The Top 250 Hits of the Last 50 Years - #221 Rush, Rush - Paula Abdul

"Rush Rush" is a song by American recording artist Paula Abdul, taken from her second studio album Spellbound (1991). It was released on May 2, 1991, by Virgin Records as the lead single of the album. Written by Peter Lord, and produced by Peter Lord and V. Jeffrey Smith (both members of The Family Stand), the song achieved major success in the U.S. where it topped the Billboard Hot 100.

Background

"Rush Rush" was a departure for Abdul stylistically, as it was her first ballad released as a single, following as it did the six uptempo singles from her debut LP, and was viewed by all observers as a rather risky strategy in kicking off her second album of new material Spellbound. But the decision was vindicated, as it was very well received at retail.
First presented to Abdul as a demo by the Family Stand in 1990, she became intent on it becoming the first single. In fall of 1990 at Studio Masters, Abdul laid down a scratch vocal for the track, which was never intended to make it to the song's final mix. But the producers felt that its unpolished sound was what was needed to give the song its ingenuous tone, to match its subject matter and accompanying promotional video clip; it ended up on the final cut in March 1991.

Music video

The video features a street race and co-stars Keanu Reeves, drawing stylistic inspiration from the 1955 James Dean/Natalie Wood film Rebel Without A Cause, and as such, has a period theme. A 90-second dramatic prelude to the song rather mirrors the characters from "Rebel." The video was directed by Stefan Würnitzer in April 1991, and produced by Karen Rohrbacher for Lucasfilm Commercial Productions.

Chart performances

"Rush Rush" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #36 on May 11, 1991, and hit #1 five weeks later, June 15, 1991, where it remained for five consecutive weeks. At the time of its five-week stint, it was the longest running #1 since Madonna's "Like a Virgin" spent six weeks at #1 during the winter of 1984-1985. The song also spent five weeks atop the U.S. adult contemporary chart. It peaked at #6 on the UK Singles Chart.