Spice (album)
Encyclopedia
Spice is the debut album by British
pop
group Spice Girls
. Released on November 4, 1996 by Virgin Records
, the album was recorded at Olympic Studios
in Barnes, London between 1995 and 1996, by producers Matt Rowe, Richard Stannard, Eliot Kennedy
and the production duo Absolute
. Five singles were released from the album: "Wannabe
", "Say You'll Be There
", "2 Become 1
", "Who Do You Think You Are
" and "Mama
"; "Who Do You Think You Are" and "Mama" were released as a double A-side in the United Kingdom
, Ireland
and other countries. The first single, "Wannabe", went to number one in 31 countries, and the next two singles, "Say You'll Be There" and "2 Become 1", reached number one in 53 countries. "Who Do You Think You Are" was released as the official Comic Relief
single in the UK as a double A-side with "Mama" and both songs reached the top 20 in charts across Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In the band's native UK, all four singles went to number one on the UK singles chart and, in the United States, the album produced three top five singles.
Spice was a worldwide commercial success. The album was certified 10x Platinum in UK by the British Phonographic Industry
and in Canada by the Canadian Recording Industry Association
,
9x Platinum in Europe by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry in their 1997 European music awards and 8x Platinum in the US by the Recording Industry Association of America
. In total, the album sold 23 million copies worldwide, becoming the biggest-selling album in music history by a girl group and one of the most successful albums of all time.
magazine, which asked the question: "Are you street smart, extrovert, ambitious, and able to sing and dance?". The management received hundreds of replies, but eventually reduced their search down to a final group of five girls: Victoria Adams
, Melanie Brown
, Melanie Chisholm
, Geri Halliwell
and Michelle Stephenson
. The new band was originally called "Touch" and moved to a house in Maidenhead
. Emma Bunton
was the last to join after Stephenson dropped out when her mother became ill.
The group felt insecure about the lack of contract and were frustrated by the direction in which Heart Management was steering them. In October 1994, armed with a catalog of demos
and dance routines, the group began touring management agencies.
They started to meet with producers, musicians and other business executives, among them were composer Tim Hawes, and writers Richard Stannard and Matthew Rowe. Hawes worked with the group and watched the evolution in their singing and writing abilities. Together they composed a song called "Sugar and Spice", which served as the inspiration behind the change of the group's name to "Spice". Eventually the name was changed again to "Spice Girls" due to an American rapper using the name "Spice" at the time. On March 3, 1995, because of the group's frustration at their management's unwillingness to listen to their visions and ideas, they parted from Heart Management. The group stole the master recordings of their discography
from the management offices in order to ensure they kept full control of their own work.
the week after they left their former managers, but the meeting was arranged by the Herberts weeks before their departure. But without access to Herbert's address book, they knew nothing of Kennedy's whereabouts other than he lived in Sheffield
. Brown and Halliwell drove to Sheffield the day after the departure from Heart Management and looked for the first phone book they came across; Eliot was the third Kennedy that they called. That evening they went to his house and persuade him to work with them. The rest of the girls travelled to Sheffield the next day. Kennedy commented about the session: "None of them played instruments
, so I was left to do the music and get that vibe together. What I said to them was,' Look, I've got a chorus
- check this out' . Then they were throwing lines at us. Ten minutes later the song was written. Then you go through and refine it. Then later, as you were recording it you might change a few thing here and there. But pretty much it was a real quick process." Two tracks of the album were composed in that session: "Love Thing" and "Say You'll Be There
".
In the following months the group continued to meet with producers, wrote new songs, prepared demos and searched for a new manager. They met again with the writers Stannard and Rowe. They has previously worked with the girls in January 1995 before their departure from Heart Management; that was the group's first professional songwriting session, held at the Strongroom in Curtain Road, east London.
Having completed that one, the girls wanted to write something more uptempo, so they started to write the song that would be the lead of the album: "Wannabe
", which was recorded in under an hour - mainly because they had already written parts of the songs beforehand. The next song they recorded was a slow ballad
and the third track on and single from the album, "2 Become 1
". The song was inspired by the special relationship which had developed between Halliwell and Rowe during the session. In May 1995, the group was introduced to Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins, the songwriters and production duo known as Absolute
. Watkins commented about their first meeting, "They played us a few tracks
, which we didn't particularly like. So we thought, this is OK. We can work with this." A songwriting session was booked within the next few days, but the musical association between them didn't seem to go well at the beginning. Wilson remembered, "When they started to sing it was never quite right: from our point of view. It was very poptastic." Watkins recalled, "After two sessions we phoned our managers and said' This just ain't happening' ." It was at this point that Watkins and Wilson heard "Wannabe
" for the first time. When speaking about the song, Wilson said "We listened to it and we didn't get it at all. It was so different to what we were doing. We thought is this going to work?".
The next session was the definite one; either they would continue to work with the group or break up their relationship. Wilson recalled, "Every previous time we'd met up with the girls we had prepared a backing track. This time we had nothing." Watkins also said, "They said they wanted to do something up and a bit of fun
, so we just off the top of our heads started to come up with a full-on disco
backing track, which became 'Who Do You Think You Are
'." Wilson said of the song, "The thing is when they wrote it, they were also writing the dance routine
, constructing the video
, all at the same time as writing the song. And that's when the penny dropped." The girls went on to write "Something Kinda Funny", "Last Time Lover" and "Naked" with Watkins and Wilson, none of them singles
, but all of them tracks which lent a touch of classy R&B
feeling to the Spice album. Absolute also produced all of these songs as well as the two tracks penned with Eliot Kennedy: "Say You'll Be There" and "Love Thing" giving the duo a guiding hand in six of the ten tracks that eventually ended up on Spice. The tracks that Absolute produced were recorded for the most part at Olympic Studios
in Barnes. At this time, 1995, the Auto-Tune
facility had yet to come to the market and most of the vocals
were recorded with few adjustments made afterwards. Absolute told Simon Fuller
about the group they had worked with and asked whether he would consider managing them. Fuller received a demo of "Something Kinda Funny", one of the songs the group wrote with Absolute. He showed interest in the group, began a relationship and decided to sign them at 19 Management
in March 1995. In September 1995 the group signed a deal with Virgin Records
, and continued to write and record tracks for their debut album while touring the west coast of the United States, where they signed a publishing deal with Windswept Pacific in November.
