Cold Hearted
Cold Hearted (often wrongly titled Cold Hearted Snake ) is a pop / R&B song written by record producer Elliot Wolff in 1988. The song he produced with the American pop and R&B singer and dancer Paula Abdul was a number 1 hit in 1989.
The single reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the fall of 1989 and became Paula Abdul's third consecutive number 1 single in the United States in the same year. Cold Hearted was awarded gold in the United States and Canada . The official release of the song was in May 1989, the song was recorded in 1988. The song is 3:36 minutes long in the single version and 3:51 minutes in the original version. Cold Hearted became one of Paula Abdul's most famous and most played songs on the radio alongside Straight Up . The song is best known for its lyrics and the provocative music video .
history
Cold Hearted was released in May 1989 as the fifth single from Paula's debut album Forever Your Girl . In the same year, their hits Straight Up and Forever Your Girl reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 , with Cold Hearted being the third number 1 single to follow. In 1989 she became one of two artists who were able to conquer first place on the Hot 100 with 3 singles, Paula Abdul and Milli Vanilli . The song is an up-tempo pop and R&B song with dance and new jack swing elements. In the song , Paula Abdul raps several verses , making Cold Hearted the first number one hit in the US with spoken chanting since Blondie's number one hit Rapture from 1981, and the second on the Billboard Hot 100 ever. So two artists created the first rap number one hits and not the artists. Critics called Paula Abdul the new Madonna or Whitney Houston due to the mega success of three consecutive number one hits .
Music video
The music video was directed by David Fincher . The music video for Cold Hearted was inspired by Bob Fosse's erotic dance scene from the movie All That Jazz . In the music video, Paula dances for music producers with a group of dancers. On stage, Abdul and the dancers dance on several scaffolding, which gives the video an erotic and sexual atmosphere. "Cold Hearted Snake" is used in the music video as a metaphor for the "boring" male music producer, although in the song it is directed at a narcissist . He is sitting on a coach with the other producers and, after Paula has finished the performance, just pulls himself together, “It's very nice.” ( Eng. Very nice ). Paula repeats "nice", the screen goes dark and the dancers start laughing. Abdul's own choreography for the video was very sexual for the first time, allowing viewers to see Paula's sexual side. Paula's navel was seen for the first time in a music video. The music video was a huge hit on MTV and one of the most successful music videos for a long time.
The music video plays the 7 "edit version and, in contrast to the album version, contains a rap.
In 1999, American pop singer Christina Aguilera recorded a tribute music video to the video for Cold Hearted . The music video for the song What a Girl Wants was shot on the same location as Cold Hearted and has the same storyline as Paula's music video.
Commercial win
Cold Hearted reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week in September 1989 , replacing Richard Marx 's ballad Right Here Waiting from the top, which was number 1 for 3 weeks. Cold Hearted became one of the greatest hits of 1989 in the USA and Canada , where it also reached number 1 , and in the annual charts Cold Hearted reached number 6. Because of its success and great popularity, the single remained in the top ten for a total of eight weeks US charts.
Cold Hearted was the last single to be released in the UK from the album Forever Your Girl in 1990. In the British single charts , the single reached the highest position on September 29, 1990 at number 46. In the German single charts , Cold Hearted reached number 38.
| Charts | Top ranking | Weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Chart placements | ||
 Germany (GfK)
|
38 (15 weeks) | 15th |
 United Kingdom (OCC)
|
46 (3 weeks) | 3 |
 United States (Billboard)
|
1 (21 weeks) | 21st |
Cover versions
The American indie band sBACH covered the song as did the American singer Katerina Graham .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Chart sources: DE UK US
- ↑ http://www.myspace.com/sBACHband
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8wJy0pQZTo&gl=US&hl=en&has_verified=1 ( Memento from October 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive )