Spice Girls debuted at #1 in UK with Spice

Spice Spice Girls

Released: September 19, 1996 Charted: November 16, 1996 Peak: 15 US, 115 UK, 16 CN, 3 AU Sales (in millions): 7.5 US, 3.0 UK, 27.6 world (includes US and UK) Genre: pop

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Wannabe (7/20/96, 1 US, 1 UK, platinum single) Say You’ll Be There (10/26/96, 3 US, 1 UK, gold single) 2 Become 1 (12/28/96, 4 US, 1 UK, 8 AC, gold single) Love Thing Last Time Lover Mama (3/15/97, 1 UK) Who Do You Think You Are Something Kinda Funny Naked If U Can’t Dance Total Running Time: 39:56 The Players: Victoria Beckham (“Posh Spice”) Melanie Brown (“Scary Spice”) Emma Bunton (“Baby Spice”) Melanie Chisholm (“Sporty Spice”) Geri Halliwell (“Ginger Spice”)

Rating: 3.566 out of 5.00 (average of 23 ratings) Quotable: “Irresistible, immaculately crafted pop that gets by on the skills of the producer and the charisma of the five Spices” – Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Heart Management held auditions to create a girl group in the ‘90s which could compete with the British boy band craze. The result was the Spice Girls, formed in 1994, with members Victoria Beckham (“Posh Spice”), Melanie Brown (“Scary Spice”), Emma Bunton (“Baby Spice”), Melanie Chisholm (“Sporty Spice”), and Geri Halliwell (“Ginger Spice”). The resulting debut album, Spice, “is considered to be the record that brought teen pop back.” WK Dev Sherlock of LAUNCHcast called it “pure upbeat ear candy” and “one of the most must and exciting pop releases of the year.” WK It promoted a strong feminist image called Girl Power and generated hype in the UK that was compared to Beatlemania. The album topped the charts in more than 17 countries, becoming the world’s best-selling album in 1997 with more than 19 million copies sold. WK It became the biggest-selling album by a gril group in music history. WK “None of the Girls have great voices, but they do exude personality and charisma, which is what drives bouncy dance-pop like Wannabe, with its ridiculous ‘zig-a-zig-ahhh’ hook, into pure pop guilty pleasure.” AMG That song definitely was that, reaching #1 in 37 countries and becoming one of pop music’s most memorable earworms. “Spice doesn’t need to be original to be entertaining, nor do the Spice Girls need to be good singers. It just has to be executed well, and the innocuous dance-pop of Spice is infectious.” AMG “What is surprising is how the sultry soul of Say You’ll Be There is more than just a guilty pleasure, and how ballads like 2 Become 1 are perfect adult contemporary confections.” AMG Both followed “Wannabe” to the top of the charts in multiple countries and were top-5 hits in the United States. In the UK, Mama and What Do You Think You Are were released as a double-A-sided single and topped the charts, making the Spice Girls the first act in UK chart history to reach the top of the chart with its first four singles. WK “The rest of the album isn’t quite as catchy as those first three singles, but it is still irresistible, immaculately crafted pop that gets by on the skills of the producer and the charisma of the five Spices. Sure, the last half of the album is forgettable, but it sounds good while it’s on, which is the key to a good dance-pop record.” AMG

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Spice Girls AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/25/2008; last updated 11/15/2023.

Spice Girls hit #1 in UK with “Wannabe”

Wannabe Spice Girls

Writer(s): Spice Girls (Melanie Chisholm, Melanie Brown, Geri Halliwell, Victoria Adams, Emma Bunton), Matt Rowe, Richard Stannard (see lyrics here) Released: June 26, 1996 First Charted: July 20, 1996 Peak: 14 US, 2 GR, 4 RR, 27 A40, 17 UK, 9 CN, 111 AU, 8 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 2.91 US, 1.71 UK, 7.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 668.64 video, 793.31 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The Spice Girls consisted of Victoria Adams (later Beckham, aka “Posh Spice”), Melanie Brown (aka Mel B or “Scary Spice”), Emma Bunton (aka “Baby Spice”), Melanie Chisholm (aka Mel C or “Sporty Spice”), and Gerri Halliwell (aka “Ginger Spice”). The group was assembled in 1994 by the father-and-son team of Bob and Chris Herbert, a management team who, in the mid-‘90s, set out to create a girl group to compete with popular UK boy groups at the time like Take That and East 17. WK2 “None of the girls had great voices, but they excuded personality, energy and charisma.” LW The group impressed songwriter Richard Stannard at an industry showcase that November and he and Matt Rowe, his songwriting partner, started writing with the group. WK1 The uptempo dance-pop “Wannabe,” which was written in 30 minutes and recorded in less than an hour, was designed as a showcase of their personalities WK1 and a celebration of female friendship and empowerment. By 1995, the group left the Herberts’ Heart Management group and signed with Simon Fuller, WK2 best-known for creating American Idol. Brown and Halliwell were adamant that “Wannabe,” “a glorious mix of pop, R&B-lite with a hint-of hip-hop,” LW should be the group’s lead single despite Fuller and the record company’s objections. The Spice Girls won in the end and a video was assembled for the song in May 1996. Within two hours of its appearance on British cable network The Box, the video had topped the viewers’ chart. It became the most requested track in the channel’s history. WK1 Between the success of the video, an early single release in Japan, and a flurry of promotion, the Spice Girls exploded in the UK immediately. The song debuted at #3 on the UK charts and climbed to the top the next week, where it stayed for 7 weeks. In the U.S., the song wouldn’t hit the top of the charts until February 1997, by which time the Spice Girls had already landed three #1’s in the UK and were on the brink of their fourth consecutive chart-topper, making them the first act in UK chart history to do so. FB All told, “Wannabe” hit the top in 37 countries and became the best-selling single in the world by a girl group. WK1 In 1997, it received the Brit Award for British Single of the Year. In 2014, it was named the most easily recognizable pop song of the last 60 years. WK1 The Spice Girls hit #1 eight times in the UK during the ‘90s, becoming the biggest act of the decade. Their debut album Spice sold 31 million sales worldwide, making it the best-selling album in history by a female group. With more than 85 million records sold worldwide during their career, they became the best-selling girl group of all time and the biggest pop success since the Beatles. WK2 Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Spice Girls LW Alan Lewens (2001). Popular Song – Soundtrack of the Century. Billboard Books: New York, NY. Pages 176-7. SF Songfacts WK1 Wikipedia (entry for “Wannabe”) WK2 Wikipedia (entry for “Spice Girls”) Related Links: First posted 10/31/2019; last updated 11/25/2022.