Spellbound (Paula Abdul album)

Spellbound is the second studio album by American singer Paula Abdul, released on May 14, 1991, via Virgin Records and Captive Records. Production was handled by Peter Lord, Paisley Park, V. Jeffrey Smith, Don Was, and Jorge Corante.

The album, although receiving mixed reviews citing that it showcased her limitations as a singer, became a commercial success and topped the US Billboard 200, alongside cracking the top-ten in Australia, Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Six singles in total were released, including the Billboard Hot 100 number one singles "Rush Rush" and 'The Promise of a New Day", the latter becoming her sixth and to-date final number one single. Other singles included the US top-ten hit "Blowing Kisses in the Wind", "Vibeology", which Abdul performed at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards, "Will You Marry Me?", and the Canada exclusive single "Alright Tonight". The album is currently certified 3x platinum in the United States.

Following the release of the album, Abdul embarked on her first world tour, entitled "Under My Spell Tour", between 1991 and 1992.

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.

Critical reception

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". In 2003, Slant Magazine included Spellbound in its list of "50 Essential Pop Albums".

Commercial performance

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. 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. 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

Notes

• ^{^a} denotes a song mixed using QSound.

Production

• 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

• Paula Abdul – lead vocals, Synclavier II
• Sweet Pea Atkinson, Sir Harry Bowens, Sally Dworsky, Colin England, The Family Stand, Peter Lord, Arnold McCuller, Sandra St. Victor – backing vocals
• Mike Campbell, Mark Goldenberg, Randy Jacobs, Clifford Moonie Pusey, V. Jeffrey Smith – guitar
• Jorge Corante, Tom Hammer, Peter Lord, Ivan Neville, V. Jeffrey Smith – keyboards
• Jamie Muhoberac – organ
• Tim Drummond – bass
• Curt Bisquera, Rocky Bryant – drums
• Paulinho Da Costa – percussion
• Greg Adams – trumpet
• Steve Grove – tenor saxophone
• Stephen Kupka – baritone saxophone
• Stevie Wonder – harmonica
• Stuart Canin – violin
• Billy Heaslip – lighting director
• Robert Lobetta – photography

Charts

Certifications

References