The Spice Girls were fully involved in the writing of all the songs. Halliwell in particular was clearly a fund of ideas for songs, arriving at sessions with her book of jottings, notes and miscellaneous scribblings which often produced the starting point of a lyric
or a song title or just an agenda for the day's work.
Watkins commented: "Geri (Halliwell) would come up with the concept for a song. Typically, she'd sing one line and the girls would pick up on it or we'd pick up on it and construct around it and then Mel C (Chisholm) and Emma (Bunton) would be very active. They'd really like to sit and sing melodies and go off and come up with little sections."
They "conceptualised" and sang bits of melody and wrote the lyrics. But in musical terms it was not a partnership of equals. Rowe commented: "We had to kind of steer it. It was very different for different tracks really. Some of them were when we were all jamming
in the room. We'd just put up some drum
sounds and start making things up. On other tracks me and Richard (Stannard) would prepare something beforehand and play it to them. We'd have some lyrics and make them write the second verse."
The Spice Girls introduced two key innovations that have had a lasting impact on the way which modern pop
acts go about their creative business.
Firstly they introduced the idea of songwriting identity. This was a familiar concept in rock bands like Queen
or the Sex Pistols
, but not in the world of "manufactured pop", where the credits of songwriting would be divided out strictly in accordance with whoever had written the song. The Spice Girls recognised their solidarity as a group, which depended on maintaining parity in all departments, including the songwriting credits and the resulting royalties
. They share the songwriting royalties on all the songs irrespective of what any member of the group had or had not contributed to any particular song. The second thing the Spice Girls established from the outset was a straight 50 – 50 split between them and their various songwriting collaborators. Here they anticipated one of the key developments in the pop industry since the 1990s, namely the increasing importance of publishing royalties as opposed to royalties payments made for the performance of the song on the record.
", the most emblematic song of the Girl Power
philosophy, was chosen as the first track and lead single of the album. It highlights the slogan
s the group tend to cite like the union and solidarity between friends and the power exercised by women over men. Despite negative reviews from critics who found the track as "more a compendium of music styles than an actual song", and the group's image as a "pro-woman posing that project[s] lots of false confidence", it was commercially successful, topping the charts in 31 countries, and selling over six million copies worldwide.
The second single "Say You'll Be There
" described the things the group had been through together and how they had always been there for each other. It received mixed reviews; some critics praised it as a catchy song, others dubbed it as merely a bid for credibility, while others described the lyrics as "confusing". The single was successful, debuting at number-one in the United Kingdom, and peaking at number three in the United States. The third single "2 Become 1
" focused upon the bonding of lovers, and how the bond can become so strong that they practically become one entity, through the act of sex; in addition, the lyrics address the importance of contraception
. The single received mixed reviews from critics, however it became the third number-one from the album in the United Kingdom, and peaked at four in the United States.
"Love Thing" is the fourth track; it focuses on relationships and how after many disappointments the girls do not want to know anything about love. The song symbolizes the Girl Power philosophy by showing the support between each other and finding the strength to continue. The fifth track, "Last Time Lover", was originally called "First Time Lover" and was about the loss of virginity
, but was discarded and changed to a song full of provocations, where sex is the main issue.
The sixth track, "Mama
", was dedicated to the group's mothers, and deals with the difficulties in the relationships between mothers and teenagers that appear during adolescence
. Reviewers described the ballad
as "glossy" and "corny". The seventh track, "Who Do You Think You Are
" is about the presumptuous superstar
life and how someone can get trapped in the world of fame
. The inspiration for this song came from some of the people the group met in the music industry. It was well received by critics, who thought that the song was one of the group's "strongest and underrated songs" and that it (still) "feels relevant today". The two songs were released as a double A-side
single, the fourth and last one released from the album, becoming the fourth consecutive number-one of the group in the United Kingdom, and reaching the top ten across Continental Europe
. "Something Kinda Funny", the eighth track of the album, is about the "fun" the group experienced together, and how it was fate that they came to know each other. The ninth track, "Naked" deals with vulnerability
and the step from girls to women and how this process made the group stronger, something they were experiencing at that moment. It received mixed reviews from critics; some described it as "soulful and funky as anything by TLC
or Brand New Heavies
", while others considered the song as a "bit of a let down". The last track of the album, "If U Can't Dance", deals with preconceived ideas about people and how sometimes they are totally different from what they appear.
, R&B
, hip hop
, soul
, rap and funk
, which lead some reviewers to call it a pop collection. The lead single, "Wannabe
" is an uptempo pop song with elements of white hip–hop, rap and dance music. Two of the three ballad
s of the album, "2 Become 1
" and "Mama
", were co–written and produced by Stannard and Rowe, and both feature the use of keyboards
, guitar
s, string arrangements
and backing vocals
.
Production duo Absolute incorporated a mix of pop and R&B in "Say You'll Be There
", which includes an harmonica
solo, played by Judd Lander, who also played the harmonica on Culture Club
's "Karma Chameleon
". The other songs produced by Absolute feature different music genres: "Naked" and "Something Kinda Funny" include pop elements with influences of soul music and funk respectively. "Who Do You Think You Are
" is very influenced by early '90s europop
, and incorporates a disco
–style beat that resembles the music of the late '70s. "If U Can't Dance", another heavily dance–oriented song, features a rap section performed by Halliwell in Spanish and contains a sample of the Digital Underground
's song "The Humpty Dance
".
