Paula Abdul began her career as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers. Working Lakers games was a great way to meet people in showbiz.
She rose to prominence in the 1980s as a highly sought-after choreographer. Abdul's choreography resume includes Janet Jackson's Control videos and Tracey Ullman's TV show.
Her six #1 hits on the Hot 100 were written by three different songwriters who you've probably never heard of: Elliot Wolff, Oliver Leiber and Peter Lord. Wolff wrote "Straight Up" and "Cold Hearted;" Leiber wrote "Forever Your Girl" and "Opposites Attract;" Lord wrote "Rush, Rush" and "The Promise of a New Day." Paula's first recording session was for the song "Knocked Out," which she worked on with the bigwigs L.A. Reid and Babyface. According to Leiber, they were not kind to Paula and she needed a lot of encouragement in her next sessions. "I needed to be a really positive person," he said in a Songfacts interview. "So, no amount of hours were too long, no amount of takes were too many, and there was lots of cajoling and coaxing and joking. We were going to get this one way or the other."
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