Paula goes horizontal for her third and final card in Series 1 of 1991 ProSet Super Stars MusiCards. Come on, Paula.. let's keep it G-rated! Too sexy!
The back blurb is all about her childhood. No back photo this time, but instead we get her wordmark. Am I alone in thinking that font instantly calls to mind Nirvana?
Here's a look at the Forever Your Girl album cover. You can see the same font used, though it looks less Nirvana-y in burnt sienna and with that little tattoo-looking drawing in the middle of her name.
Nirvana's Bleach-- the first time they used the font, I believe-- was released almost exactly a year after Forever Your Girl, so while it was most likely just a coincidence, it's a funny thought to imagine Kurt Cobain taking inspiration from Paula Abdul. But evidenced by closely comparing the top of the A's and the bottom of the L (in "BLEACH"), it's not the exact same font, but not too far off.
I guess I might as well go with Nirvana for this post's Custom Corner companion since I've already started talking about them, but first let's get back to Paula. I've covered her debut Forever Your Girl in the previous two posts, so I figure I should get passed that and to her other albums.
Paula Abdul - "Promise Of A New Day"
Her highly-anticipated sophomore record was 1991's Spellbound. Like its predecessor, it went to #1 on the charts and became a multi-platinum seller. It wasn't quite the hit single generating monster Forever Your Girl was, but still saw solid MTV and radio play.
As for me, Spellbound was among the earliest compact discs in my collection, moving away from cassettes. I liked the first single "Rush Rush" ok, but I seem to recall it was the second single, "Promise of a New Day", that prompted me to drop some allowance money on the CD. I also liked "Blowing Kisses in the Wind", the third single. Other than those 3 songs, Spellbound didn't quite connect with me much, but I still listened to it several times that summer. (I'm listening to the album for the first time in many years as I write this post. "My Foolish Heart" is another good one I forgot about.)
Paula Abdul - "My Foolish Heart"
The album was released in May '91. By the time Nevermind came out later that September, I wasn't paying much attention to pop/dance music anymore. Abdul's third (and still most recent) record, Head Over Heels (1995), didn't even register on my radar and to this day I don't think I've heard any songs from it. That album was a commercial disappointment, though called "much more experimental than her previous efforts" and "her most honest and personal project" (wikipedia), so I should give it a curious listen one of these days.. perhaps when we eventually catch up to her again on the blog when we reach Series 2 in a few years.
After Head Over Heels was a relative flop (still went gold), Paula backed off from singing, going back to choreography, doing a little acting, and eventually returning to the status of a household name as the sweet, caring judge on American Idol. She popped up with new music via a couple singles-- "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow" (2008) and "I'm Just Here for the Music" (2009)-- and more recently returned to performing, with headlining tours and a residency in Las Vegas.
Oh, I got a cool thing to show off!
I was browsing an eBay seller's "other items" recently and stumbled upon this Paula Abdul certified autograph card for a decent price. Thinking about her more lately thanks to this blog, I decided to buy it. While I don't hate the photo or card design (wish it was an on-card auto instead of a sticker, but what you gonna do?), I got the idea to kick it up with an overlay...
I took a dupe I had of Paula's #27 MusiCard and cut a window for the signature of the Panini Americana card to show underneath. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! I've done "custom overlays" several times (including another On The Tube auto, even), but I think this is my first time using a real card as an overlay.
CUSTOM CORNER
Ok, let's get to the Nirvana part of the post. They're a band I really like, so I'm thinking I'll only touch on their early days here, then continue their run in the future (like, Nevermind-era in another post, In Utero-era in another). I could probably ramble about Nirvana for a long time, but this post is already pretty long, so I'll try to keep it tight.
While Nirvana had been around since the late 80s, they didn't get huge until MusiCards were already on shelves, so it's no surprise they weren't included. But then again, contemporaries Soundgarden did get picked for inclusion by Pro Set, and I think their popularity levels were comparable at the time. So the above custom isn't that far-fetched.
Like most Nirvana fans, I prefer the Dave Grohl era of the band, but still enjoy listening to their early stuff once in a while. I consider Bleach a good album, but I'm not sure any songs from it will claw their way onto my personal top 20 Nirvana songs.. a list I'll probably get to for a future post.
