Ah, now this feels like a significant moment…
Wannabe, by The Spice Girls (their 1st of nine #1s)
7 weeks, from 21st July – 8th September 1996
And not just because it introduces us to a genuine musical phenomenon, who by certain metrics are the most successful chart act ever; but because the Spice Girls were my first modern pop obsession, the first act that I loved in real time.
Listening to ‘Wannabe’ now, I can confirm that I still know all the words, and that I can still picture the one-shot video frame by frame. I’m still pretty sure I know what zigazigah means… But can I now admit that this record isn’t… very… good?
Of course I can. Even aged eleven, I didn’t have that much time for ‘Wannabe’. Far greater pop songs were to be found on the Spice Girls’ debut album, including some of their upcoming #1s. The verses are slightly risqué nursery rhymes – If you want my future, Forget my past, If you wanna get with me, Better make it fast… – while the chorus is an aggressively nonsensical chant: I’ll tell what I want what I really, really want… So tell me what you want etc. etc. etc. It’s breakneck, the sudden changes in direction are dizzying, and it leaves you with a bit of a headache.
One thing remains iconic: the ‘rap’, in which all the Spices are introduced to us. Like the chorus it makes little to no sense, but it does include an all-time classic line: Easy V doesn’t come for free, She’s a real laydee… (at which point in the video, the soon to be Mrs Beckham is grinding on a priest’s lap). Otherwise, this song is best viewed as a statement of intent, a big slap around the face with a leopard-print handbag. Or perhaps it’s actually the Spice Girls’ manifesto, with all those lines about putting friendship first, and everything being on a girl’s terms. (This is before they were lumped with the slogan ‘Girl Power’.)
The Spice Girls probably wouldn’t have been as huge if they hadn’t released ‘Wannabe’ as their debut single (and it surely had to be released first, or not at all). It’s a marmite track, something the girls and their management acknowledged at the time, but they went with it and were rewarded for their decision, and then some. Number one in thirty-seven countries, and voted as the most recognisable pop song of the past sixty years…
‘Wannabe’ itself probably wouldn’t have been as big as it was without the chaotic video, in which the girls rampage through a posh soiree at the St. Pancras Hotel in London. Again, it’s the perfect introduction to the group, their friendship, their vibe. And it’s interesting how young the target audience clearly is: you have five youthful, attractive females, and yet there’s nothing very sexual going on, aside from a bit of zigazigah-ing. It feels more like a madcap kids’ TV show.
In fact, the helter-skelter, cut and paste feel of the song, and the zany anarchy of the video, is pushing me to call this… not ‘pop punk’, as that’s already taken… maybe ‘punk pop’? Cheap, cheerful, and far more to do with attitude than any sort of musical quality. It works for now, anyway. We’ll have plenty of time to further assess the Spice Girls over the coming months. I might even bring up my homemade Baby Spice badge, and the saucy graffiti I drew all over the CD sleeve of their album, at some point too…
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Well I was 38 and I bought it too 🙂 Why? pre-teen and teen-appealing pop with attitude. It was all about gals together, a sort of 90’s female Young Ones TV show in music without the cartoon violence and naughty words, but with added fashion sense. Girls weren’t there for the men, they were there for the girls, and this was as catchy as it gets. Zigazig ah indeed. I also bought the album, which was pop perfection, on holiday in Florida where prices were cheaper (that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!). But yeah, there were way better singles to come which do bear repeated listening more than Wannabe does – cos it does annoy a bit after a lot of plays in short space of time.
It’s not the perfect song by a long shot, but it was the perfect debut single for them. It’s interesting how innocent and childish the music video is, in a way, considering that it’s five attractive women… The equivalent girl group debut nowadays (not that there are any girl groups nowadays ☹ ) would be much more sexualised
K-pop seems to be keeping the Girl Group thing going, but I haven’t been fussed by any since Girls Aloud split up TBH. Granted not the target audience but if you have a great producer/writer arrangement (plus the odd guest writer gifts, say Pet Shop Boys) no reason a consistently good career can’t be had…
I was 30 when this came out. Yes it’s cheesy pop but, and I can’t tell you why even now, to me the Spice Girls and Take That had something that all their copycats like B*Witched, All Saints, Boyzone etc could never achieve.
Agree with you largely on B*Witched, and wholeheartedly on Boyzone, but All Saints were several divisions above both of them, and above the Spice Girls, at times. ‘Never Ever’ is a classic!
I forgot about that one, yes it was okay, it was the way they murdered Under the Bridge that sticks in my mind
That was definitely their lowest moment…
I didn’t hear them much over here…maybe that was on purpose I don’t know. Whenever I did see them I would zero in on the blonde lol. It’s manufactured pop but fun all the same. I like this better than the electronic beat stuff in your face.
I think this one is the one I heard the most.
Yeah this was by far their biggest hit in the US. Not sure if they had many others… And yes the blonde (Baby Spice) was my favourite too, at least when I was 10…
She still is mine lol. I felt like I was in my 20s again…
Love this song. It’s easy to hate this song, but it’s such an earworm. I like some of their other hits better, but this is a straight up banger.
This song – and album – legitimately changed music. For the better or for the worse, you decide. It ushered in the age of teen pop – you don’t get the Backstreet Boys, N’Synch, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, etc without the success of this song and the Spice album proving to record labels that there was an extremely lucrative market for pop music focused entirely on pre-teens/teens. It forced rock and even hip hop to change in order to serve as an alternative to this type of music for disenfranchised youths.