Forget ‘Wannabe’, and all its gimmicky, chanting, in your face-ness… This is the moment that the Spice Girls announced themselves as a genuine phenomenon.
Say You’ll Be There, by The Spice Girls (their 2nd of nine #1s)
2 weeks, from 20th October – 3rd November 1996
To me anyway, as this was the song that caught my ears and made me a fan at the time; its charms less obvious but running much deeper than its shouty predecessor. Should I go as far as to claim, less than four sentences into this post, that it is the Girls’ one true classic record?
It’s a pop song. Pure pop. Peak-nineties, sugar-filled, bubble-gum. The production dates it almost to the month, with the squelchy synths and the scratchy cuts. But it’s just hook, after hook, after hook. Within the first minute we’ve already gone through three levels of catchiness: Emma Bunton’s verse, Mel B’s pre-bridge, and Victoria on the bridge proper. And then there’s a timeless chorus.
But it doesn’t stop there – any downtime, any moment that could have been dead air is crammed with something ear-catching. Mel B’s little rap, the Yeahhh I want you, the Stevie Wonder harmonica solo… (Not actually by Stevie Wonder, but by Judd Lander, who also contributed the iconic intro on ‘Karma Chameleon’.) The best bit, though, is Mel C’s harmonies on the final chorus, in which she announces herself as The Spice Girl who could genuinely sing…
The lyrics are more female empowerment, with the girls this time setting the rules for a relationship: This time, You gotta take it easy, Throwin’ far too much emotion at me… I’m not sure if they’re making the imagined man swear his undying faithfulness, or just roping him in for a one-night stand, but it’s clear that they’re the bosses. Girl-power, indeed…
I’ve come out with some grand statements already, so here’s another for good measure: ‘Say You’ll Be There’, not ‘Wannabe’, set a pop-song template that will be followed for the next decade, or more. Listen to All Saints, S Club 7, Five, or Atomic Kitten when they come along, and you will hear elements of ‘Say You’ll Be There’s lightly-funky, mildly-soulful, gold-standard pop. Max Martin must have been taking notes too, as US pop sensations like Britney Spears and NSync will also borrow from the Spice’s sound.
I know that I’m prone to over-nostalgia when it comes to the Spice Girls, so I will assure readers that I won’t be so gushing over any of their remaining seven #1s. ‘Say You’ll Be There’ is not their only great record, but it is their best. One more thing to say before I finish – and this really puts me into ‘back in my day’ territory – but the campy, ninja-inspired video, in which the Girls are dressed very sexily (but not all that sluttily), feels a world away from modern pop videos. I won’t wade into whether or not this is a good thing – I’m not sure where I stand, to be honest, and I enjoy many current female stars who writhe around in next to nothing. I just thought it was worth noting…
The UK Number Ones Blog 
I really enjoy “Wannabe”, but I like this song more. It’s not as obnoxious as “Wannabe” can get sometimes. I like the more the overt G-Funk/R&B/hip hop influence on this one with the synth sounds and overall production. Though I will say, though I adore Stevie Wonder, I don’t like whenever he busts out the harmonica, and I don’t like it here either, though it’s not distractingly bad or anything. A really good mid-tempo dance-pop song. I think “2 Become 1” is their next No. 1, and that’s really the last Spice Girls song I know so it’ll be interesting seeing their other six chart-toppers.
‘2 Become 1’ is next, and there’s a few good ones to come after that. None, I will say, that are as good as this.
I agree, prob my fave Spice Girls track, loved the video too – after the novelty of Wannabe this made it clear they were musically serious and Mel C had a great voice, hers could grab you emotionally. Slick and fab, it didn’t quite top my charts of the time, but 2 later ones did – and in retrospect this is the best one. Too right about dressing up too, I’d say they were opting for distinction around personality as opposed to modern personality-free Barbie doll identikit plastered-on-make-up virtual sex toys with pouting needle-created fulsome lips and cheeks. That’s not girl power, that’s becoming a cliche with all the attendant unrealistic expectations that go with it. The Spice message was have fun, do what you want, stay in control and don’t cater to men’s expectations. So more than just pop music then… 🙂
It feels as if these days, you can either chose to completely forego being ‘sexy’, and just go for utter normality – Ed Sheeran, Billie Eilish spring to mind – and I don’t mean that as an insult, it’s a good thing. But if you do go for ‘sexy’ then you have to be… Barbie-doll-identikit… what you said. A Kardashian, basically. There’s no middle ground. In 1996, Peter Andre stands out with his fairly aversage sixpack… I doubt Boyzone had one between them, and the Spice Girls were no size zeros… In fact, compare Posh Spice then to now, and you see how standards have changed, and not for the better. Anyway, that got very off-topic, but it is noticeable how PG pop was even in the mid-late nineties.
Yes it’s very sad, it’s worst of all when some young girl/woman is killed and they only have photos of pouting personality-free identikit to show – the loss of a human being is reduced by the obsession to look like a cliched glamour shoot. I respect people who don’t care what they look like more, or at least don’t worry about looking like everyone else does. I try to tell young people with image issues – you are fine as you are, dont worry about it, and you certainly look way better than you will in 30 or 40 years: we all age, and those that try to get face-lifts to try and fight the inevitable usually just end up looking like a terrible nightmare Barbie distortion of the person they once were. Such a shame! I speak as someone who had issues when I was young and wouldnt have believed it if anyone said I looked fine (nobody ever did) but I look back at photos and I looked perfectly fine and cute as I was. Older folk do that….
I think the only one I really know was the first one…they were not played over here as much or I didn’t pay as much attention… you know who I like! I just looked her up now….she has aged really well.
Haha! I think they’ve all aged quite well, to be honest. And they’re all still pretty famous, in the UK at least. Not so much for their music, but for their TV work (or their famous husbands…)
Yes they have…I just looked them up…I didn’t know they reunited a few times…that is cool. They are fun…see…I’m not a total killjoy….they were meant to be fun…
Yes, they still tour every now and then. Just the hits, they haven’t recorded anything new for decades (which is probably a good decision…!)
Yes that is probably a good thing. People I would think would want to hear their hits period.