alleges that Virign used composite lead-vocal tracks featuring both her vocals and Abdul's on "Opposites Attract", "Knocked Out" and "I Need You".
Abdul appeared at a press conference on April 11th to deny the singer's allegations. "I sang the lead vocals on every single song on the Forever Your Girl album," she said. "I put a lot of work into that album... I find it particularly offensive that someone would attempt to take a shortcut to success at the expense of all the heard work that I've done."
Jeff Ayeroff, co-managing director of Virgin, was also present to defend Abdul. "Miss Marine sang backup on three of the songs on the album," said Ayeroff. "She is credited as such, and she was paid for those services. While back-up singers are very important to this industry, they are in fact back-up to the stars. And in this case, Paula Abdul is the star."
In addition to $150,000 in general damages and the 10 percent of unpaid royalties, Marine's suit seeks to have labels "accurately crediting" her contributions affixed to copies of the album.
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