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Spellbound (Paula Abdul album)

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Spellbound
Studio album by
Paula Abdul
ReleasedMay 14, 1991
RecordedSeptember 1990 – March 1991
Studio
  • Greene Street Recording (New York City, New York)
  • Z Recording (Brooklyn, New York)
  • Hollywood Sound Recording
  • Institute of Social Disruption
  • Studio Masters
  • Sunset Sound (each Los Angeles, California)
  • Mad Hatter (Silver Lake, California)
  • Ocean Way Recording (Hollywood, California)
  • Paisley Park (Chanhassen, Minnesota)
Genre
Length49:03
Label
Producer
Paula Abdul chronology
Shut Up and Dance: Mixes
(1990) 		Spellbound
(1991) 		Head over Heels
(1995)
Singles from Spellbound
  1. "Rush Rush"
    Released: April 24, 1991
  2. "The Promise of a New Day"
    Released: July 5, 1991
  3. "Blowing Kisses in the Wind"
    Released: October 17, 1991
  4. "Vibeology"
    Released: October 21, 1991
  5. "Will You Marry Me?"
    Released: March 19, 1992
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Chicago Tribune[5]
Robert Christgau(dud)[6]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[3]
Entertainment WeeklyC+[7]
Los Angeles Times[8]
Music & Media(favorable)[9]
NME5/10[10]
Rolling Stone[11]
Slant[12]

Spellbound is the second studio album by American singer Paula Abdul, released in May 1991. The album was an international success and spawned major radio hits with the singles "Rush Rush", "The Promise of a New Day", "Blowing Kisses in the Wind", "Vibeology" and "Will You Marry Me?". The album went triple platinum in the United States and peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. In addition, the album featured a song written and produced by Prince called “U”.

Spellbound won a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package. The album art was art directed by Melanie Nissen, designed by Inge Schaap, and lettered by Margo Chase.[13]

Critical reception

[edit]

Writing for Entertainment Weekly, David Browne gave the album a C+ and remarked that its overproduction only highlights Abdul's limitations as a singer. In a retrospective review for Slant Magazine, Eric Henderson gave the album four out of five stars. He commented that, despite being uneven, the album makes Abdul "sound like a human being".[14] In 2003, Slant Magazine included Spellbound in its list of "50 Essential Pop Albums".[15]

Commercial performance

[edit]

The album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 in its first week and rose four spots to number one the following week. It stayed at the summit for two consecutive weeks, selling 88,000 and 89,000 units respectively. The album distinguished itself by becoming the lowest selling number-one album in the Nielsen SoundScan era at the time of its release—a distinction it held until 2004, when Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below sold 86,000 copies while at number one.[16] This was primarily due to the newly implemented SoundScan tracking system, which had not been implemented into every major music chain, thus sales were not entirely accurate. Nevertheless, the album became a best-seller and emerged as the best selling album for the month of June, spending 16 weeks within the top 10, and was certified three-times platinum by the RIAA in January 1992.[17][18] Overall, the album spent 70 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart and was ranked as the 18th best-charting of the year 1991 (and 40th best-charting of the year 1992).

Track listing

[edit]
Spellbound track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."The Promise of a New Daya"
  • Lord
  • Smith
4:32
2."Rock Housea"
  • Abdul
  • Lord
  • St. Victor
  • Smith
  • Lord
  • Smith
4:11
3."Rush Rush"Lord
  • Lord
  • Smith
4:52
4."Spellbounda"
  • Abdul
  • Lord
  • St. Victor
  • Smith
  • Lord
  • Smith
4:48
5."Vibeology"
  • Lord
  • St. Victor
  • Smith
  • Lord
  • Smith
5:16
6."Ua"PrincePaisley Park4:05
7."My Foolish Heart"
  • Lord
  • Smith
  • Lord
  • Smith
4:10
8."Blowing Kisses in the Winda"Lord
  • Lord
  • Smith
4:41
9."To Youa"
  • Jorge Corante
  • Colin England
  • England
  • Corante
3:31
10."Alright Tonighta"John HiattDon Was4:28
11."Will You Marry Me?"
  • Abdul
  • Lord
  • St. Victor
  • Smith
  • Lord
  • Smith
4:24
Asian, European, Japanese and South American edition (bonus track)
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
6."Will You Marry Me?"
  • Abdul
  • Lord
  • St. Victor
  • Smith
  • Lord
  • Smith
4:24
7."Ua"PrincePaisley Park4:05
8."My Foolish Heart"
  • Lord
  • Smith
  • Lord
  • Smith
4:10
9."Blowing Kisses in the Winda"Lord
  • Lord
  • Smith
4:41
10."To Youa"
  • Jorge Corante
  • Colin England
  • England
  • Corante
3:31
11."Alright Tonighta"John HiattDon Was4:28
12."Good Night, My Love (Pleasant Dreams)" (bonus track; Jesse Belvin cover)
  • George Motola
  • John Marascalco
Was3:14

Notes

  • ^a denotes a song mixed using QSound.