The main concept of the album centred around the idea of Girl Power
, embodying a feminist image, as both Madonna
and Bananarama
had employed before. Every track of the album deals with different aspects of this notion: The lead single "Wannabe" makes demands of sincerity and is a feminist message of choosing friends over relationships
; "Say You'll Be There" motivates girls to stand up for themselves as individuals, while the focus of "Love Thing" is the symbolic expression of unity as a group; "Something Kinda Funny" deals with the identification of goals in life and "Last Time Lover" encourages the use of sexual charm as a weapon to be deployed along with any other skills that would help to get a result.
called the album "immaculately crafted pop" that is "infectious" and "irresistible", adding that "Spice doesn't need to be original to be entertaining" and that "none of the girls have great voices, but they do exude personality and charisma
". Ken Tucker from Entertainment Weekly
called the album a "devilishly good pop collection", and said that the lead single "Wannabe" is "perky yet tough, catchy yet melodically surprising". Lois Alter Mark from the same magazine called the Spice Girls "Go-Gos with attitude" and described the content of the album as "PG-rated fantasies and come-ons", adding that "the girls may not be ideal role models". LAUNCHcast
's Dev Sherlock called the album "pure upbeat ear candy" and that it was "one of the most fun and exciting pop releases of the year", adding that their Girl Power philosophy is "a well-balanced manifesto for young women everywhere that is neither twee nor riot grrrl
-angry".
Christina Kelly from Rolling Stone
called the group "another bubblegum pop
group" that "offer a watered-down mix of hip-hop and cheesy pop balladry", adding that the Girl Power concept is just a "pro-woman posing", and that "the girls don't get bogged down by anything deeper than mugging for promo shots and giving out tips on getting boys in bed".
(it was dubbed "Spicemania") due to the sheer volume of interest in the group. In just seven weeks Spice had sold 1.8 million copies in Britain alone, making the Spice Girls the fastest selling British act since The Beatles. In total, the album sold 3 million copies in Britain and peaked at number 1 for 15 non-consecutive weeks. In Europe the album became the biggest-selling album of 1997 and was certified 8x Platinum by the IFPI for sales in excess of 15 million copies. In the United States Spice became the biggest-selling album of 1997, peaking at number 1 and being certified 7x Platinum (for sales of over 7 million) by the RIAA
. The album entered number one on the UK Top 75 with sales of 114,000.
Catalogue number
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
group Spice Girls
Spice Girls
The Spice Girls were a British pop girl group formed in 1994. The group consisted of Victoria Beckham , Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell. They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number-one in more than 30...
. Released on November 4, 1996 by Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
, the album was recorded at Olympic Studios
Olympic Studios
Olympic Studios was a renowned independent commercial recording studio located at 117 Church Road, Barnes, South West London, England. The studio is best known for the huge number of famous rock and pop recordings made there from the late 1960s onward....
in Barnes, London between 1995 and 1996, by producers Matt Rowe, Richard Stannard, Eliot Kennedy
Eliot Kennedy
Eliot Kennedy is an English songwriter and record producer based in Sheffield. He has worked with artists such as the Spice Girls, Bryan Adams, Lulu, S Club 7, Five, Delta Goodrem, and Lovers Electric.-History:...
and the production duo Absolute
Absolute (production team)
Absolute are a music production team responsible for a number of hits in the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century.-History:Absolute was formed in 1988, by Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins after they met at university and decided to pursue a career in music...
. Five singles were released from the album: "Wannabe
Wannabe (song)
"Wannabe" is the debut song by British pop group Spice Girls. Written by the group members with Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard during the group's first professional songwriting session, it was produced by Rowe and Stannard for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996...
", "Say You'll Be There
Say You'll Be There
"Say You'll Be There" is a song by British pop group Spice Girls. It was written by the Spice Girls and Eliot Kennedy, for their debut album Spice, released in November 1996. Production duo Absolute incorporated a mix of pop and R&B into the song, which includes an harmonica solo, played by Judd...
", "2 Become 1
2 Become 1
"2 Become 1" is a song by the British pop group Spice Girls. Written by the group members, Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard during the group's first professional songwriting session, it was produced by Rowe and Stannard for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996...
", "Who Do You Think You Are
Who Do You Think You Are
"Who Do You Think You Are" is a dance-pop song performed by British pop group Spice Girls. It was written by the group members with Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins,—also known as Absolute—for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996. The song is heavily influenced by early 1990s...
" and "Mama
Mama (Spice Girls song)
"Mama" is a song by British pop group Spice Girls. It was written by the Spice Girls, Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard, and produced by Rowe and Stannard for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996...
"; "Who Do You Think You Are" and "Mama" were released as a double A-side in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and other countries. The first single, "Wannabe", went to number one in 31 countries, and the next two singles, "Say You'll Be There" and "2 Become 1", reached number one in 53 countries. "Who Do You Think You Are" was released as the official Comic Relief
Comic Relief
Comic Relief is an operating British charity, founded in 1985 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Lenny Henry in response to famine in Ethiopia. The highlight of Comic Relief's appeal is Red Nose Day, a biennial telethon held in March, alternating with sister project Sport Relief...
single in the UK as a double A-side with "Mama" and both songs reached the top 20 in charts across Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In the band's native UK, all four singles went to number one on the UK singles chart and, in the United States, the album produced three top five singles.
Spice was a worldwide commercial success. The album was certified 10x Platinum in UK by the British Phonographic Industry
British Phonographic Industry
The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies...
and in Canada by the Canadian Recording Industry Association
Canadian Recording Industry Association
Music Canada is a Toronto-based, non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 to represent the interests of companies that record, artists, manufacture, production, promotion and distribution of music in Canada...
,
9x Platinum in Europe by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry in their 1997 European music awards and 8x Platinum in the US by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
. In total, the album sold 23 million copies worldwide, becoming the biggest-selling album in music history by a girl group and one of the most successful albums of all time.
Background
In February 1994, Chris and Bob Herbert together with financer Chic Murphy, traded under the business name of Heart Management, placed an advert in The StageThe Stage
The Stage is a weekly British newspaper founded in 1880, available nationally and published on Thursdays. Covering all areas of the entertainment industry but focused primarily on theatre, it contains news, reviews, opinion, features and other items of interest, mainly to those who work within the...
magazine, which asked the question: "Are you street smart, extrovert, ambitious, and able to sing and dance?". The management received hundreds of replies, but eventually reduced their search down to a final group of five girls: Victoria Adams
Victoria Beckham
Victoria Caroline Beckham is an English singer-songwriter, dancer, model, actress, fashion designer and businesswoman. In the late 1990s, Beckham rose to fame with the all-female pop group Spice Girls and was dubbed Posh Spice by the July 1996 issue of the British pop music magazine Top of the Pops...