"Sliver" has got to be my favorite track recorded during that pre-Grohlperiod, among the most catchy pop tunes Kurt came up with.
Ok, I think that'll do it for today. We'll see Nirvana again in another Custom Corner one of these days, and see Paula again once we get to card #281. It's funny that in Series 1, she's listed alphabetically under A (Abdul), but in Series 2, she's listed under P (Paula). Oh, Pro Set!
Thanks for reading. Please sound off in the comments if you've got any thoughts to share regarding later Paula Abdul albums or early Nirvana.
Here's the middle child of Paula Abdul's three cards in Series 1 of the 1991 MusiCards set. It's a sultry photo with a top-down view of the 5'0" firecracker. Prior to Paula, the most skin we've seen in this set so far was back at card #7 where Jim Morrison had his shirt off.
The back photo is kinda jarring-- Paula isn't really known for bold headwear choices, so it made me do a double-take. Still looks good, though. The blurb touches on her breakout as a pop star and echoes the previous card touting her choreography career.
With Forever Your Girl being a smash hit debut record-- it was the first time an artist scored four US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles from a debut album-- it's easy to forget it didn't have much impact at first. The album was originally released in June of '88, but didn't really start getting traction up the charts until mid '89, going on to be a top seller well into 1990.
My earliest recollection of Paula Abdul was the "Straight Up" video on MTV. The black & white video had a washed out effect to it and the camera bounced around a lot, so seemed like you didn't really get a clear look at her. The feeling was kinda like "Ooh, who's this mysterious new girl on the scene?!" Plus it featured a cameo of Arsenio Hall, who was probably revered as the coolest guy alive to kids my age in 1989, so that gave her some instant cred. There were rumours the two were dating, but turns out they were just friends. I liked the song a lot, but if memory serves, it wasn't until I heard "Knocked Out" or maybe "(It's Just) The Way That You Love Me" that I was compelled to go out and use some allowance money to buy the album on cassette at the local Longs Drugs.
Oh yeah, that "The Way That You Love Me" video had me under her spell. Loved it! Probably haven't seen it in 30 years, but it all kinda comes flooding back to see it again.
CUSTOM CORNER
Since I already mentioned Arsenio Hall, let's whip him up a custom. Sure, he's not a musician, but I don't think anyone would have batted an eye had he slipped into the set. He was like the Dick Clark of the era, or maybe a hipper Dick Cavett or Ed Sullivan, helping introduce America to rising acts of the day. The Arsenio Hall Show was a bright showcase for pop artists of the late 80s and early 90s, along with all the hot celebrities and funny quips the show offered. At least at my middle school, I seem to recall the hottest TV shows to the student body were The Simpsons, Beverly Hills 90210, and Arsenio. Oh, and In Living Color was pretty popular too. If you missed the latest episode of any of those, you were hit with serious uncool points against you!
While I didn't know it at the time, Arsenio was also the original voice of Winston in the The Real Ghostbusters from 1986 to 1987, one of my favorite cartoons as a kid.
I built the 2016 Cryptozoic Ghostbusters autograph set 2 or 3 years back, and past-me was super stoked to score an autograph from two icons of my childhood in one.
If you watched that "Straight Up" video above, you might've noticed that Arsenio has been blurred out. From what I can gather, that happened in the wake of accusations that he played a role in the death of Prince, which made him a persona non grata for a while, though it doesn't look like any merit to all that stuff ever surfaced.
On May 5, 2016, Hall filed a $5 million defamationlawsuit against Sinéad O'Connor after she claimed he had fueled Prince's drug habit and also had spiked her drink during a party at Eddie Murphy's house.[38] Hall dropped the lawsuit after O'Connor apologized and retracted her allegation that he had supplied Prince with drugs.[39]
A fun fact I just learned about Arsenio from skimming his wikipedia entry is that his mother's named Annie Hall. Like the movie!
By the way, another direct connection between Paula and late night talk shows is that the bandleader on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Cleto Escobedo, was in Abdul's live band back in the day.
