Cold Hearted


"Cold Hearted" is a 1989 song by American singer Paula Abdul from the album Forever Your Girl, written and co-produced by Elliot Wolff. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the album's third song to top the US chart.

Composition

"Cold Hearted" is written in the key of G minor and follows a tempo of 122 beats per minute. The song follows a chord progression of GmEmaj7Dm7, and Abdul's vocals span one-and-a-half octaves, from F3 to B4.

Music video

The official music video was directed by David Fincher and spent more than three weeks on top of MTV's video rotation list. The inspiration for the video came from Bob Fosse's choreography of the "Take Off with Us" scene in the movie All That Jazz.

Chart performance

"Cold Hearted" topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for one week in September 1989, ending Richard Marx's three-week run at the summit with "Right Here Waiting". "Cold Hearted" ranked sixth in Billboard's Year-End Hot 100 of 1989. It spent a total of eight weeks within the Billboard top ten.
"Cold Hearted" was the final UK release from Forever Your Girl in 1990. It was issued in remixed form unlike in the US and elsewhere, where an edit of the album version was released instead. It charted on 29 September 1990 at number 55, going on to peak at #46 the following week. This remixed version was the follow to the Shep Pettibone remix of "Knocked Out", which had reached number 21 three months previously.

Track listings and formats

US/Euro 12"/Euro CD single
  1. "Cold Hearted" – 6:51
  2. "Cold Hearted" – 6:42
  3. "Cold Hearted" – 5:43
  4. "Cold Hearted" – 3:54
  5. "One or the Other" – 4:10
UK CD single
  1. "Cold Hearted" – 3:51
  2. "Cold Hearted" – 5:43
  3. "Cold Hearted" – 6:51
  4. "Cold Hearted" – 3:35

    Official mixes

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

All-time charts