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Posted by: Jay* 12th June 2020, 03:27 PM

'Scream If You Wanna Go Faster'
14th May 2001

1. Scream If You Wanna Go Faster
2. Shake Your Bootie Cutie
3. Calling
4. Feels Like Sex
5. Circles Round the Moon
6. Love Is the Only Light
7. Strength of a Woman
8. Don't Call Me Baby
9. Lovey Dovey Stuff
10. It's Raining Men
11. Heaven and Hell (Being Geri Halliwell)
12. I Was Made That Way
+ Brave New World [Japanese Bonus Track]

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A thread dedicated to discussion about Geri Halliwell's second solo album 'Scream If You Wanna Go Faster'!

This sophomore release followed the smash hit #1 single 'It's Raining Men', a cover of The Weather Girls' 80s hit. Geri's version was a huge hit in many countries and is arguably her most well known single. Two more singles followed, both original songs - the title track, and Calling. UK sales exceeded 140,000, and it's certified Gold.

What are your thoughts and opinions on this album? Which tracks do you like, love, hate? What's your favourite? Were the singles the correct choices? Rate the tracks in order of favourite to least favourite.

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https://steveyb.co.uk/wp-content/gallery/Geri-Halliwell/GeriHalliwell-Sing05ItsRainingMen.jpghttps://steveyb.co.uk/wp-content/gallery/Geri-Halliwell/GeriHalliwell-Sing06ScreamIfYouWannaGoFaster.jpghttps://steveyb.co.uk/wp-content/gallery/Geri-Halliwell/GeriHalliwell-Sing07Calling.jpg

Posted by: JosephStyles 12th June 2020, 04:00 PM

The album cover is... something x

I listened to this last night! It was better than I expected - not as good as Schizophonic, and the run of singles isn't the strongest, but there was plenty to enjoy! Heaven and Hell was a ride x

Posted by: schizo_spice 12th June 2020, 04:42 PM

I remember waiting so bad for this album and the excitement of seeing it on the shop shelf.

Vocally you can tell she really put a lot more work in on this album than Schizophonic though it's no where near as good an album unfortunately.

I think the three singles were all fantastic choices with Circles Round the Moon as the 4th that never happened. I'm glad Feels Like Sex wasn't the original single as planned as I dont think that would have worked at all.

I think the ballads on this album are actually its strength (Calling, Love is the Only Light and I Was Made That Way) all three are stellar moments.

Not so keen on Shake Your Bootie Cutie, Feels Like Sex and Lovey Dovey Stuff at all.

The B sides should've replaced those tracks imo

Posted by: Spiceboy 12th June 2020, 04:49 PM

Been forgetting to post these what with everything going on

I pretty much agree with every word Schizo said. The ballads are all stunning, Calling is a low key stan song for me, it was my favourite Geri track for a long time. I think Scream as a single was a mis-step though, it's catchy as an album opener but I never felt it worked much as a single, strength of a woman would have made a good second single in my opinion. Shame Circles never got a release as that is probably the best track on the album, the Harry Potter magic theme video sounds really interesting too, it would have been an easy top 10 in my opinion.

The only songs I don't like on the album are Feels like sex (thank Christ that wasn't a single) and shake your bootie cutie! Otherwise it's a good effort.

Posted by: Spiceboy 12th June 2020, 04:51 PM

Going to listen to the album again later and put my track rating as it's been years since I've listened to it.

Posted by: Chemistry 13th June 2020, 10:42 AM

Circles Round The Moon, Strength Of A Woman and Breaking Glass are amongst my all-time favourite Geri songs, so this album (or better say era, as Breaking Glass was only a b-side) holds a special place in my hard. I've always loved the album cover as well, it is so ott and so Geri.

Calling, however, is probably my least favourite Geri single. It's a bit too bland for my liking.

Posted by: Blond 2.0 13th June 2020, 04:06 PM

I enjoyed the hell out of this album and I still do



1. Scream If You Wanna Go Faster 10
2. Shake Your Bootie Cutie 5
3. Calling 9
4. Feels Like Sex 7
5. Circles Round the Moon 10
6. Love Is the Only Light 10
7. Strength of a Woman 9
8. Don't Call Me Baby 8
9. Lovey Dovey Stuff 7
10. It's Raining Men 10
11. Heaven and Hell (Being Geri Halliwell) 10
12. I Was Made That Way 10
+ Brave New World [Japanese Bonus Track] 9

Breaking Glass 10

Posted by: Mr.X 13th June 2020, 04:44 PM

Me, not wanting to say anything about this album because I might get kicked out if I do:










































JOKES!

