by James
Christopher Sheppard
It’s exactly 15 years
since the Spice Girls burst onto the British music scene with ‘Wannabe’ and
stormed to number one. In July 1996 an unknown all-girl pop group were suddenly
all over television and radio promoting a song more pop than pop itself, about
really really wanting a zig-a-zig-ah and friendship never ending. The sentiment
was fresh and girl power was born. The group were hard to miss, with each girl
having their own individual style, which at the time was practically unheard of
in the pop world. Prior to Ginger, Baby, Sporty, Scary and Posh, the commercial
music industry, particularly in the UK, was dominated by indie pop bands like Oasis, Blur and Radiohead, the
super divas Celine Dion and Mariah Carey, and boybands that dressed
the same like Take That and Boyzone. Despite their beginnings as a manufactured
group, Geri, Melanie C, Emma, Melanie B and Victoria broke away, wrote their
own songs, got themselves signed and did it their way. The Spice Girls
represented freedom, fun, girl power and individuality and the world loved it.
In celebration of this 15 year anniversary, I’m going to look at some of the
highlights that have come from this phenomenally successful group of girls over
the years.
Spice was the must-have album of 1996 if you were at school. With only
ten tracks, half of the songs were #1 singles. While people remember ‘Wannabe’,
‘Say You’ll Be There’, ‘2 Become 1’, ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ and ‘Mama’,
the album also boasts some pretty extraordinary album tracks, like ‘If U Can’t
Dance’ and ‘Naked’. Spice was
released on 4th November 1996 and went on to sell over 23 million
copies worldwide. In just a few months since the girls released ‘Wannabe’,
Spicemania was hitting fever pitch. There were Spice Girls chupa chucks, Spice
Girls duvet sets, Spice Girls wall-paper, Spice Girls Pepsi cans, Spice Girls
chocolate bars, Spice Girls dolls- Spice Girls everything!
Just twelve months after Spice, came its second coming, SpiceWorld. If ever there was a part one
and part two of an album, it was Spice and
SpiceWorld. ‘Spice Up Your Life’,
‘Too Much’ and ‘Viva Forever’ all hit #1 in the UK, whilst ‘Stop’ stalled at
#2. SpiceWorld was not only the
band’s second album, but also the soundtrack to their movie of the same name.
While the movie may have been panned by critics, it still managed to top the UK
box office over Christmas 1997 and hit #2 in the USA, stopping behind
‘Titanic’. SpiceWorld seemed to
pretty much mirror the success of Spice,
selling over 20 million copies and sitting comfortably inside the Best Selling
Albums of All-Time list.
In May 1998, during the ‘Spice World Tour’,
Geri Halliwell split from the group,
which certainly affected the future of the group. As chief songwriter and the
master mind behind Girl Power, what seemed to be the passionate creator of the
group, had jumped ship. Melanie B was
the first of all of the girls to release a solo single, which was the urban ‘I
Want You Back’ with Missy Elliot, which struck #1 on the same day as one of the
group’s Wembley Stadium shows. Later that year, after almost a year of touring,
the four remaining girls recorded and released ‘Goodbye’, scoring their eighth
#1 and third consecutive Christmas #1.
1999 was a quiet year for the group, but
was the first time we saw Geri Halliwell, Emma
Bunton and Melanie C step out as
soloists. Geri Halliwell released her first solo album, Schizophonic, which closely followed the Spice Girl album
ingredients- ten brilliantly catchy pop songs. ‘Look at Me’ hit #2, while ‘Mi
Chico Latino’, ‘Lift Me Up’ and ‘Bag It Up’ all made it to #1. Emma’s first
release outside of the Spice Girls was a cover of ‘What I am’, recorded with Tin Tin Out, which hit #2, behind
Halliwell’s ‘Lift Me Up’. Melanie C initially experienced the least successful
start to her solo career. While her duet with Bryan Adams, ‘When You’re Gone’ had been a huge hit the previous
year, Melanie’s first few solo singles, ‘Goin’ Down’ and ‘Northern Star’ were
only moderately successful and her album Northern
Star charted at #10 and swiftly fell out of the chart. Despite the
luke-warm reception to Melanie C’s solo work, when ‘Never Be The Same Again’
was released in early 2000, the song soared to #1 and remained there for two
weeks. Northern Star subsequently
re-charted and climbed to #4, eventually shifting over 4 million copies
worldwide. Northern Star remains the
most successful release from any solo Spice Girl.
Three years after Spiceworld, came Forever.
The album was heavily R&B influenced, apposed to the previous pure pop
sound the group had stuck to. The double A-side ‘Holler’ and ‘Let Love Lead The
Way’ hit #1 and the album made #2 but quickly disappeared from the chart and
memory. The album was largely seen a failure, both commercially and critically
and spelled out the end of the Spice Girls.
Also at the end of 2000, came Melanie B’s
debut solo effort, the underperforming Hot.
While the album produced a couple of top ten hits, ‘Tell Me’ and ‘Feels So
Good’, Melanie B’s solo career never really gained any momentum. Just when it
was looking like the golden five-year wonder of the Spice Girls was coming to
an end, Geri Halliwell released her biggest success to date, her cover of the Weather Girls’ ‘It’s Raining Men’,
which stayed at #1 for two weeks and served as the theme to the massive movie
‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’. Around the same time Emma Bunton released her debut solo album, A Girl Like Me, with lead single ‘What Took You So Long’ which,
like Halliwell’s ‘Men’, hit #1 and stayed there for two weeks.
Victoria
Beckham was the last Spice Girl to release a solo
album. Her self titled album received very poor critical and commercial success
and she has yet to make another. Where her singing career has waned, Victoria
has become the best known of all of the girls. She is now a very successful
fashion designer, television personality and is, of course, married to David Beckham and is mother to their
four children. Victoria’s most successful single remains ‘Out of Your Mind’
with Truesteppers, although it is
‘Let Your Head Go’ which seems to be the favourite with fans.
Beyond ‘It’s Raining Men’, Halliwell’s
career seemed to slow down, with her third album Passion failing to make the Top 40. Melanie C continued on a steady path, gaining a cult following and is about
to release her fifth solo album, The Sea,
in September 2011. Emma Bunton achieved the rare feat of her second album
receiving more success than her first. Free
Me gave Emma the hits ‘Maybe’, ‘I’ll Be There’ and ‘Free Me’. Emma went on
to have a very successful television career.
In 2007, all five of the Spice Girls
announced ‘The Return of the Spice Girls World Tour’. The tour, initially
planned as a one night only affair, played 47 dates and grossed over
$70,000,000, including a record 17 sold out nights at London’s o2 Arena. The
associated album, Greatest Hits, hit
#2 and received Platinum status. While Spice Girls comeback was clearly a
success, at the end of the tour, in February 2008, the girls continued on their
separate journeys. All of the girls are now mothers. Melanie B is a judge on
Australia’s ‘X Factor’, has her own fitness interactive game and has featured
on many American shows; Melanie C continues to find success as a solo artist
and starred in the West End version of ‘Blood Brothers’, winning awards along
the way; Emma Bunton is a judge on ‘Dancing on Ice’; Victoria Beckham continues
to be Victoria Beckham- one of the most written and talked about celebrities in
the world; and Geri Halliwell is about to unleash her fourth solo album. It
looks like the Spice Girls, in one way or another, are still very much a part
of our celebrity culture as they were fifteen years ago.
JCS is Eyewear's Music Critic. He divides his time between London and Hull. He is working on a novel.
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