"Spellbound," Paula Abdul's third feature album was released worldwide in 1991.

For this album, Paula worked primarily with one set of producers, the Brooklyn-bred funk/soul trio known as The Family Stand.

The group  included the talents of V. Jeffery Smith, Sandra St. Victor and Peter Lord.

Paula knew of The Family Stand's work with the group "Aftershock" (which was to be featured on the 'Captive Sampler" as Paula also had moved to Captive Records, a subsidiary of Virgin Records.)

She met 'The Stand' at a Record Executives house, and asked them to play a couple of songs that they had written.

Peter Lord played "Blowing Kisses In The Wind" on the piano and Paula fell in love with it.  She asked them to work with her on a couple of songs for the album.

When Paula first heard "Rush Rush" she said she "knew it had to be the first track released from the album."

The Family Stand plays most of the instruments and the background vocals on the album.

They also ended up producing over half of the album, originally signing on to produce "Rush Rush" and "Blowing Kisses In The Wind."

Several popular writers and musicians contributed their talents to the masterpiece that would become "Spellbound."

Such celebrities include: Prince, Don Was, Stevie Wonder, Elton John and country/folk singer John Hiatt!

The special edition version of the "Spellboun" album won a Grammy Award for the packaging in which the CD came specially packaged in a makeup compact complete with powder-puff and mirror.

Adding hype to the release of the new record, session singer Yvette Marine filed a million dollar lawsuit against Virgin Records three weeks prior to the launch of "Spellbound."

The allegations brought forth by Marine claimed that Virgin Records blended her voice with Paula's lead vocals on songs "Opposites Attract", "Knocked Out", and "I Need You."

Marine claimed she was inaccurately credited as a session singer when she was performing "co-lead" vocals with Abdul.

Virgin Records went to great lengths to bring as much evidence into the court as possible, such as actual taped recordings of Paula's vocals and eventually won the case against Marine.

To promote "Spellbound", Paula launched her first worldwide tour on October 26th, 1991.

MTV showing strong support for Paula and the album held a "name Paula's Tour" contest in search of a name for Paula's Spellbound tour.

Under My Spell was the name chosen for the tour and the rest is history!

Before "Spellbound" was released, Virgin Records Executives shipped one million copies of "Spellbound" to record stores worldwide.

Generally a shipment of 100,000 means that record companies expect an album to do well, but Virgin had high hopes for "Spellbound" which ultimately went Three Times Platinum.

Import copies of "Spellbound" feature a bonus track titled "Good Night My Love," a song Paula recorded for the Pediatric Aids Foundation.

The song was also featured on the "For Our Children" album. "Good Night My Love" was written and produced by Don Was and also appears on the B-side of the "Will You Marry Me?" single.

To increase environmental awareness, Paula came up with the idea to include punch-out postcards inside each copy of "Spellbound". Customers could then send the postcards to "Little Green" a charity she supported which helps protect the environment.

"Head Over Heels" was Paula's next album.

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Executive Producer: Gemma Corfield

Art Direction: Melanie Nissen
Design: Margo Chase Design
Photography: Robert Lobetta
Mastered by: Dan Hersch at Digiprep

Peter Lord, Sandra St. Victor and V. Jeffrey Smith (The Family Stand) appear courtesy of East/West Records/Atlantic Recording Corp.

Stevie Wonder and Colin England appear courtesy of Motown Record Company, L.P.
Paulinho Da Costa appears courtesy of A&M Records
Stephan "Dock" Kupka, Steve Grove and Greg Adams appear courtesy of Epic Records

Management: Larry Tollin/Larry Frazin

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