, Melanie Brown
Melanie Brown
Melanie Janine "Scary Spice" Brown , often better known as Mel B, is an English pop singer-songwriter, actress, author and television presenter...
, Melanie Chisholm
Melanie Chisholm
Melanie Jayne Chisholm is an English singer-songwriter, actress and businesswoman professionally known simply as Melanie C . She is best known as one of the five members of the girl group Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed "Sporty Spice"...
, Geri Halliwell
Geri Halliwell
Geraldine Estelle "Geri" Halliwell is an English pop singer-songwriter, author and actress. After coming to international prominence in the late 1990s as Ginger Spice, a member of the girl group the Spice Girls, Halliwell launched her solo career in 1998 and released her album Schizophonic...
and Michelle Stephenson
Michelle Stephenson
Michelle Stephenson is a British singer and TV presenter. At the age of 17 she was briefly a member of the English vocal girl group that would go on to become the Spice Girls...
. The new band was originally called "Touch" and moved to a house in Maidenhead
Maidenhead
Maidenhead is a town and unparished area within the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, in Berkshire, England. It lies on the River Thames and is situated west of Charing Cross in London.-History:...
. Emma Bunton
Emma Bunton
Emma Lee Bunton is an English pop singer/songwriter and TV and radio presenter. She was a member of the 1990s girl group, the Spice Girls, in which she was known as Baby Spice as she was the youngest member. In 2010, she joined the judging panel on ITV's Dancing on Ice...
was the last to join after Stephenson dropped out when her mother became ill.
The group felt insecure about the lack of contract and were frustrated by the direction in which Heart Management was steering them. In October 1994, armed with a catalog of demos
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
and dance routines, the group began touring management agencies.
They started to meet with producers, musicians and other business executives, among them were composer Tim Hawes, and writers Richard Stannard and Matthew Rowe. Hawes worked with the group and watched the evolution in their singing and writing abilities. Together they composed a song called "Sugar and Spice", which served as the inspiration behind the change of the group's name to "Spice". Eventually the name was changed again to "Spice Girls" due to an American rapper using the name "Spice" at the time. On March 3, 1995, because of the group's frustration at their management's unwillingness to listen to their visions and ideas, they parted from Heart Management. The group stole the master recordings of their discography
Discography
Discography is the study and listing of the details concerning sound recordings, often by specified artists or within identified musical genres...
from the management offices in order to ensure they kept full control of their own work.
Recording and production
The group were supposed to meet with producer Eliot KennedyEliot Kennedy
Eliot Kennedy is an English songwriter and record producer based in Sheffield. He has worked with artists such as the Spice Girls, Bryan Adams, Lulu, S Club 7, Five, Delta Goodrem, and Lovers Electric.-History:...
the week after they left their former managers, but the meeting was arranged by the Herberts weeks before their departure. But without access to Herbert's address book, they knew nothing of Kennedy's whereabouts other than he lived in Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
. Brown and Halliwell drove to Sheffield the day after the departure from Heart Management and looked for the first phone book they came across; Eliot was the third Kennedy that they called. That evening they went to his house and persuade him to work with them. The rest of the girls travelled to Sheffield the next day. Kennedy commented about the session: "None of them played instruments
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
, so I was left to do the music and get that vibe together. What I said to them was,
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
- check this out
Say You'll Be There
"Say You'll Be There" is a song by British pop group Spice Girls. It was written by the Spice Girls and Eliot Kennedy, for their debut album Spice, released in November 1996. Production duo Absolute incorporated a mix of pop and R&B into the song, which includes an harmonica solo, played by Judd...
".
In the following months the group continued to meet with producers, wrote new songs, prepared demos and searched for a new manager. They met again with the writers Stannard and Rowe. They has previously worked with the girls in January 1995 before their departure from Heart Management; that was the group's first professional songwriting session, held at the Strongroom in Curtain Road, east London.
Having completed that one, the girls wanted to write something more uptempo, so they started to write the song that would be the lead of the album: "Wannabe
Wannabe (song)
"Wannabe" is the debut song by British pop group Spice Girls. Written by the group members with Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard during the group's first professional songwriting session, it was produced by Rowe and Stannard for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996...
", which was recorded in under an hour - mainly because they had already written parts of the songs beforehand. The next song they recorded was a slow ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
and the third track on and single from the album, "2 Become 1
2 Become 1
"2 Become 1" is a song by the British pop group Spice Girls. Written by the group members, Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard during the group's first professional songwriting session, it was produced by Rowe and Stannard for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996...
". The song was inspired by the special relationship which had developed between Halliwell and Rowe during the session. In May 1995, the group was introduced to Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins, the songwriters and production duo known as Absolute
Absolute (production team)
Absolute are a music production team responsible for a number of hits in the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century.-History:Absolute was formed in 1988, by Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins after they met at university and decided to pursue a career in music...
. Watkins commented about their first meeting, "They played us a few tracks
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
, which we didn't particularly like. So we thought, this is OK. We can work with this." A songwriting session was booked within the next few days, but the musical association between them didn't seem to go well at the beginning. Wilson remembered, "When they started to sing it was never quite right: from our point of view. It was very poptastic." Watkins recalled, "After two sessions we phoned our managers and said
Wannabe (song)
"Wannabe" is the debut song by British pop group Spice Girls. Written by the group members with Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard during the group's first professional songwriting session, it was produced by Rowe and Stannard for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996...
" for the first time. When speaking about the song, Wilson said "We listened to it and we didn't get it at all. It was so different to what we were doing. We thought is this going to work?".
The next session was the definite one; either they would continue to work with the group or break up their relationship. Wilson recalled, "Every previous time we'd met up with the girls we had prepared a backing track. This time we had nothing." Watkins also said, "They said they wanted to do something up and a bit of fun
Fun
Fun is the enjoyment of pleasure and, according to Johan Huizinga, "an absolutely primary category of life, familiar to everybody at a glance right down to the animal level." Fun may be encountered in many human activities during work, social functions, recreation and play, and even seemingly...
