The Spice Girls: Search and Destroy

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Only because I didn't have the heart to ask about Marc Anthony.

― Nicole, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ah, c'mon Nicole, where's the fun? Separate thread! :-)

As for them Spice Girls -- search: the string arrangement on "Two Becomes One," which I have some bizarre soft spot for.

Destroy: those *godawful* nicknames. I appreciate them on a metapop level, perhaps, but not in regular practice.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Search: Who Do You Think You Are (Morales Extended Mix or whatever you call it) Destroy: Their solo "careers"

― Ally, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Search: Stop, and probably all of the singles off of Spice

Destroy: The last album (can't even remember the name now), & Ronald Traino.

― Nicole, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The restoration of the Usenet archive on Google made this question inevitable. :)

Search: Um, this is hard. It would definitely be off of their first album. Okay, I can't think of any song of theirs that doesn't have at least one fatal flaw, so I'll just say "Say You'll Be There" and be done with it.

Destroy: Where to begin? How about "Wannabe" with the incredibly inane lyrics, suspect melody, and far too much zigazig-AH? Or the incredibly charming "Spice Up Your Life" with its lovely references to the yellow men in Timbuktu?

― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm convinced that Peter Pan guy on pixyland.org is Ron, Nicole. It'd only make sense. It's the ONLY thing that would make sense. Please, god, let it be Ron, and there aren't two of them.

I want to revise my destroy.

Destroy: The fucked up email Ron Traino sent me detailing A) his death fantasy about the Spice Girls (in which he condemned them to hell as well) B) what he thinks about when he masturbates. Good god, I was only 17! I didn't need that in my life!

― Ally, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Search: their impact on pop, on the charts, on the way people think about pop, on me, on the late 90s, and the way you felt listening to their first singles when all around was the post-Britpop miasma. Actual records - most of the uptempo singles are solid 7 or 8 out of 10s, better than Steps, not as good as Britney or DC. The best are "Say You'll Be There" and "Stop!" - "Wannabe" is better than Dan says but people overrated it, not least me.

Destroy: "Holler", "Mama", that AWFUL big band one.

― Tom, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

search: "say you'll be there," "2 becomes 1," "stop!" "too much," and "spice up your life" -- yes, despite the lyrics. more life in that one than the whole of their most recent album which even they have seemed to give up on. did they release a second single from it?

is there even a need for destroy in this case?

― fred solinger, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Wannabe" Search & Destroy

Search : the piano + "I want HUH I want HUH I want HUH"

Destroy : promising to tell me what they want what they really really want and then coming up with "I really really want to ziga-zig-huh".

― Patrick, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Search: I think I agree with Ned R on 'Two Become One'. I quite liked the video too, with the gals up on girders.

Once upon a time I think I thought I quite liked 'Say You'll Be There'. But I don't think I'd like it now.

Destroy everything else.

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Spice up your life" is marvellous; the song St Etienne should have written but didn't.

'Spice Girl's Karaoke' by Peppercorns is probably the other essential.

― Guy, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Search: 'Who Do You Think You Are': many a silly afternoon spent at one CR(who is currently being encouraged to post on ILM)'s house watching MTV and getting very excited when this came on and having a sing-a-long, CR being very good at the Mel C bit at the end.

Destroy: Anything without Geri, as I can't remember how any of their post-geri songs go, so that must mean they're rubbish (everything else is burnt into my brain 4EVA! Ahem.)

― DG, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Destroy! Exterminate! Exterminate! Search: the fact that they got so many cool stars into their, uh, movie.

― Sean Carruthers, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Err, what cool stars? Alan Cummings does crap all the time. Richard E. Grant stopped being cool ages ago. I hope you didn't mean Elton John ;)

I just had a bit of a comment here: 99% of St. Etienne's musical output, including crap stuff, beats the pants off of Spice Up Your Life, which sounds bored and is dodgy lyrically.

― Ally, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Search: the early singles, also "Naked" and "Denying" which I have a soft spot for, and "Outer Space Girls" off the Too Much single which is a dead rip off of a Backstreet Boys song but much much better.

Destroy: Anything released after Viva Forever, the sexually ambiguous geeky kid from the VF video, Melanie C's voice.

― EdwardO, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

*gulp* OK, here goes. I confess that despite my ridiculous snobbery and hatred of 90s pop, I enjoyed three things in the Spice Girls' canon.

