The Spice Girls formed in 1994 after auditions held by managers Bob and Chris Herbert, who wanted to create a girl group to compete with the British boy bands popular at the time. The first audition ended up with 600 applicants, who were whittled down to a final 12, consisting of Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Melanie Laccohee, Lianne Morgan, Suzanne Tinker, Michelle Stephenson, Justine Berry, Geri Halliwell, Victoria Unthank and several others. After singing solo and dancing in groups of four, Victoria, Melanie B, Michelle, Lianne and Geri were told that they were chosen as being part of the band. A week after
finishing the second auditions, the girls were told to come in for a recall, and it was announced that Lianne Morgan was being dropped as she looked older than the rest, and she was replaced with Melanie Chisholm. They spent spring and summer rehearsing, and under the name of Touch they recorded demos of three songs: 'We're Gonna Make It Happen', 'Take Me Away' and 'I Want You, I Need You', some of which can still be seen on Youtube. During a two-week summer break, Michelle left due to personal commitments, so a replacement needed to be found, and Touch's vocal coach Pepi Lemer remembered two girls that he'd trained in the auditions. Abigail Kis was called in first and sang a soul song to the management, which ended in her being selected two days later, but in the end she had to turn down the offer due to personal commitments, as well as being considered too young. In July they called in Emma Bunton for a week's trial, and she bonded straight away with the other girls, so the Spice Girls were complete. Following their name change they were given their nicknames - Melanie Brown (Mel B, to differentiate her from the other Melanie in the group) was Scary Spice, Melanie Chisholm (Mel C), was Sporty Spice, Emma Bunton was Baby Spice, Geri Halliwell was Ginger Spice, and Victoria Beckham was Posh Spice.
The girls were signed to Virgin Records, releasing their debut single 'Wannabe' in 1996, which reached number one in the charts in 37 countries, while their debut album 'Spice' was released the same year and sold more than 23 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album by a female group in history. Over the next four years they released a string of hit singles, and two more albums, 'Spiceworld' in 1997 and 'Forever' in 2000, following Halliwell's departure in 1998 due to exhaustion and creative differences. Their first few singles included songs on the flips which were not taken from their album, which was quite unusual at the time for a pop group, and the girls also recorded a number of songs for their 'Forever' album which were left off the record. If you take those rare b-sides and out-takes, and add the song they recorded for a Pepsi single, their contribution to Elton John and Tim Rice's stageshow 'Aida', and Mel C's demo for a possible addition to the third album, then you have enough music for a great stand-alone album. One final highlight is the track 'W.O.M.A.N.', which was recorded for the 'Forever' album, but was cut because it didn't fit with the new R&B feel of the rest of the songs. The studio take has never surfaced, but it was performed live during the Christmas In Spiceworld Tour in December 1999, and an enterprising fan has taken a live recording of it, cleaned it up and added overdubs, and has made it sound just like the missing studio recording. I can't say I'm the biggest Spice Girls fan, but I appreciate the hard work that they put into their music, and some of these early songs are just as good as their singles, so overall I'm pleasantly surprised at just how good this sounds.
Track listing
01 Bumper To Bumper (b-side of 'Wannabe' 1996)
02 One Of These Girls (b-side of '2 Become 1' 1996)
03 Take Me Home (b-side of 'Say You'll Be There 1996)
04 Outer Space Girls (b-side of 'Too Much' 1997)
05 Walk of Life (b-side of 'Too Much' 1997)
06 Baby Come Round (b-side of 'Mama' 1997)
07 Give You Want You Want (If Lovin' Is On Your Mind) (out-take 1999)
08 Step To Me (Pepsi advert 1997)
09 Can't Stay Tonight (demo 1999)
10 W.O.M.A.N. (out-take 1999)
11 My Strongest Suit (from the soundtrack to the stage show 'Aida' 1999)
12 A Day In Your Life (out-take 1999)
13 Pain Proof (out-take 1999)