, so we just off the top of our heads started to come up with a full-on disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
backing track, which became 'Who Do You Think You Are
Who Do You Think You Are
"Who Do You Think You Are" is a dance-pop song performed by British pop group Spice Girls. It was written by the group members with Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins,—also known as Absolute—for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996. The song is heavily influenced by early 1990s...
'." Wilson said of the song, "The thing is when they wrote it, they were also writing the dance routine
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
, constructing the video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
, all at the same time as writing the song. And that's when the penny dropped." The girls went on to write "Something Kinda Funny", "Last Time Lover" and "Naked" with Watkins and Wilson, none of them singles
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
, but all of them tracks which lent a touch of classy R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
feeling to the Spice album. Absolute also produced all of these songs as well as the two tracks penned with Eliot Kennedy: "Say You'll Be There" and "Love Thing" giving the duo a guiding hand in six of the ten tracks that eventually ended up on Spice. The tracks that Absolute produced were recorded for the most part at Olympic Studios
Olympic Studios
Olympic Studios was a renowned independent commercial recording studio located at 117 Church Road, Barnes, South West London, England. The studio is best known for the huge number of famous rock and pop recordings made there from the late 1960s onward....
in Barnes. At this time, 1995, the Auto-Tune
Auto-Tune
Auto-Tune is a proprietary audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. It is used to disguise off-key inaccuracies and mistakes, and has allowed singers to perform apparently perfectly tuned vocal...
facility had yet to come to the market and most of the vocals
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
were recorded with few adjustments made afterwards. Absolute told Simon Fuller
Simon Fuller
Simon Fuller is a British artist manager, television producer and creator of the Idol franchise, first seen as Pop Idol in the UK. Fuller is also the co-creator and executive producer of the Fox TV reality show So You Think You Can Dance and other U.S...
about the group they had worked with and asked whether he would consider managing them. Fuller received a demo of "Something Kinda Funny", one of the songs the group wrote with Absolute. He showed interest in the group, began a relationship and decided to sign them at 19 Management
19 Entertainment
19 Entertainment, based in Los Angeles, United States, is a creator and producer of entertainment properties based around the areas of Music and Television / Film, including American Idol in the United States, Pop Idol in the United Kingdom as well as versions of the Idol series in more than...
in March 1995. In September 1995 the group signed a deal with Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
, and continued to write and record tracks for their debut album while touring the west coast of the United States, where they signed a publishing deal with Windswept Pacific in November.
The Spice Girls were fully involved in the writing of all the songs. Halliwell in particular was clearly a fund of ideas for songs, arriving at sessions with her book of jottings, notes and miscellaneous scribblings which often produced the starting point of a lyric
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
or a song title or just an agenda for the day's work.
Watkins commented: "Geri (Halliwell) would come up with the concept for a song. Typically, she'd sing one line and the girls would pick up on it or we'd pick up on it and construct around it and then Mel C (Chisholm) and Emma (Bunton) would be very active. They'd really like to sit and sing melodies and go off and come up with little sections."
They "conceptualised" and sang bits of melody and wrote the lyrics. But in musical terms it was not a partnership of equals. Rowe commented: "We had to kind of steer it. It was very different for different tracks really. Some of them were when we were all jamming
Jam session
Jam sessions are often used by musicians to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one...
in the room. We'd just put up some drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
sounds and start making things up. On other tracks me and Richard (Stannard) would prepare something beforehand and play it to them. We'd have some lyrics and make them write the second verse."
The Spice Girls introduced two key innovations that have had a lasting impact on the way which modern pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
acts go about their creative business.
Firstly they introduced the idea of songwriting identity. This was a familiar concept in rock bands like Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
or the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
, but not in the world of "manufactured pop", where the credits of songwriting would be divided out strictly in accordance with whoever had written the song. The Spice Girls recognised their solidarity as a group, which depended on maintaining parity in all departments, including the songwriting credits and the resulting royalties
Royalties
Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
. They share the songwriting royalties on all the songs irrespective of what any member of the group had or had not contributed to any particular song. The second thing the Spice Girls established from the outset was a straight 50 – 50 split between them and their various songwriting collaborators. Here they anticipated one of the key developments in the pop industry since the 1990s, namely the increasing importance of publishing royalties as opposed to royalties payments made for the performance of the song on the record.
Composition
"WannabeWannabe (song)
"Wannabe" is the debut song by British pop group Spice Girls. Written by the group members with Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard during the group's first professional songwriting session, it was produced by Rowe and Stannard for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996...
", the most emblematic song of the Girl Power
Girl Power
The phrase "girl power", as a term of empowerment, expressed a cultural phenomenon of the 1990s and early 2000s. It is also linked to third-wave feminism...
philosophy, was chosen as the first track and lead single of the album. It highlights the slogan
Slogan
A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm . Slogans vary from the written and the...
s the group tend to cite like the union and solidarity between friends and the power exercised by women over men. Despite negative reviews from critics who found the track as "more a compendium of music styles than an actual song", and the group's image as a "pro-woman posing that project[s] lots of false confidence", it was commercially successful, topping the charts in 31 countries, and selling over six million copies worldwide.
The second single "Say You'll Be There
Say You'll Be There
"Say You'll Be There" is a song by British pop group Spice Girls. It was written by the Spice Girls and Eliot Kennedy, for their debut album Spice, released in November 1996. Production duo Absolute incorporated a mix of pop and R&B into the song, which includes an harmonica solo, played by Judd...
" described the things the group had been through together and how they had always been there for each other. It received mixed reviews; some critics praised it as a catchy song, others dubbed it as merely a bid for credibility, while others described the lyrics as "confusing". The single was successful, debuting at number-one in the United Kingdom, and peaking at number three in the United States. The third single "2 Become 1
2 Become 1
"2 Become 1" is a song by the British pop group Spice Girls. Written by the group members, Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard during the group's first professional songwriting session, it was produced by Rowe and Stannard for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996...
" focused upon the bonding of lovers, and how the bond can become so strong that they practically become one entity, through the act of sex; in addition, the lyrics address the importance of contraception
Contraception
Contraception is the prevention of the fusion of gametes during or after sexual activity. The term contraception is a contraction of contra, which means against, and the word conception, meaning fertilization...
