This 1988 Pop Hit Was Thrown Out by the Singer’s Mother and Recorded in a Bathroom (And Still Sounds Great)

It’s not often that a music history story will disprove two adages at once, but the journey of Paula Abdul’s massive 1988 hit shows that, one, mothers don’t always know best, and two, sometimes, you should quit your day job. (Though, to be fair to Abdul’s mother, concert pianist Lorraine Rykiss, she was the one who technically found her daughter’s future hit.)

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She just didn’t think it was worth pursuing once she found it. But Abdul had a feeling there was something special hiding in what she later described as a “horrible-sounding” demo. Ten million copies and multiple worldwide No. 1 chart placements later, it would appear that Abdul was right.

Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up” Was a Literal Diamond in the Rough

Paula Abdul was working steadily as a choreographer when she decided to become a solo artist, a professional move her mother often criticized. Nevertheless, it was her mother who found the first demo of “Straight Up” through her young assistant’s boyfriend, who was an aspiring songwriter. When Lorraine Rykiss first told her daughter about the demo, she said that it was so bad that she started crying-laughing. And when Abdul heard it, she agreed.

Thinking she had inadvertently acquired a dud, Rykiss threw the tape in the trash. But something about the melody stuck with Abdul, who dug it back out and started pitching it to record labels. She prefaced each offer by saying the demo itself was bad, but that it had great potential. Abdul managed to strike a deal in which she would record two songs the label wanted, regardless of whether she wanted to cut them, if it meant she could record a new version of “Straight Up”.

The 1988 Hit Pop Song Was Recorded in an Apartment Bathroom

Paula Abdul might have gotten the green light to cut “Straight Up”, but her budget was relatively small. (She would later say the record label gave her $3,000, which would be just over $8,000 today.) Rather than blow through most of her budget in a major studio, Abdul opted to record her version of “Straight Up” in a home recording set-up in Los Angeles.

The future pop star recorded her vocals in the bathroom with rubber foam serving as DIY acoustic panels. “In the master recordings, swear to God, you can hear from the apartment next door, banging, ‘Shut! Up!’” Abdul revealed during a 2012 presentation for The Hudson Union. “It was never removed from the master recording. It’s the truth.”

In the first few weeks after its release, Abdul wasn’t sure if she had wasted her time on what her mother had rightfully clocked as a dud. It wasn’t until she was back on set working as the choreographer for The Tracey Ullman Show that she realized the single had gained any sort of success. The crew had just returned from holiday break, and one of her co-workers mentioned hearing a woman on the radio that had her name in northern California.

Soon, “Straight Up” by Paula Abdul had stretched far beyond California into radio station rotations around the world. It remains one of the most iconic and beloved late 80s pop tracks of all time—and it nearly vanished out of existence at the bottom of the Abduls’ trash can.

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