Melanie C 'Here It Comes Again'

Chart Peak: 7
YouTube

'Here It Comes Again was the lead track from Melanie's 2nd solo album Reason, the follow-up to her multi-platinum 1999 debut Northern Star... Looking back on her days in the Spice Girls, she says, "I was the one who was most serious about my music and the most driven."

As of 2003, people had officially started talking about the Spice Girls in the past tense, even though they hadn't officially announced a split in the way that Take That did and four of them had returned to the group after the first wave of group activity. So Melanie Chisholm will have approached her second solo set as her main creative outlet, though it's hard to tell whether this in practice meant greater personal expression or more commercial pressure. It does seem a bit made-by-committee in places, with various big-name co-writers and producers called in for various tracks, although oddly the collaborators here were both members of the Blow Monkeys. 'Here It Comes Again' is a song that I remembered as having a rather lovely chorus and it is indeed pretty good, but slightly messed up by the crunchy rock guitars low in the mix, as if it's trying too hard to hedge its bets. In the event it didn't do as well as expected, entering only at 7 and hastening the end of her major-label contract.

Also appearing on: Now 44, 45 (with "Left Eye"), 47, 55
Available on: Here It Comes Again

Spice Girls 'Spice Up Your Life'

Chart Peak: 1 [1 week]
YouTube

'Spice Up Your Life' was the girls' 5th single and a record-breaking 5th consecutive No. 1 smash... It is now incredible to think that only 18 months ago nobody had ever heard of Scary, Ginger, Baby, Sporty or Posh!

Incredible indeed. Not only was 'Spice Up Your Life' a record-breaker, it also has an extra place in history as the single that displaced the all-time biggest-seller from the top of the chart: as I alluded to in the previous post, that was 'Candle In The Wind 97', a song that presumably wasn't considered for a Now album (surely everyone who wanted it had a copy by now anyway?) although its double-A-side partner 'Something About The Way You Look Tonight' does make an incongruous appearance on the recent Now That's What I Call a Million. Apparently, the death of Diana forced some edits to the film Spice World which was being shot at the same time as this song was recorded, and they also famously had to cut out Gary Glitter for other reasons.

As a song released at the peak of the group's fame, 'Spice Up Your Life' meets the challenge head on, even in the title. It's the sort of self-conscious theme tune that I often find off-putting but this takes it so far it's hard to resist, and the Latin beat was running just at the cutting edge of pop fashion at the time. The lyrics are not by any stretch of the imagination good (do they really say "Yellow man in Timbuktu"?) but they flash by just about fast enough for you to ignore them and the whole thing is over in less than three minutes. It's the first of two songs on Now 38 where I thought it sounded a bit like somebody was saying "wanker", though of course they're not really. Despite a strong first week, though, this single was relatively poorly-received and lasted only a single week at the top (first time for a Spice single) and suffered the unusual-for-1997 ignimony of being overtaken by a climber rather than a new entry.

Also appearing on: Now 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 42, 47
Available on: Greatest Hits

Spice Girls 'Goodbye'

Chart Peak: 1 (3 weeks)
YouTube

Since scooping the Christmas Number No1 spot for the third year running with 'Goodbye', the Spice Girls collective have taken a break from the world of pop... Victoria and Mel G have been too busy extending the Spice family with the births of Brooklyn Joseph (Baby Posh) and Phoenix Chi (Baby Scary).

Wait, does that mean Beau Jones is Baby Baby? And does Amy Grant know about this? 'Goodbye' was of course the first single by the Spice Girls as a quartet and its release less than sixth months after 'Viva Forever' served a double purpose, both in securing them that Christmas chart-topper (they were only the second act to do so, after the Beatles, though Cliff Richard had also managed three over the course of 29 years) and proving the act to be a going concern without Geri Halliwell. In the event, they didn't release anything else for almost two years and were never really the same again, but for the time being they hadn't collapsed.