1) The chord changes in "2 Much", which are cool. It's great pop song writing, and I wish Elvis Costello would steal the progression and write something over it about sexual frustration.

2) The backing track for "Spice Up Your Life". The lyrics *are* dodgy, but the mix of the beats and the montuno in the piano part is bitchin'.

3) The story that during the Wannabe video shoot, they deliberately didn't heat the building where it was set so their nipples would stick out. And they did. And I enjoyed it. Too much.

Oh lord, I confessed my crimes, and even agreed with Ally about something. But don't get your hopes up yet that I may transcend snobbery - I'm currently listening to "Clicks and Cuts 2". Fuck the majors...

― Dave M., Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Search: "Say You'll Be There", "2 Become 1", "Stop", "Too Much", "Goodbye".

Destroy: there were weak tracks ahoy on both the proper albums, and I don't really admit to the existence of _Forever_

― Tim, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Search: "Wannabe," "Say You'll Be There," "Who Do You Think You Are" singles and videos. All pre-success interviews when they were filthy- mouthed, topless in hotel pools, streaking in the corridors, peeing in potplants - hammer of the Gods stuff.

Destroy: All post-success interviews; they had the fun 100% PRed out of them to crack America. All ballads (obviously?). And whoever decided to pitch for "sophisticated" instead of "cartoon" image/music on career-blunting 3rd album.

― AP, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Also also everyone must search for that B-Side where Geri's speak- singing sounds like Tricky. It's really good. Dammit, Ally! What's it called? You put it on a tape for me once....

― Tom, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

tim, once again, we match! i'm willing to put the avalanches thing behind us if you are and live once again in blissful synchronicity.

― fred solinger, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh christ, Tom, I forgot about that song. It's called Take Me Home and it's the b-side to Wannabe and it's fantastic because it's just really weird, Geri DOES sound like Tricky on it and has this long extended speaking part. EVERYONE GO FIND IT NOW. It's really, really ace and I don't use the words "really, really ace" to discuss the Spice Girls very often. Ask Nicole. Or Tom.

I think I put that on the tape with Set The Controls for the Heart of the Pelvis AND Bad Girl. That was the most bitchin' tape I ever did make.

― Ally, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Isn't Take Me Home off "Say You'll Be There"? The B-side on my copy of Wannabe is a terrible piece of crud called "Bumpa 2 Bumpa".

― EdwardO, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I never bought the single to Say You'll Be There, because I hated Say You'll Be There. Hmmm. Could there be some sort of country difference? I don't know if I bought the US vers of Wannabe, the UK one, or some other one, because I don't have it anymore.

― Ally, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Anyone interested in downloading this song should look here. Ally and Tom are right; it's shit-hot. They should have gone back to whomever produced this rather than Rodney Fucking Jerkins.

― Dan Perry, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

seven years pass...

Destroy:

― ilxor, Thursday, 5 February 2009 04:44 (sixteen years ago)

one year passes...

Just saw the video for 2 Become 1 on a music channel and forgot how weirdly incongruous Baby Spice's safe sex message is in it

― get the fuck out of my mouth (boxedjoy), Tuesday, 31 August 2010 13:20 (fourteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgFee48y1HU

this song is still great

― Squirrel! (HI DERE), Tuesday, 31 August 2010 13:47 (fourteen years ago)

three years pass...

http://pitchfork.com/news/53956-listen-m-covers-spice-girls-say-youll-be-there/

― Ian from Etobicoke (Phil D.), Thursday, 13 February 2014 16:42 (eleven years ago)

As for them Spice Girls -- search: the string arrangement on "Two Becomes One," which I have some bizarre soft spot for.

great minds etc

― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 13 February 2014 17:06 (eleven years ago)

S: Say You'll Be There, 2 Become 1, Spice Up Your Life, Too Much, Viva Forever, Goodbye

Don't particularly like it, but does the job: Wannabe

Meh: Who Do You Think You Are

D: Mama, Stop, Holler

Can't remember how it goes, so probably D: Headlines

They didn't really have that many singles did they?

― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Thursday, 13 February 2014 17:58 (eleven years ago)

search: the string arrangement on "Two Becomes One,

Written by Craig Armstrong, as I discovered the other day on Freakytrigger.

― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Thursday, 13 February 2014 17:58 (eleven years ago)

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