I was watching this live show from Japan '92 while I was working on this post. Any Kimmel fans who want to see a young Cleto in his big moment centerstage, you can skip ahead to 58 minutes.
That's it for today. I'm curious if Arsenio Hall was as big a deal for you guys back then as he was to kids in my neighborhood. Were you doing that "Roo, Roo, Roo!" fist-pumping thing with your buddies?
We've finally made it passed the Legends and into the main set. The main set is actually split up into three genres (Pop, R&B/Rap, and Rock) sorted alphabetically, with the occasional outlier making things weird... but we'll get to all that later.
1991 ProSet Super Stars MusiCards #26
Kicking off the pop section is the lovely Paula Abdul. Looks like the photographer had her dance around a bit to get an "action" shot with her hair bouncing around. I can picture the guy, "Ok Paula, now let's jog in place. Lift those knees! Beautiful!"
Paula has 6 total MusiCards: two more on deck right after this one, plus two more once we get to Series 2, and then one in the UK edition. Also worth noting that her cartoon collaborator MC Skat Kat has a couple cards himself in Series 2.
The back write-up covers her background as a successful choreographer. I remember that she was part of the Laker Girls before her singing career, but forgot she did all that other stuff too. Pretty impressive. Younger folks who weren't around for her time on top of the charts probably know her best these days as a judge on American Idol back when that show was a cultural phenomenon, and she's since gone on to judge on other singing/dancing TV shows.
It's not great quality, but this video taken at a live performance features Paula telling the story of how she became a Laker Girl. (It wouldn't let me embed it here.)
Pre-stardom Paula got some screen time in the "Nasty" video.
The Jacksons discovered her through her work on the court and her career quickly took off from there. The music videos she choreographed for Janet Jackson are "What Have You Done for Me Lately", "Nasty" (which netted her the MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography), "When I Think of You", and "Control". Those were all from 1986, as was the one video she did with ZZ Top, "Velcro Fly". She was also behind the big keyboard scene in Big (1988). Even after she became a pop star, she stuck with it, such as choreographing Val Kilmer's moves when he played Jim Morrison performing in The Doors (1991).
In putting this set together, I've come across a lot of MusiCards, and I try to keep an eye out among the dupes for any undiscovered variations or interesting printing flaws. I haven't found much, but one that was almost notable was a #26 that was slightly miscut. Notice how the "P" is all the way at the edge of the card. Again, not all that interesting unless you're really going through the set with a fine-tooth comb like I am.
As for Paula Abdul's music, I'll admit I was a fan as a kid back in the day. I owned 1988's Forever Your Girl on cassette and loved it. Even today, I consider her a "guilty pleasure" of mine and will give that album a play every so often.
MC Skat Kat shows off his best card.
We've still got 5 more Paula Abdul cards in the pipeline, so we can poke into her musical career more later. I'm going to keep this post short (no "Custom Corner" bonus artist today), but wanted to make sure I published something before September was over. One post per month is my bare minimum goal for this blog. Hopefully going forward I start getting through the set at a brisker pace.
My life was floating along pretty nicely back when this blog debuted a year ago (10/1/2019), but things took a turn for the worse shortly thereafter. My dog Annie got sick that month and had to be put down in early November, which really gutted me and my wife. Then just when things were getting back to normal for us, the whole covid-19 pandemic took hold of the planet and made things shitty for everyone. Figuring out how to do my job mostly from home took some work. Add to that US government bullshit, unrest over police racism, and Oregon wildfires uncomfortably close to my neighborhood, and it's been a stressful and depressing2020. Plus we got a new puppy (Ruby) in July who's a mischievous stinker who needs a lot of attention. And we're in the process of buying our first house, with the big move on the horizon. So recreational projects like this MusiCards Blog get bumped to the backburner thanks to stuff like that, even if cranking out one of these posts isn't exactly a ton of work or super time-consuming, but I still gotta carve out some time and get in the right headspace for it.
Not that I think you few kind folks reading this care too much about the frequency of posts here, but as we hit the one-year mark at the blog, just wanted to defend the slow progress so far.
Big thanks for sticking with me! Hopefully year 2 of the blog covers more than 26 cards!
