These posts are about the songs that fell just short of crossing the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41.

Paula Adbul had a booming career as a choreographer when she nabbed an extremely unlikely assignment. Among other triumphs, she could legitimately claim partial responsibility for Janet Jackson’s rocket-ship rise in the pop star rankings through the dance moves she devised for the music videos for Control singles “What Have You Done for Me Lately” and “Nasty.” Evidently believing Abdul could work the same magic with just about any artist, she was brought in put a shimmy into the scruffy Texans in ZZ Top, choreographing the video for “Velcro Fly.” While on set, she struck up a conversation with a Jeff Ayeroff, then an executive with ZZ Top’s label, Warner Bros. Abdul told him she was interested in pursuing her own singing career and was even willing to dip into her savings to record a demo. Ayeroff took her seriously, and when he departed Warner Bros. to help establish an U.S. presence for Virgin Records, Abdul was one of the first artists he signed.

“Society always wants to peg you,” Abdul observed at the time. “You know, ‘You’re an actress. You’re a singer. You’re a dancer.’ I don’t think it’s fair to just stifle yourself and do one thing because everybody says you’re successful in that area. If you have the opportunity to do it, go for it, and do the best you can.”

Abdul worked with a slew of songwriters and producers for her debut album, Forever Your Girl. For the first single, the label selected “Knocked Out,” which was written and produced by L.A. Reid and Babyface, whose shared career was noticeably on the rise. Compounding the logic of that selection, the shimmery, pulsing track bore aural resemblance to the Janet Jackson hits that were sure to be invoked any time music journalists turned the attention to Abdul as pop singer newcomer. It almost worked; the song made some headway on the charts, though it peaked just outside of the Top 40.

When Abdul’s next single stalled out at #88, it seemed her singing career was going to be short-lived. Virgin bosses believed enough in the potential of Abdul that they decided to give it a go with a third single from the album. It worked out.

Other entries in this series can be found by clicking on the “Top 40 Smash Near Misses” tag.