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But beyond the lyrics, everything about the song is tough - from the staccato drums to the droning guitar that pops up in the chorus. It’s Abdul at her most aggressive, challenging a lover’s true intentions. There’s only one essential Abdul single, and that’s obviously “Straight Up”, the third single from her debut album Forever Your Girl and the track that became the first of her six (six!!) number ones. This is why the quality of this hits compilation falls off as soon as she finds success and decides to be an artist as much as a videogenic dance diva. I hate to make the comparison again…but unlike Jackson (who has appeared to develop her relationship with producers Jam/Lewis to the point where they can be considered equal creative partners), Abdul lives and dies by her songs and production. She was blessed (cursed?) with a nasal chirp of a voice that was by far the weakest of her contemporaries you’re not picking up her record to be blown away by the vocals. Quite possibly, the biggest irony about Abdul is the fact that if she were to appear on Idol as a contestant, she wouldn’t even get through the audition phase. This is, of course, assuming you want anything by her to begin with. Greatest Hits: Straight Up!, at 18 tracks, is a bit overstuffed, but look at it this way: With this album in your possession, you will never have to own anything by Paula Abdul ever again. Although her reign at the top of the charts was quick (1989-1992), the singles were plentiful. So even though she’s now best-known as the slightly loopy (OK, very loopy) judge on Fox’s American Idol, there was a time when Paula Abdul was the most popular female singer in America. Her first hit singles rode the coattails of Jackson’s sound as hard as records by Pebbles, Karyn White, Jody Watley and a million lesser copycats did during the same period. Consequently, without Jackson’s dance/pop breakthrough, I don’t think Abdul would have ever decided to record an album. At that time Abdul was only known as a cheerleader for the Magic-era Los Angeles Lakers. The first and most obvious one is that Jackson’s breakthrough album, 1986’s Control, featured several videos choreographed by Abdul.
#Paula abdul straight up greatest hits serial#
From Serial Productions and The New York Times comes The Trojan Horse Affair: a mystery in eight parts.It’s just as easy to say Paula Abdul’s success wouldn’t have happened without Janet Jackson as it is to say Janet Jackson’s success wouldn’t have happened without Paula Abdul, and there are a couple of factors at play here.
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Together they team up to investigate: Who wrote the Trojan Horse letter? They quickly discover that it’s a question people in power do not want them asking. Because through all the official inquiries and heated speeches in Parliament, no one has ever bothered to answer a basic question: Who wrote the letter? And why? The night before Hamza is to start journalism school, he has a chance meeting in Birmingham with the reporter Brian Reed, the host of the hit podcast S-Town. To Hamza Syed, who is watching the scandal unfold in his city, the whole thing seemed … off. By the time it all dies down, the government has launched multiple investigations, beefed up the country’s counterterrorism policy, revamped schools and banned people from education for the rest of their lives. The story soon explodes in the news and kicks off a national panic.
#Paula abdul straight up greatest hits code#
The plot has a code name: Operation Trojan Horse. A strange letter appears on a city councillor’s desk in Birmingham, England, laying out an elaborate plot by Islamic extremists to infiltrate the city’s schools.
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