Spice Girls crash-landed onto the music industry when they released their now iconic debut single ‘Wannabe’ on 8th July 1996.
The fivesome – Melanie C, Melanie B, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton and Victoria Beckham (or Adams as she was at the time) – captivated a generation of pop music lovers across the world as they dominated the charts with hit after hit. ‘Wannabe’ was the first song the band released and it spent a whopping 7-weeks at number one in the UK.
This Friday, Spice Girls are releasing a 25th anniversary edition of ‘Wannabe’, which will be available digitally, and it features unreleased track ‘Feed Your Love’, the demo of ‘Wannabe’ and a dance remix.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the song, we’ve rounded up 10 facts about the song for you…
1. The song was written in about thirty minutes by the girls (minus Victoria who missed the writing session) and Richard Stannard and Matt Rowe. It only took them an hour to record it too!
2. It’s often believed that Victoria’s vocals aren’t on the track at all because she doesn’t sing any of the leads but her voice does feature on backing vocals and in the chorus.
3. ‘Wannabe’ wasn’t originally going to be the group’s debut single. Their label Virgin Records pushed for ‘Love Thing’ instead but the girls stood their ground and they got their way.
4. ‘Wannabe’ went to number one in 37 countries. In the UK it debuted at number 3 but climbed to the top spot in its second week.
5. The iconic music video wasn’t meant to be filmed at the Midland Grand Hotel in St Pancras, London. It was originally going to be shot on location in Barcelona but the director, Johan Camitz, wasn’t able to get permission to film there.
6. The video was supposed to be one-shot but the final version actually features two shots edited together.
7. ‘Wannabe’ was added to music channel The Box and within two hours it was number one. It stayed there for 13 weeks until Spice Girls released their follow-up ‘Say You’ll Be There’.
8. The song was performed live for the first time on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in America on 12th April 1997. Prior to that, all of the performances were mimed along to a backing track.
9. The original B-side to ‘Wannabe’ was mid-tempo R&B track ‘Bumper to Bumper’, which didn’t appear on the group’s debut album ‘Spice’.
10. Victoria did eventually get to sing lead vocals on the track when she picked up Geri’s parts of the verses following Ginger Spice’s exit from the band in 1998.
