Paula Abdul’s sleeper hit defied all expectations, saved her career & made her a “Straight Up” global superstar
2024 Queerties Awards ceremony hosted by Jinx Monsoon in Los Angeles on March 12. In anticipation of tonight’s big event, we thought it would be fun to look back at the song that first put this beloved LGBTQ+ ally on the map…In November 1988, Abdul released “Straight Up”, the third single from her debut album Forever Your Girl, following “Knocked Out” and “The Way That You Love Me” respectively.The mid-tempo dance-pop track, written by the late Elliot Wolff and recorded for just $3,000, became her first top 40 hit in the United States, eventually reaching #1 the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1989 and landing in the top 10 in 16 other countries.Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.The single was actually a last ditch effort by Virgin Records to save Forever Your Girl, which the label had declared a flop after the first two singles failed to take off.
As the story goes, execs were actually in the process of reorganizing the label’s talent roster and Abdul’s name was on the chopping block when the song was randomly picked up by radio stations.Speaking to author Terry Southern in 2004 for his book “Virgin: A History Of Virgin Records”, the label’s co-founder Simon Draper explained: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.Thank goodness they didn’t!Not only was “Straight Up” a monster hit on the radio, spending an astonishing 25 consecutive weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, but it.
