Rush Rush (Paula Abdul song)

"Rush Rush" was a departure for Abdul stylistically, as it was her first ballad released as a single, following the six uptempo singles from her debut LP. Lyrically, "Rush Rush" is about the desire for a lover who will give their all in a relationship.

First presented to Abdul as a demo by the Family Stand in 1990, she became intent on it becoming Spellbound's first single. In late 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. However, the producers felt that its unpolished sound was needed to give the song its ingenuous tone, to match its subject matter and accompanying promotional video clip. The scratch vocal ended up on the final cut in March 1991.^{[citation needed]}

"Rush Rush" debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 36 on May 11, 1991, and reached number one five weeks later, on June 15, 1991, remaining there for five consecutive weeks. At the time, it was the longest-running number one since Madonna's "Like a Virgin" spent six weeks at number one during 1984 and 1985. The song also spent five weeks atop the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. The song was ranked as the 64th-most-successful song of the 1990s in the United States.^[2] On the Billboard All Time chart between 1958 to 2018, the song ranked as the 77th-most successful single of all time in the United States.^[3] Outside of the U.S., the song also reached number 1 in Canada on the RPM chart and number 2 in Australia. In the United Kingdom, "Rush Rush" peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart.

The video reimagines the 1955 James Dean/Natalie Wood film Rebel Without a Cause, including iconic location shots at Griffith Observatory, a black 1949 Mercury, and a climactic street race. With Keanu Reeves filling James Dean's role of Jim, opposite Abdul as Judy, several scenes from the movie are duplicated shot-for-shot. The video was directed by Stefan Würnitzer in April 1991 and produced by Karen Rohrbacher for Lucasfilm Commercial Productions. The British Top of the Pops aired an alternate version of the video, re-edited to contain more "performance shots" and less story. Many more shots of Abdul dancing in the orange dress were present.^{[citation needed]}