. The single received mixed reviews from critics, however it became the third number-one from the album in the United Kingdom, and peaked at four in the United States.
"Love Thing" is the fourth track; it focuses on relationships and how after many disappointments the girls do not want to know anything about love. The song symbolizes the Girl Power philosophy by showing the support between each other and finding the strength to continue. The fifth track, "Last Time Lover", was originally called "First Time Lover" and was about the loss of virginity
Virginity
Virginity refers to the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. There are cultural and religious traditions which place special value and significance on this state, especially in the case of unmarried females, associated with notions of personal purity, honor and worth...
, but was discarded and changed to a song full of provocations, where sex is the main issue.
The sixth track, "Mama
Mama (Spice Girls song)
"Mama" is a song by British pop group Spice Girls. It was written by the Spice Girls, Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard, and produced by Rowe and Stannard for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996...
", was dedicated to the group's mothers, and deals with the difficulties in the relationships between mothers and teenagers that appear during adolescence
Adolescence
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...
. Reviewers described the ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
as "glossy" and "corny". The seventh track, "Who Do You Think You Are
Who Do You Think You Are
"Who Do You Think You Are" is a dance-pop song performed by British pop group Spice Girls. It was written by the group members with Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins,—also known as Absolute—for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996. The song is heavily influenced by early 1990s...
" is about the presumptuous superstar
Superstar
A superstar is a widely acclaimed celebrity.Superstar or superstars may also refer to:-People:* Warhol Superstar, associates of Andy Warhol* WWE Superstar, the term used to refer to entertainers from the WWE...
life and how someone can get trapped in the world of fame
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
. The inspiration for this song came from some of the people the group met in the music industry. It was well received by critics, who thought that the song was one of the group's "strongest and underrated songs" and that it (still) "feels relevant today". The two songs were released as a double A-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
single, the fourth and last one released from the album, becoming the fourth consecutive number-one of the group in the United Kingdom, and reaching the top ten across Continental Europe
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....
. "Something Kinda Funny", the eighth track of the album, is about the "fun" the group experienced together, and how it was fate that they came to know each other. The ninth track, "Naked" deals with vulnerability
Vulnerability
Vulnerability refer to the susceptibility of a person, group, society, sex or system to physical or emotional injury or attack. The term can also refer to a person who lets their guard down, leaving themselves open to censure or criticism...
and the step from girls to women and how this process made the group stronger, something they were experiencing at that moment. It received mixed reviews from critics; some described it as "soulful and funky as anything by TLC
TLC (band)
TLC is an American musical trio whose repertoire spanned R&B, hip-hop, soul, funk, and new jack swing. Originally consisting of singer Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, rapper-singer Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes and singer Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas it found success in the 1990s while also enduring a series of spats...
or Brand New Heavies
Brand New Heavies
The Brand New Heavies are an acid jazz and funk group formed in 1985 in Ealing, a suburb of London, England.-Biography:The Brand New Heavies began in the 1980s as an instrumental acid jazz group called Brother International....
", while others considered the song as a "bit of a let down". The last track of the album, "If U Can't Dance", deals with preconceived ideas about people and how sometimes they are totally different from what they appear.
Style and themes
Spice is basically a pop album with a diverse inclusion of musical styles such as danceDance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
, R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
, hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
, rap and funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
, which lead some reviewers to call it a pop collection. The lead single, "Wannabe
Wannabe (song)
"Wannabe" is the debut song by British pop group Spice Girls. Written by the group members with Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard during the group's first professional songwriting session, it was produced by Rowe and Stannard for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996...
" is an uptempo pop song with elements of white hip–hop, rap and dance music. Two of the three ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
s of the album, "2 Become 1
2 Become 1
"2 Become 1" is a song by the British pop group Spice Girls. Written by the group members, Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard during the group's first professional songwriting session, it was produced by Rowe and Stannard for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996...
" and "Mama
Mama (Spice Girls song)
"Mama" is a song by British pop group Spice Girls. It was written by the Spice Girls, Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard, and produced by Rowe and Stannard for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996...
", were co–written and produced by Stannard and Rowe, and both feature the use of keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
s, string arrangements
String section
The string section is the largest body of the standard orchestra and consists of bowed string instruments of the violin family.It normally comprises five sections: the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos, and the double basses...
and backing vocals
Backing vocalist
A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
.
Production duo Absolute incorporated a mix of pop and R&B in "Say You'll Be There
Say You'll Be There
"Say You'll Be There" is a song by British pop group Spice Girls. It was written by the Spice Girls and Eliot Kennedy, for their debut album Spice, released in November 1996. Production duo Absolute incorporated a mix of pop and R&B into the song, which includes an harmonica solo, played by Judd...
", which includes an harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
solo, played by Judd Lander, who also played the harmonica on Culture Club
Culture Club
Culture Club are a British rock band who were part of the 1980s New Romantic movement. The original band consisted of Boy George , Mikey Craig , Roy Hay and Jon Moss...
's "Karma Chameleon
Karma Chameleon
"Karma Chameleon" is a song by British New Wave band Culture Club, featured on the group's 1983 album Colour by Numbers. The song spent three weeks at #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1984, becoming the group's biggest hit and only US #1 among their many top ten hits...
". The other songs produced by Absolute feature different music genres: "Naked" and "Something Kinda Funny" include pop elements with influences of soul music and funk respectively. "Who Do You Think You Are
Who Do You Think You Are
"Who Do You Think You Are" is a dance-pop song performed by British pop group Spice Girls. It was written by the group members with Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins,—also known as Absolute—for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996. The song is heavily influenced by early 1990s...
" is very influenced by early '90s europop
Europop
Europop refers to a style of pop music that first developed in today's form in Europe, throughout the late 1970s. Europop topped the charts throughout the 1980s and ’90s...
, and incorporates a disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
–style beat that resembles the music of the late '70s. "If U Can't Dance", another heavily dance–oriented song, features a rap section performed by Halliwell in Spanish and contains a sample of the Digital Underground
Digital Underground
Digital Underground was an alternative hip hop group from Oakland, California. It could have been considered a music "family" rather than a group, as its personnel changed and rotated with each album and tour....