Production

[edit]
  • Produced by Peter Lord, Paisley Park, V. Jeffrey Smith, Jorge Corante and Don Was
  • Engineers: Wolfgang Aichholz, Ed Cherney, Don Feinerg, Arne Frager, Rod Hull, Michael Koppelman, Greg Laney, Dave Pensado

Personnel

[edit]

Charts

[edit]

Certifications

[edit]
Certifications for Spellbound
Region Certification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[37] Gold 35,000^
Canada (Music Canada)[38] 2× Platinum 200,000^
Japan (RIAJ)[39] Gold 100,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[40] Gold 100,000^
United States (RIAA)[41] 3× Platinum 3,000,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Chappelle, Mark (May 11, 2021). "Revisit & Listen to Paula Abdul's 'Spellbound' (1991)". Albumism.com. Retrieved August 24, 2023. With Spellbound, Abdul balanced dance-pop and fun funk while walking a tightrope it seemed so many wanted her to fall from.
  2. ^ Breihan, Tom (December 3, 2021). "The Number Ones: Paula Abdul's "Rush Rush". Stereogum. Retrieved December 22, 2023. Most of Spellbound is dance-pop, and plenty of the tracks would've fit just fine on Forever Your Girl...
  3. ^ a b Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th Concise ed.). United Kingdom: Omnibus Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-84609-856-7.
  4. ^ Bryan Buss. "Spellbound - Paula Abdul". AllMusic. Retrieved January 11, 2012.
  5. ^ Jan DeKnock (1991-05-23). "Paula Abdul Spellbound (Virgin)". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2013-03-28.
  6. ^ Christgau, Robert. "Spellbound". Robert Christgau.
  7. ^ David Browne (1991-05-17). "Spellbound". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 2016-01-09. Retrieved 2015-12-30.
  8. ^ Dennis Hunt (1991-05-12). "Abdul Accents Vocals on 'Spellbound'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2013-03-28.
  9. ^ "New Releases: Albums" (PDF). Music & Media. 1991-06-22. p. 16. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
  10. ^ Page, Betty (1991-07-27). "Long Play". NME. p. 28. Retrieved 2023-04-29.
  11. ^ Berger, Arion (1991-06-27). "Spellbound : Paula Abdul : Review". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2007-12-11. Retrieved 2012-05-31.
  12. ^ Henderson, Eric (2004-07-17). "Paula Abdul Spellbound". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 2015-12-30.
  13. ^ Condensed, Bald. "Remembering Margo Chase, letter alchemist · News · Type Network". Type Network. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  14. ^ Henderson, Eric (2004-07-17). "Review: Paula Abdul, Spellbound". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 2023-11-23.
  15. ^ "Vital Pop: 50 Essential Pop Albums | Feature | Slant Magazine". Slant Magazine. Retrieved June 11, 2018.
  16. ^ Inc (July 22, 2006). Billboard. Retrieved June 11, 2018. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  17. ^ McAleer, Dave (1995). The All Music Book of Hit Albums. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 9780879303938. Retrieved June 11, 2018.
  18. ^ "Album artist 456 – Paula Abdul". tsort.info. June 2, 2018. Retrieved June 11, 2018.
  19. ^ "Australiancharts.com – Paula Abdul – Spellbound". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
  20. ^ "Top RPM Albums: Issue 1557". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved July 28, 2013.
  21. ^ "Lescharts.com – {{{artist}}} – {{{album}}}". Hung Medien. Retrieved July 28, 2013.
  22. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Paula Abdul – Spellbound" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
  23. ^ "スペルバウンド" (in Japanese). Oricon. Archived from the original on February 17, 2023. Retrieved February 17, 2023.
  24. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Paula Abdul – Spellbound" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
  25. ^ "Album Top 40 slágerlista – 1991. 30. hét" (in Hungarian). MAHASZ. Retrieved March 1, 2024.
  26. ^ "Charts.nz – Paula Abdul – Spellbound". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
  27. ^ [{{{url}}} "{{{title}}}"]. Retrieved September 27, 2016. {{cite news}}: Check |url= value (help)
  28. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Paula Abdul – Spellbound". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
  29. ^ "Swisscharts.com – Paula Abdul – Spellbound". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
  30. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
  31. ^ "Paula Abdul Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
  32. ^ "Paula Abdul Chart History (Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
  33. ^ "Albums of 1991". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
  34. ^ "Top 100 Album-Jahrescharts". GfK Entertainment (in German). offiziellecharts.de. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  35. ^ "Billboard 200 Albums – Billboard". Billboard.
  36. ^ "Billboard 200 Albums – Billboard". Billboard.
  37. ^ Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988-2010. Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.
  38. ^ "Canadian album certifications – Paula Abdul – Spellbound". Music Canada.
  39. ^ "Japanese album certifications – Paula Abdul – Spellbound" (in Japanese). Recording Industry Association of Japan. Retrieved March 6, 2020. Select 1992年11月 on the drop-down menu
  40. ^ "British album certifications – Paula Abdul – Spellbound". British Phonographic Industry.
  41. ^ "American album certifications – Paula Abdul – Spellbound". Recording Industry Association of America.
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