Rush Rush

As a singer, Paula Abdul is most remembered for her debut album and its hits "Straight Up," "Opposites Attract," and the title track, "Forever Your Girl." It was this ballad from her second album, however, that was her biggest chart hit, staying at #1 in the US for five weeks in 1991 and giving Paula her fifth #1 hit. The song was a stylistic departure for Abdul, whose background was in dance and choreography. While her first album relied on uptempo tracks with heavy production under the tutelage of a voice coach, her venture into ballads on her next album was very successful and earned her an audience on Adult Contemporary radio. She followed "Rush Rush" with another #1, "Blowing Kisses in the Wind," and also hit the charts with "The Promise of a New Day" and "Will You Marry Me?"

The video was inspired by the James Dean movie Rebel Without A Cause, and it featured Paula starting a drag race in a remake of the iconic scene. One of the drag racers in the video was played by Keanu Reeves. The up-and-coming actor had some experience with the role: he portrayed a very bad drag racer in the 1989 movie Parenthood.

This song was written by Peter Lord, who was in an R&B/funk band called the Family Stand. He wrote "Rush Rush" solo, but teamed up with his Family Stand bandmates V. Jeffrey Smith and Sandra St. Victor for three other hits from Spellbound: "Blowing Kisses in the Wind," "Will You Marry Me?" and "Vibeology," which earned Lord the title of Billboard magazine's Pop Songwriter of the Year for 1991. The Family Stand also produced these tracks. In a Songfacts interview with Lord, he said: "'Rush, Rush' actually began as a dare or a joke with my Family Stand bandmate, Sandra St. Victor. Babyface was one of the top songwriters/producers at that time, and I told her I could write one of his type of hit ballads in my sleep (no disrespect). I ran to the piano and playfully played the first chords that would begin 'Rush, Rush' and sang, 'You're the whisper of a summer breeze... You're the kiss that puts my soul at ease...' I then looked at her and said 'Wait a minute, that's not bad!'" This was the second time Abdul struck gold with the help of an obscure, but talented producer/songwriter with an R&B lean; three hits from her first album came from "Oliver Leiber," who despite being the son of the famous songwriter Jerry Leiber, was living in Minnesota and struggling to get his career off the ground.