Spice Girls 'Mama'

Chart Peak: 1 (3 weeks)

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'Mama', due for release on 3rd March 97, is tipped to give the Spice Girls their 4th consecutive No. 1 in Britain... Ginger, Scary, Baby, Sporty and Posh would go down in pop music history as the first act to top the charts with their first 4 hits... Oh and 'Wannabe' has just hit No. 1 in America - wow!

I don't think it's too much of a spoiler at this point to say that they did manage it, and that they then extended the record-breaking run to six, though that has been beaten since.

We're sort of back on my home turf here, 1997 being one of my favourite pop years - and indeed one of the best years of the 20th century for singles sales. That's not so say that music was all good, as we'll see in the next couple of months, but it was a time when I seemed to notice and form an opinion on almost any track that charted. My hope is that even when I don't like something on Now 36 I'll at least feel strongly enough about it to make for an interesting post.

We get a good early test of my theory right here at the start of the album. Undoubtedly the Spice Girls had their moments, and at their best they were an exciting an joyful pop phenomenon for a couple of years. But like most manager-led pop acts, they couldn't avoid the call of the big ballad, hence the third hit (and Christmas Number One) '2 Become 1', which went on to sell a million but is ironically their only hit not to appear on a Now album. That should have been enough for anyone, but then came this slush cynically released just in time for the Mother's Day market, and for charity too, making it one of the most inevitable Number One singles of all time. Admittedly, anyone who bought the single was getting a much better song as the other A-side, but this is what we have here - the other side's on Now 37.

Perhaps it's a little unfair to criticise this one track for being cynical when all their songs that I did like were created in an atmosphere of cynicism. Indeed, pretty much every piece of music I've ever heard has arrived through somebody's cynical self-interest somewhere and I'm fine with that, intellectually. The problem isn't that 'Mama' is a cynical construct, it's that it sounds like one, to the extent that I even find myself wondering whether they gave it that title so people in non-English-speaking countries could get the gist. It's too dull musically to distract from the slush of the lyric, and the pointless DJ scratching 19 seconds in doesn't change that. It seems to go on for hours as well. The most notable thing hearing it now is that there seems to be a male voice singing on the chorus. 

Also appearing on: Now 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 47
Available on: To The Best Mum In The World...Ever!