's song "The Humpty Dance
The Humpty Dance
"The Humpty Dance" is a 1990 hip hop song by Digital Underground, which was featured on their debut album Sex Packets. The single climbed all the way to #11 on the pop charts, #7 on the R&B charts, and #1 on the Billboard Rap Singles chart...
".
The main concept of the album centred around the idea of Girl Power
Girl Power
The phrase "girl power", as a term of empowerment, expressed a cultural phenomenon of the 1990s and early 2000s. It is also linked to third-wave feminism...
, embodying a feminist image, as both Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
and Bananarama
Bananarama
Bananarama are an English female pop duo who have had success on the pop and dance charts since 1982. Rather than relying on a two part harmony, the duo generally sings in unison, as do their background vocalists. Although there have been line-up changes, the group enjoyed their most popular...
had employed before. Every track of the album deals with different aspects of this notion: The lead single "Wannabe" makes demands of sincerity and is a feminist message of choosing friends over relationships
Intimate relationship
An intimate relationship is a particularly close interpersonal relationship that involves physical or emotional intimacy. Physical intimacy is characterized by romantic or passionate love and attachment, or sexual activity. The term is also sometimes used euphemistically for a sexual...
; "Say You'll Be There" motivates girls to stand up for themselves as individuals, while the focus of "Love Thing" is the symbolic expression of unity as a group; "Something Kinda Funny" deals with the identification of goals in life and "Last Time Lover" encourages the use of sexual charm as a weapon to be deployed along with any other skills that would help to get a result.
Critical reception
The album received mixed reviews from pop music critics. Allmusic's reviewer Stephen Thomas ErlewineStephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine is a senior editor for Allmusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for Allmusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes. He is also frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band Who Dat?Erlewine is the nephew...
called the album "immaculately crafted pop" that is "infectious" and "irresistible", adding that "Spice doesn't need to be original to be entertaining" and that "none of the girls have great voices, but they do exude personality and charisma
Charisma
The term charisma has two senses: 1) compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others, 2) a divinely conferred power or talent. For some theological usages the term is rendered charism, with a meaning the same as sense 2...
". Ken Tucker from Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
called the album a "devilishly good pop collection", and said that the lead single "Wannabe" is "perky yet tough, catchy yet melodically surprising". Lois Alter Mark from the same magazine called the Spice Girls "Go-Gos with attitude" and described the content of the album as "PG-rated fantasies and come-ons", adding that "the girls may not be ideal role models". LAUNCHcast
LAUNCHcast
Yahoo! Music Radio is an Internet radio service offered by CBS Radio through Yahoo! Music. The service, formerly offered by LAUNCH Media, and originally developed by Todd Beaupré and Jeff Boulter, debuted on November 11, 1999, and was purchased by Yahoo! in October, 2001...
's Dev Sherlock called the album "pure upbeat ear candy" and that it was "one of the most fun and exciting pop releases of the year", adding that their Girl Power philosophy is "a well-balanced manifesto for young women everywhere that is neither twee nor riot grrrl
Riot grrrl
Riot grrrl was an underground feminist punk movement based in Washington, DC, Olympia, Washington, Portland, Oregon, and the greater Pacific Northwest which existed in the early to mid-1990s, and it is often associated with third-wave feminism...
-angry".
Christina Kelly from Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
called the group "another bubblegum pop
Bubblegum pop
Bubblegum pop is a genre of pop music with an upbeat sound contrived and marketed to appeal to pre-teens and teenagers, produced in an assembly-line process, driven by producers, often using unknown singers.Bubblegum's classic period ran from 1967 to 1972...
group" that "offer a watered-down mix of hip-hop and cheesy pop balladry", adding that the Girl Power concept is just a "pro-woman posing", and that "the girls don't get bogged down by anything deeper than mugging for promo shots and giving out tips on getting boys in bed".
Commercial performance
In November 1996 the Spice Girls released Spice in Europe. Despite negative reviews from others, it became an enormous success globally. The success was unprecedented and drew comparisons to BeatlemaniaBeatlemania
Beatlemania is a term that originated during the 1960s to describe the intense fan frenzy directed toward The Beatles during the early years of their success...
(it was dubbed "Spicemania") due to the sheer volume of interest in the group. In just seven weeks Spice had sold 1.8 million copies in Britain alone, making the Spice Girls the fastest selling British act since The Beatles. In total, the album sold 3 million copies in Britain and peaked at number 1 for 15 non-consecutive weeks. In Europe the album became the biggest-selling album of 1997 and was certified 8x Platinum by the IFPI for sales in excess of 15 million copies. In the United States Spice became the biggest-selling album of 1997, peaking at number 1 and being certified 7x Platinum (for sales of over 7 million) by the RIAA
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
. The album entered number one on the UK Top 75 with sales of 114,000.
