The album is Rushen's most successful album to date, peaking inside the top 20 of the
Billboard 200 chart at number 14. The success of "Forget Me Nots" is considered the major contributor to the album's popularity at the time of its release.[2]
In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, music critic
Robert Christgau gave Straight from the Heart a "C+" and said that he prefers side one's "dancy
vamp" over the songwriting on side two by Rushen, whom he called a fashionable "
ingenue".[4] In a retrospective review,
AllMusic's Andy Kellman called it "an early-'80s jazz-pop-R&B synthesis as durable and pleasing as any other".[3]
In 2018, Pitchfork ranked Straight From the Heart #194 on its list of the 200 Greatest Albums of the 1980s.[5]
The album is Rushen's most successful album to date, peaking inside the top 20 of the
Billboard 200 chart at number 14. The success of "Forget Me Nots" is considered the major contributor to the album's popularity at the time of its release.[2]
In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, music critic
Robert Christgau gave Straight from the Heart a "C+" and said that he prefers side one's "dancy
vamp" over the songwriting on side two by Rushen, whom he called a fashionable "
ingenue".[4] In a retrospective review,
AllMusic's Andy Kellman called it "an early-'80s jazz-pop-R&B synthesis as durable and pleasing as any other".[3]
In 2018, Pitchfork ranked Straight From the Heart #194 on its list of the 200 Greatest Albums of the 1980s.[5]