Musically, it's a big sweeping ballad that more or less picks up where 'Viva Forever' had left off, though the lyric seems quite consciously to refer to their now ex-member's departure: my recollection is that it was denied at the time, though possibly more for the publicity value of making the song's content a story than because they thought anyone would believe them. Certainly it's hard to hear the chorus of "Goodbye my friend/It's not the end" as anything other than a message to the fans now. In paces the song seems a bit rushed ("look for the rainbow in every star" is a bit of a mangled metaphor) but it slips down easily enough and it's probably the context that's the main reason you don't often hear it nowadays. In fact you're more likely to hear its B-side, the Anglicised cover of 'Christmas Wrapping' that's wheeled out by radio stations every December these days. And in the light of the previous post, I should probably mention that the Spice Girls are proof not every attempt at a songbook musical works.

Also appearing on: Now 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 47
Available on: Greatest Hits [+video]

Spice Girls 'Mama'

Chart Peak: 1 (3 weeks)

YouTube

'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!

Spice Girls 'Viva Forever'

Chart Peak: 1 (2 weeks)

YouTube

Back to something a little more up-to-date, although it had been available on an album in 1997. There's a definite sense of end-of-an-era about 'Viva Forever' which proved to be the last single released by the original lineup; at least if we forget the 2007 reunion, which is probably best for all concerned. Indeed, a pre-recorded Top Of The Pops appearance was reportedly their last performance as a quintet in their original career. In some ways this is coincidental, and it's a happy accident for the rest of the band that Geri Halliwell doesn't have any very prominent vocal parts that would have to be edited out. Ironically, though, there was no taking her out of the video that had taken months to animate.

Even if the farewell to one member was a fluke, it's clear why this was the fourth and last single from the album, with its reflective mood and nostalgic (if incoherent) lyric. It overdoes some of the late-1990s "tasteful" production tricks (Mmm... flamaenco guitars) but it's a perfectly listenable slice of pop. The imperial phase was ending and I don't think they were ever this good again.

Also appearing on: Now 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 47
Available on: Greatest Hits

The Spice Girls 'Wannabe'

Chart Peak: 1 (7 weeks)

YouTube

Yes, those footsteps are on the record, as well as the video...

Making a slight detour from the search for historic instalments in the Now series, Now 34 is one I picked out because it was the first I ever heard: my brother either bought it or got it for his birthday in 1996. This has the extra advantage that I know where I can find a copy of the CD if any of the tracks are difficult to source online.

That was never going to be a problem with 'Wannabe' though. If anything, I face the opposite difficulty, as with 'Fairytale Of New York' back there: it's hard to imagine that anyone who cares doesn't know what this sounds like, or needs any explanation of its origins. What stands out most at this juncture, I think, is how well-tailored a debut single it was: everything about it is cleverly designed to grab the attention and stick in the memory, like it or not. Smartly, the band are introduced, but not as the focal point of the song (compare and contrast 21st Century Girls) and they all get to do a bit of singing, but Victoria Addams (as she then was) has as little as possible. There's even a made-up word to keep people talking.

It seems almost irrelevant to talk about liking or not liking this record, but it hasn't aged brilliantly, thanks to its concessions to mid-90s RnB sounds. But maybe that's part of the reason it was so successful at the time: not just that long run at the top, but a 26-week chart run (half a year!). Like it or not, we were going to have to get used to it.


Also appearing on: Now 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 47
Available on: Spice

Melanie C 'Northern Star'

Chart Peak: 4

YouTube

And still they come. 1999 was something of a gap year for the Spice Girls with no new material from the group, but hits for three of the four members (and the one ex-member, of course).

For good or ill, Melanie Chisholm seems to have been the one who's taken her solo work most seriously, continuing to pursue it even during the Spice reunion. What this means is that she's covered more stylistic ground than most of the others, and opened her solo account with the ill-advised psuedo-rock of 'Going Down'. This follow-up found her on more familiar ground, once you got used to the idea of her singing a whole song on her own. She's probably the best singer in the Spice Girls, and certainly the one who found the most distinctive style. She's not really good enough to sell this song though - it still sounds like somebody trying to prove too much, or at least to prove that they have something to prove.


Also appearing on: Now 45 (with "Left Eye"), 47, 54, 55
Available on: Northern Star [Bonus Tracks]