Spice Girls 'Spice Up Your Life'

Chart Peak: 1 [1 week]
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'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!

Victoria Beckham 'Not Such An Innocent Girl'

Chart Peak: 6

YouTube

The video for Victoria's first solo single 'Not Such An Innocent Girl' featured the Spice star in a dual role - "Good Girl" going head-to-head with "Bad Girl" in a "futuristic world of Yin and Yang"... Commenting on the message of the song Victoria says "There's a good and bad side to everybody so don't judge a book by its cover."

The sleeve notes are clearly too polite to mention it, but when this single was originally released in the same week as 'Can't Get You Out Of My Head', at least one of the tabloids thought this would be another great chart battle like the one that had ensued when Beckham's collaboration with True Steppers went up against Spiller's Groovejet. They promised to keep their readers updated on which record was doing better throughout the week - and it lasted about two days before they realised there was no contest. In the event this got no higher than six and wasn't even the second-highest new entry, outdone by Alien Ant Farm's cover version and a Shaggy single nobody remembers. This album sequences them way apart anyway, and for good measure doesn't put it right next to another solo Spice either.

I hadn't actually seen that video until I came to write this post and it's a bit bigger-budgeted than I'd expected, considering the generally rather cheap air of this record (and the album cover). Beckham was the last member of the group to release any records outside it, and conspicuously didn't do so on the same major label. Virgin were evidently not too bothered by the risk of a rival outfit getting this, and they were probably right, as the album lost a fortune and Telstar went bust a couple of years later. It doesn't entirely seem like she was that interested either. Far be it from me to accuse anyone of misunderstanding their own song, but the lyrical tone of "if you touch me I won't break, I'm not such an innocent girl" doesn't really suit a 27-year old married mother-of-one. Oh yeah, and the singing's rubbish too.

Also appearing on: Now 47 (with True Steppers and Dane Bowers), 51
Available on: Victoria Beckham