Forever Your Girl is the debut
studio album by American singer
Paula Abdul. It was released on June 21, 1988, through
Virgin Records. The album was Abdul's breakthrough into the music industry after being a
choreographer for high-profile clients including
Kate Bush,
The California Raisins,
George Michael,
ZZ Top,
Duran Duran and most notably
Janet Jackson. At the time of the album's release it was the most successful debut album of all time and was the first time an artist scored four US
Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles from a debut album. It is currently certified 7× platinum by the
RIAA.
Background
In 1987, Abdul, once a choreographer for
Los Angeles Lakers and high-profile artists including
George Michael,
ZZ Top,
Duran Duran and most notably
Janet Jackson, used her savings to make a singing demo.[8] Soon thereafter, she was signed to
Virgin Records by
Jeff Ayeroff, who had worked in marketing at
A&M Records with Janet Jackson. Although she was a skilled dancer and choreographer, Abdul was a relatively untrained singer, and worked with various coaches and record producers to develop her vocal ability, with her vocal range defined as
mezzo-soprano.[9][10] Ayeroff recalled signing Abdul to a recording contract years later, stating: "She said, 'I can sing, you know. I want to do an album.' Paula's in our industry. Here's someone with a personality and she's gorgeous, and she can dance. If she can sing, she could be a star. So she went into the studio and cut a demo record and she could sing."[11] The album was made on a budget of $72,000.[12]
Release and reception
On October 7, 1989, 64 weeks after its July 23, 1988 debut on the chart, Forever Your Girl hit number one on the
Billboard 200 album sales chart, the longest an album has been on the market before hitting number one.[13] The album was eventually
certified seven times
Platinum in the US by the RIAA and has sold over 12 million copies worldwide.[14] It also includes four number one
Billboard Hot 100 singles: "
Straight Up", "
Forever Your Girl", "
Cold Hearted", and "
Opposites Attract",[14] which places Forever Your Girl in a tie (with several other artists) for second
most number-one songs from a single album, and ties it for the most number ones in a debut album. She was the first female artist to have four number one singles from a debut album. "The Way That You Love Me" reached #3, and "Knocked Out" reached #41.
The album also reached #4 on the
R&B album chart, while "Straight Up", "Opposites Attract", "Knocked Out", and "(It's Just) The Way That You Love Me" all reached the top 10 of the
R&B tracks chart.
After a slow start, the album's third single "Straight Up" helped the album breakout in spring/summer 1989 after its initial summer 1988 release. Forever Your Girl hit number one for the first time on October 7, 1989. After the release of the single "Opposites Attract", the album shot to number one again on February 3, 1990, and stayed there for nine consecutive weeks.
By 1998, Billboard Magazine reported that Forever Your Girl was the most successful album released by the Virgin Records label, with all five of its top 20 hits also appearing on the same chart ranking Virgin's singles.[15]
^Breihan, Tom (December 3, 2021).
"The Number Ones: Paula Abdul's "Rush Rush". Stereogum. Retrieved December 22, 2023. Forever Your Girl had been produced on the cheap, and it had been nothing but end-to-end dance-pop bangers.
^
abDeggans, Eric (January 1, 1998). "Paula Abdul". In Graff, Gary; du Lac, Josh; McFarlin, Jim (eds.). MusicHound R&B: The Essential Album Guide. Detroit:
Visible Ink Press. p. 2.
^
ab"Paula Abdul, Driven". VH1. VH1.
Archived from the original on 2021-12-22. Retrieved 22 November 2017. Forever Your Girl went on to sell 18 million records.
^Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 1998-09-05.