Track listing
All songs were co-written by Spice Girls. Additional writers listed below.| # | Title | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Wannabe Wannabe (song) "Wannabe" is the debut song by British pop group Spice Girls. Written by the group members with Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard during the group's first professional songwriting session, it was produced by Rowe and Stannard for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996... " Additional writers: M. Rowe, R. Stannard Producers: Richard Stannard, Matt Rowe Lead vocals: Brown, Halliwell, Chisholm, Bunton |
2:53 |
| 2. | "Say You'll Be There Say You'll Be There "Say You'll Be There" is a song by British pop group Spice Girls. It was written by the Spice Girls and Eliot Kennedy, for their debut album Spice, released in November 1996. Production duo Absolute incorporated a mix of pop and R&B into the song, which includes an harmonica solo, played by Judd... " Additional writers: Elliott Kennedy Producers: Absolute Lead vocals: Bunton, Brown, Beckham, Halliwell, Chisholm |
3:56 |
| 3. | "2 Become 1 2 Become 1 "2 Become 1" is a song by the British pop group Spice Girls. Written by the group members, Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard during the group's first professional songwriting session, it was produced by Rowe and Stannard for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996... " Additional writers: Stannard/Rowe Producers: Stannard/Rowe Lead vocals: Chisholm, Brown, Bunton, Halliwell (album version), Beckham (single version) |
4:00 |
| 4. | "Love Thing" Additional writers: Kennedy Producers: Absolute Lead vocals: Bunton, Beckham, Brown, Halliwell, Chisholm |
3:37 |
| 5. | "Last Time Lover" Additional writers: Paul Wilson, Andy Watkins Producers: Absolute Lead vocals: Brown, Halliwell, Bunton (leads chorus) |
4:11 |
| 6. | "Mama Mama (Spice Girls song) "Mama" is a song by British pop group Spice Girls. It was written by the Spice Girls, Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard, and produced by Rowe and Stannard for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996... " Additional writers: Stannard/Rowe Producers: Stannard/Rowe Lead vocals: Bunton, Brown, Chisholm |
5:03 |
| 7. | "Who Do You Think You Are Who Do You Think You Are "Who Do You Think You Are" is a dance-pop song performed by British pop group Spice Girls. It was written by the group members with Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins,—also known as Absolute—for the group's debut album Spice, released in November 1996. The song is heavily influenced by early 1990s... " Additional writers: Watkins/Wilson Producers: Absolute Lead vocals: Halliwell, Bunton, Beckham, Brown, Chisholm |
3:59 |
| 8. | "Something Kinda Funny" Additional writers: Watkins/Wilson Producers: Absolute Lead vocals: Chisholm, Brown, Bunton |
4:02 |
| 9. | "Naked" Additional writers: Watkins/Wilson Producers: Absolute Lead vocals: Halliwell, Brown, Bunton, Chisholm, Beckham |
4:26 |
| 10. | "If U Can't Dance" Additional writers: Stannard/Rowe Producers: Stannard/Rowe Lead vocals: Halliwell, Brown, Bunton, Chisholm |
3:50 |
Catalogue number
- European CD CDV2812
- International Tape TCV2012
Personnel
- Victoria AdamsVictoria BeckhamVictoria Caroline Beckham is an English singer-songwriter, dancer, model, actress, fashion designer and businesswoman. In the late 1990s, Beckham rose to fame with the all-female pop group Spice Girls and was dubbed Posh Spice by the July 1996 issue of the British pop music magazine Top of the Pops...
– vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - Melanie BrownMelanie BrownMelanie Janine "Scary Spice" Brown , often better known as Mel B, is an English pop singer-songwriter, actress, author and television presenter...
– vocals - Emma BuntonEmma BuntonEmma Lee Bunton is an English pop singer/songwriter and TV and radio presenter. She was a member of the 1990s girl group, the Spice Girls, in which she was known as Baby Spice as she was the youngest member. In 2010, she joined the judging panel on ITV's Dancing on Ice...
– vocals - Melanie ChisholmMelanie ChisholmMelanie Jayne Chisholm is an English singer-songwriter, actress and businesswoman professionally known simply as Melanie C . She is best known as one of the five members of the girl group Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed "Sporty Spice"...
– vocals - Geri HalliwellGeri HalliwellGeraldine Estelle "Geri" Halliwell is an English pop singer-songwriter, author and actress. After coming to international prominence in the late 1990s as Ginger Spice, a member of the girl group the Spice Girls, Halliwell launched her solo career in 1998 and released her album Schizophonic...
– vocals - Absolute – multiple instruments
- Jackie Drew – violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
- Eric Gooden – background vocals
- Judd Lander – harmonicaHarmonicaThe harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
- Greg Lester – guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together... - Perry Montague-Mason – leader
- Mary Pearce – background vocals
- Matt Rowe – keyboardKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
- Richard Stannard – keyboard, background vocals
- Tony Ward – celloCelloThe cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
Production
- Producers – Absolute, Andy Bradfield, Matt Rowe, Richard Stannard
- Engineers – Adrian Bushby, Al Stone, Jeremy Wheatley
- Assistant engineers – Adam Brown, Patrick McGovern
- Mixing – Absolute, Andy Bradfield, Mark "Spike" Stent, Al Stone, Dave Way
- Programming – Pete Davis, Matt Rowe, Richard Stannard, Statik, Paul Waller, Dave Way
- Arrangers – Craig Armstrong, Mark Beswick
- Orchestra contractor – Isobel Griffiths
Charts and certifications
| Country | Chart peak | Certification | Sales/shipments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Argentina | 1 | Platinum | 60,000 |
| Australia ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
3 | 6× Platinum | 420,000 |
| Austria Austria Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the... |
1 | Platinum | 50,000 |
| Belgium Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... |
1 | 3× Platinum | 150,000 |
| Brazil | 1 | 2× Platinum | 500,000 |
| Canada Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS... |
1 | 10× Platinum (Diamond) | 1 million |
| Europe European Top 100 Albums The European Top 100 Albums chart is the European adaptation of the Billboard 200 albums chart. It was created in March 1984.The European Top 100 Albums, commonly referred to as Eurochart Top 100 Albums shows the sales of an act in 19 European countries based on IFPI data.The European Top 100... |
1 | 8× Platinum | 8 million |
| Finland Finland Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside... |
1 | Platinum | 76,372 |
| France France The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France... |
1 | Diamond | 1 million |
| Germany Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
6 | 3× Gold | 750,000 |
| Ireland International Recording Media Association The International Recording Media Association , previously known as the International Tape Association , is an international trade association dealing with every facet of recording, media and related industries... |
9× Platinum | 135,000+ | |
| Italy | 5× Platinum | 500,000 | |
| Japan Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc... |
1 | 4× Platinum | 1 million |
| Mexico Mexico The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of... |
1 | Gold | 100,000 |
| Netherlands MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
1 | 3× Platinum | 300,000 |
| New Zealand | 1 | 7× Platinum | 105,000 |
| Norway Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... |
1 | 2× Platinum | 100,000 |
| Spain Spain Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula... |
1 | 9× Platinum | 900,000 |
| Sweden Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... |
1 | 2× Platinum | 160,000 |
| Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition.... |
5 | 2× Platinum | 100,000 |
| United Kingdom UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
1 | 10× Platinum | 3 million |
| United States Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
1 | 7× Platinum | 7 million |
End of decade charts
| Chart (1990-1999) | Position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard 200 | 19 |
See also
- List of best-selling albums worldwide
- List of best-selling albums in the United Kingdom