Spice Girls: Encyclopedia II - Spice Girls - Spice World

Spice Girls - Spice World

In October 1997, "Spice Up Your Life" was released internationally as the first single from their forthcoming second album. Due to the lag between UK and US single releases, Americans did not understand why the music industry was touting the song as the group's "return" since it hit the airwaves while "2 Become 1" was still quite popular in the US. The original release date was put forward by a week to have a better chance of displacing Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997" from #1 and succeeded in doing so upon release.

"Spice Up Your Life" was an international hit, becoming yet another UK #1 for the group. However, it peaked quite quickly on the Billboard Hot 100 at number eighteen, and did not succeed in the United States on the level of their previous releases. Despite this, the song did show some evolution in the group's style, with a latin/samba feel unheard in any of their previous songs. [5]

The ballad "Too Much" became the girls' second Christmas #1 single in the UK. It peaked at number eight in the US and received an extensive amount of airplay, however as with its predecessor, it did not receive the massive airplay that Spice's singles had acquired. Unlike its four predecessors, "Too Much" was unable to reach number one in Canada, peaking at an unexpectedly low number nine, and halting the girls' consecutive number-ones run in the country. Despite this, they were the first international girl group to have their first four singles make number one in Canada. It also peaked at number seven in Australia. The song eventually became the 26th best-selling single of the 1990s decade. [6]

The Spice Girls' second album, Spiceworld, was released on November 4, 1997. Despite selling seven million copies in only two weeks (the highest ever for a second release in two weeks), it only reached number three on the Billboard 200 and was not as successful as Spice, topping the United Kingdom charts for only three weeks, when Spice had managed fifteen. Although they were still global superstars, Spiceworld was a less successful follow-up with diminished sales and chart positions. However, the album did produce one unexpected result: their very own movie, which was released in mid-January 1998. The film was in the same vein as some of The Beatles' films, a factor deliberately played on by director Bob Spiers (the director of The Goodies, Fawlty Towers, and Absolutely Fabulous among other notable British comedy successes) and was a commercial success. However, the critics didn't like the film, and this led to the girls winning a Golden Raspberry Award each for their efforts. They hold a world record documented in the Guinness Book of Records for receiving the most "Razzies" (five) at one time.

On November 7, 1997 they fired their manager Simon Fuller. Problems would soon arise out of this, because Simon was reportedly capable of 'directing' the group and containing arguments - in his absence no such controller existed and strife betwen the girls grew. In early 1998, "Stop", the third single taken from Spiceworld was released and was their least successful song in terms of chart performance. It peaked at number sixteen in the U.S. and quickly dropped out of the top forty of the airplay charts with very minimal radio airplay. It also became their first single to fail to top the U.K. charts, ending their run at six, despite being their only single that incorporated a dance routine. It entered the U.K. charts at number two, behind the million-selling single, "It's Like That" by Run DMC versus Jason Nevins, which was to spend six consecutive weeks at the top.

"Stop" was the second Spice Girls song not to reach number one in Canada, peaking six positions higher than "Too Much" at number three, and debuted and peaked at number five in Australia. It was also their first song that did not make it into the top one-hundred best-selling songs of the 1990s decade.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Spice World", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki