Overview

Six months after the release of Paula’s second single “The Way That You Love Me”, her “Forever Your Girl” album was declared a flop and Virgin was ready to move on. In fact, label executives were in the process of reorganizing the label’s roster of artists and cutting their less successful acts.

Due to Forever Your Girl’s failure to launch, Abdul’s record contract was on the chopping block. As quoted in “Virgin: A History Of Virgin Records” by Terry Southern, Simon Draper, a Co-founder of Virgin Records says “[Paula] had quite a big success for Virgin America- but they were still losing money- and suddenly, and seemingly quite miraculously, she took off. I went out to America with Kenny for a big crisis meeting with Jordan and Jeff (top American execs) worried about the amount of money they were spending; we were to go through their artists’ roster with them.”

“One of the artists they were getting ready to drop was Paula Abdul; they were spending all this money on her and it hadn’t really happened. It’s unbelievable, but at lunchtime we sat in on a marketing meeting where they were arguing about this remix of her single [The Way That You Love Me], and on that same day the things suddenly started to turn around, orders started to pile in, and the record took off like a rocket- the record played a major role in establishing Virgin America – but it was close! Another week and they might have got rid of her.”

It was during this meeting one of the Executives turned on the radio to hear Abdul’s “Straight Up” playing. Radio station KMEL in San Francisco had started playing "Straight Up" from the album and had begun charting immediately.

At that point Virgin decided to abandon "The Way That You Love Me" and refocus its attention on "Straight Up". The strategy paid off, as "Straight Up" was followed by three more number-one hits from the same album.

Stacey Piersa, Paula Abdul and Elliot Wolff

Paula’s mother Lorraine found "Straight Up." Abdul says that her mother knew someone whose boyfriend (Wolff) was an aspiring songwriter, and she was handed "Straight Up" as an 8-track demo.

Abdul said the demo version was “so bad” that Abdul’s mother was "crying laughing" at it, and threw it in the trash. But Abdul was intrigued and heard something she liked in it, and retrieved it saying, “There's something about it that's crazy good, and I have to hear it again."

Virgin Records didn't think the song was any good but Abdul offered to record two songs they wanted, which she didn't like, if they would let her do "Straight Up". The song was recorded at a cost of $3,000.

”Straight Up” was written and produced by Elliot Wolf. The song was co-produced by Keith “K.C.” Cohen. The single was officially released on Nov 22, 1988. The demo was recorded by Delissa Davis.

After debuting at # 79 on Billboard the week of December 3, 1988, the song became so popular that it ascended to the Hot 100 top 20 before a music video had even been filmed to promote the song.

The black and white video, directed by David Fincher and choreographed by Paula herself in mid-January 1989, won four 1989 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Female Video, Best Editing, Best Choreography, and the first Best Dance Video.

Image from the music video.

The video features a special appearance by Paula's friend, comedian Arsenio Hall, whose popular talk show had premiered a few weeks prior to the video shoot. Djimon Hounsou (from the movie “Amistad”) also makes an appearance.

Released in February 1989, the video at the time went into very heavy rotation on MTV, and it also made Abdul known for her exceptionally creative and stylish dance videos.

In the US, "Straight Up" reached the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 by February 11, 1989, where it stayed for three consecutive weeks.

When Virgin Records called Paula to tell her that the song reached #1 on the charts she was in bed sick with a 103° temperature, worn out from her hectic schedule working on the album and various choreography commitments.

1989 MTV Video Music Awards

"Straight Up" was one of the most popular R&B and dance-pop singles of the entire year, remaining in the Top 10 for seven weeks, the Top 20 for nine weeks, and the Top 40 for sixteen weeks.

The success of "Straight Up" catapulted the "Forever Your Girl" album into the top 20 on the album chart. Two more number-one hits from the album boost it up further into the top 5 where it lingered before it finally reached #1 in October after a record-setting 64 weeks on the market.

In Australia, 'Straight Up (Ultimix Mix)' was released as a single in its own right in 1990 to promote the 'Shut Up and Dance' album, peaking at #55 on the ARIA Chart in July 1990.

The music video was released commercially on VHS and DVD and is also available for download on the U.S. iTunes store.

As "Straight Up" is Paula Abdul's signature song, she has performed it on all of her tours.  She has appeared on various television talk shows where she demonstrated the choreography from the music video.  Thirty years after the song's debut, in 2018, Paula Abdul performed "Straight Up" live on the Late Late Show with James Corden to promote the launch of her brand new nationwide tour, titled the "Straight Up! Paula Tour."