Opposites Attract

November 28, 1989

Opposites Attract is a pop song that the music producer Oliver Leiber wrote in 1988. It was taken by the U.S. pop and R & B singer Paula Abdul together with the duo The Wild Pair, consisting of the singers Tony Christian and Marc Gunn and first published on Abdul's debut album Forever Your Girl. The single reached on 10 February 1990 # 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was awarded Gold in the U.S. with more than 500,000 units sold.

Formation

Leiber had with The Way That You Love Me, and Forever Your Girl Paula Abdul's already two pieces for composing debut album. There was still one last song and Gemma Corfield of Virgin Records asked Leiber, this to be written. Leiber had just an Akai MPC increased and started to experiment with it 60. The result of these experiments was a simple two-bar pattern consisting of a bassline and a drum track that formed the basis of the composition. Corfield liked the piece and requested bodies, nor to write a text to it. The idea for the text was more by chance than Leiber spent the waiting time in a shop selling used books after a car accident. He was fascinated the title of cheap books and he wrote down, one of them was Opposites Attract (English analogously: Opposites Attract ). Thus, it was clear the title of the song. In the text he was inspired by his relationship with his first girlfriend, a Norwegian, inspire, the was by its very nature the opposite of him.

For the recordings, brought the bodies support the singing duo The Wild Pair, consisting of Tony Christian and Marv Gunn. He knew the two of the recordings for the soundtrack to the bright lights of the big city and had worked with them in the recordings of two pieces he had written for Abdul's debut album. Christian and Gunn took their vocal tracks in a studio in Minneapolis on, Paula Abdul in Los Angeles. Leiber had the two singers to sing on the full Son and decided later lines of text that Paula Abdul was to sing. As it was certain, he tuned out the singing of Christian and Gunn at the points that should sing Abdul.

Music Video

The song is known for its elaborate music video. Was directed by Candace Reckinger and Michael Patterson. In the music video dancing, rapping and singing with Paula MC Skat Kat, a cartoon character that was created by the stretching Inger and Patterson for the video. Christian and Gunn aka The Wild Pair borrowed MC Skat Kat their voices. For the video intro with a funky rap song was created, sung by Romany Malco. MC Skat Kat The figure is a tribute to Gene Kelly, who in the film Holiday in Hollywood with Jerry the mouse from Tom and Jerry dances. The visualization of the figure was based on ideas of Abdul, it was animated by Disney employees. Due to the success of the single and the video resulted in several films and series, as well as an album with MC Skat Kat

With the music video Abdul won at the Grammy Awards 1991 Grammy in the category " Best Short Form Music Video".

Commercial success

Opposites Attract was one of the most successful singles in 1990 and reached on 10 February 1990 # 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 It was Paula Abdul's fourth number -one hit in the U.S. and also the fourth number -one hit from her debut album. Opposites Attract reached # 1 and # 1 in Australia in Canada. In Canada, there was also Paula's fourth number -one hit and the first in Australia Paula. In the UK the single reached number 2 in the UK Top 40 as Abdul local successful single. In the German Media Control Charts, the single failed with space 14 the top ten.