Really digging this album. Didn't listen to it properly back in the day.

Minneapolis sound all over this. St. Paul plays bass. Jesse Johnson co-wrote one of the tracks.

[Edited 7/3/10 11:37am]

been listening to Paula Abdul a bit lately myself. apart from the singles, "i need you" is another stand out track from the album.

CHIC0 said:

been listening to Paula Abdul a bit lately myself. apart from the singles, "i need you" is another stand out track from the album.

that's the one jesse johnson worked on. I really like it.

Is it right the vocals were not hers?

Marrk said:

Is it right the vocals were not hers?

I've heard that before, but it sounds like her to me. Of course, sounding like her doesn't prove it's her, but my guess is it's her.

leecappella said:

Marrk said:

Is it right the vocals were not hers?

I've heard that before, but it sounds like her to me. Of course, sounding like her doesn't prove it's her, but my guess is it's her.

here you go

wikipedia:

Forever Your Girl era (1987–1990)

In 1987, Abdul used her savings to make a singing demo. Although her voice was relatively untrained, her exceptional dancing proved marketable to the visually-oriented, MTV-driven, pop music industry. She was a tireless worker, and relied on input from her vocal coach and producers to improve her sound.^[13]

In 1988, Abdul released her pop debut album, Forever Your Girl. The album took 62 weeks to hit #1 on the Billboard 200 album sales chart—the longest an album has been on the market before hitting #1—and spent 10 weeks there. The album eventually became multi-platinum in the spring and summer of 1989, and it spawned five American Top Three singles, four of them #1s (three in 1989 and one in 1990): "Straight Up", "Forever Your Girl", "Cold Hearted", , and "Opposites Attract". A remix album, Shut Up and Dance, was also released and reached #7 on Billboard's album chart, becoming one of the most successful remix albums to date. The Grammy award-winning video for "Opposites Attract" featured an animated cat named MC Skat Kat. Abdul also went on a Club MTV tour where she performed songs from her album. Several other acts were also on the tour.

In the early 1990s, Yvette Marine, backing vocalist on Forever Your Girl, claimed that she sang "co-lead vocals" on the album and sued Paula and Virgin Records for compensation. After one month of court proceedings, Abdul and Virgin won the case.

Marrk said:

Is it right the vocals were not hers?

False. She sang it.

Lemme tell ya something about this record. It's GOOD. Make all the Abdul jokes ya want, but the record has some great songs on it.

Also, for those that don't know, the glitzy version of "The Way That You Love Me" wasn't the original video. There's another video that came out first, with her dancing in a warehouse. She tap dances at one point, and the reverb from the garage is INCREDIBLE. It's a much better video than the stylized one they did later, although there are those "glitzy" moments in the first - just not as strong.

I think "Cold Hearted Snake" is my favorite video though. Great song, hot men and hot women. When Aguilera did "What A Girl Wants", it reminded me of Paula's video a LOT.

[Edited 7/3/10 21:44pm]

ernestsewell said:

Lemme tell ya something about this record. It's GOOD. Make all the Abdul jokes ya want, but the record has some great songs on it.

Also, for those that don't know, the glitzy version of "The Way That You Love Me" wasn't the original video. There's another video that came out first, with her dancing in a parking garage. She tap dances at one point, and the reverb from the garage is INCREDIBLE. It's a much better video than the stylized one they did later.

I think "Cold Hearted Snake" is my favorite video though. Great song, hot men and hot women. When Aguilera did "What A Girl Wants", it reminded me of Paula's video a LOT.

I don't think there's a weak track on the album.

I love the production on the album. All the syncopating rhythms...

I love Paula. She was my first true pop music obsession. I prefer Spellbound over FYG.

[Edited 7/3/10 21:10pm]

lately, this particular track i've been playing to death!!

CHIC0 said:

lately, this particular track i've been playing to death!!

not really liking this one. I like her natural voice. I don't like that autotune soundeffect...

i have video of me from performances that i choreographed to "cold hearted" and another to "knocked out" i shutter to pull those out and watch them again.

CHIC0 said:

i have video of me from performances that i choreographed to "cold hearted" and another to "knocked out" i shutter to pull those out and watch them again.

haha. I won't pressure u.

crazydoctor said:

CHIC0 said:

lately, this particular track i've been playing to death!!

not really liking this one. I like her natural voice. I don't like that autotune soundeffect...

her vocals kind of sound the same to me. not a far stretch but, i know what you mean.

and i enjoy the lyrics and video, more so than her vocals.

straight up edit!

[Edited 7/3/10 21:23pm]

crazydoctor said:

CHIC0 said:

i have video of me from performances that i choreographed to "cold hearted" and another to "knocked out" i shutter to pull those out and watch them again.

haha. I won't pressure u.

thanks

The video I mentioned, the original version.

CHIC0 said:

i have video of me from performances that i choreographed to "cold hearted" and another to "knocked out" i shutter to pull those out and watch them again.

I knew the choreography to all over her videos too.

Every day, I'm thankful that we had no camcorder at the time. And that there was no youtube.

I looove her! I remember hearing her name, and then in the 90's my mom gave me the Forever Your Girl tape and though I liked Straight Up and Cold Hearted cause I knew the videos already, it wasn't till later on I fell in LOVE with the album, the beats on there are awesome!

And she's one of the best female dancers I've seen in my life and sooo gorgeous! I love her recent song with Randy Jackson too, wish she was continuing on as long as Janet musically though I know she had back issues and bulimia and stuff like that.

crazydoctor said:

Really digging this album. Didn't listen to it properly back in the day.

Minneapolis sound all over this. St. Paul plays bass. Jesse Johnson co-wrote one of the tracks.

[Edited 7/3/10 11:37am]

praise the lort..love this album.

Hey but I also think Paula was the first to use full use of Auto Tune back then

ernestsewell said:

The video I mentioned, the original version.

I think this is the only version I have seen. My ex boyfriend had it on his r&b video collection he saved over the years

Love this album, my fav being Knocked Out.

Listening to the different mixes of Opposites Attract. I've got to say, I like the album version the most.

I love the electronic clavinet or whatever that keyboard sound is at the beginning... so funky!

Dean Pitchford and Tom Snow should be ashamed of this "forever your girl" ripoff. I still dig the song though

thesexofit said:

Dean Pitchford and Tom Snow should be ashamed of this "forever your girl" ripoff. I still dig the song though

OMG! That's painful to listen to knowing of "Forever Your Girl"! I would have been suing some MFers. That's more direct than the "I Want A New Drug"/"Ghostbusters" case.

ernestsewell said:

thesexofit said:

Dean Pitchford and Tom Snow should be ashamed of this "forever your girl" ripoff. I still dig the song though

OMG! That's painful to listen to knowing of "Forever Your Girl"! I would have been suing some MFers. That's more direct than the "I Want A New Drug"/"Ghostbusters" case.

Pitchford and Snow are decent songwriters but thats not one of their finest moments LOL. It's nicely produced though

I still enjoy the album. Its a decent collection of upbeat pop songs which are not cohesive in an album sense but then who cares LOL. Never liked "cold hearted" but still dig "State of attraction" and the bubblegum funk "I need you".

Prefer "Spellbound" though. It suffers from alot of the songs being too long, which was common on pop albums around then, but I still think it's a stronger album.

crazydoctor said:

Really digging this album. Didn't listen to it properly back in the day.

Minneapolis sound all over this. St. Paul plays bass. Jesse Johnson co-wrote one of the tracks.

[Edited 7/3/10 11:37am]

Also Oliver Lieber who was a member of Ta Mara & The Seen wrote

and produced a couple of tracks as well. (The Way that you Love Me, Opposites Attract)

I remember reading an article stating that he learned a lot from Jesse when Jesse

produced Ta Mara & the Seen projects.

I love "The Way That You Love Me" but the rest of the album sounds too pop for me.