Scream if You Wanna Go Faster is her best album. Scream (single) is a great song and probably my favourite of hers - as well as the video. Some nice enough tracks too.
The ballads are awful here though...

Some of them like Calling might not be too bad and I think if that song was sang by someone else, it might have actually been bareable. But Geri ruins them, in my opinion.

Feels Like Sex should have been the first single. It was obviously clever for them to release It's Raining Men as that was on teh back of the film, but it's pretty obvious that it didnt do much for the album's fortunes. Not that I think that FLS was going to smash, but at least it would have been better demonstration of what is on the album.

I guess after Schizophonic, the almos 500,000 who bought that album didnt think it was good enough to warrant a purchase of the new album. I cant understand and sympathise with that to be honest.

Posted by: McAndrew 13th June 2020, 05:57 PM

I have to agree with Mr.X completely.

I love Geri's song writing. She's can be an intelligent, deeply sincere lyricist. And other times she's very tongue-in-cheek and witty.

At the time I enjoyed the album because I loved Geri.

But, with my more mature ears, her vocals couldn't carry a ballad, imo. Calling is a stunning song though.

I think the era stalled because Spice fever had finally faded tbh. Geri's personality wasn't enough. She was being held to a higher standard.

Posted by: Eduardo 14th June 2020, 04:59 PM

I always thought "Feels Like Sex" should have been given a chance.

It's a pleasant album, it just lacks a "stand-out" track or two.
I never understood how come she had such high expectations for top chart positions with these tracks.

Posted by: Piers 15th June 2020, 02:25 AM

I've always kinda gone to bat for this album.

To my ears, Scream If You Wanna Go Faster, Calling, Circles Round the Moon, Love is the Only Light, Strength of a Woman, and I Was Made That Way are all excellent. Scream and Calling, I thought, were worthy successors to her Schizophonic singles. 'Gimme some, gimme some gasoline' always sounded like a classic pop hook to me. Calling...I still think is gorgeous.

Don't Call Me Baby and Lovey Dovey Stuff are 'fine' album fillers.

Shake Your Bootie Cutie, Feels Like Sex, and Heaven and Hell...are kinda...spectacularly weird. Which...y'know...I kinda appreciate. No other pop star of her stature would have recorded a song as defiantly strange as Heaven and Hell. Those songs are her. And she didn't care what was cool. In a time when A LOT of pop acts had interchangeable songs...you can't claim Geri didn't have major control over her music.

It's Raining Men is kinda a case on its own. I tend to prefer her originals, but her cover of this song is honestly better than anyone would have reason to believe it would be. Her vocal ability is not in the same stratosphere as The Weather Girls. And yet...it works because her version is just pure adrenaline. She honestly does transform the song into something new. And I think the single campaign was excellent. The video and the performances have such an infectious energy about them. I think it was the most confident we ever saw Geri in her solo career.

Anyway. This album doesn't seem as personal as Schizophonic, but I do think it's the best her voice ever sounded. I think her collaborators figured out the best ways to use her abilities. Passion and her unreleased work have more vocal range...but I like how unmistakable her voice still sounds during the Scream era.

Last thought. I can't *believe* Robbie Williams wanted Geri to listen to Led Zeppelin for influence. Granted, I really like Scream If You Wanna Go Faster (which was inspired by that suggestion). But. Robbie HAD to be joking...

Posted by: Last Dreamer 27th January 2021, 11:27 AM

Geri Halliwell - Scream If You Wanna Go Faster (2001)

My rate : A (Wonderful)

Top 5 songs :
1. Circles Round The Moon [her best song]
2. Calling
3. Strength Of A Woman
4. I Was Made That Way
5. Love Is The Only Light

I strongly dislike "It's Raining Men", that's why I didn't give the highest mark for this album.

Posted by: vibe 27th January 2021, 06:44 PM

Listening to this for the first time since the year it was released. I did purchase the album on the week of release. Strength Of A Woman stood out for me originally.

1. Scream - Great opener very surprised this didnt chart in the top 5. She had a lot of promo for it.
2. Shake - Love the verses but the chorus is weak. I wouldn’t have placed this as track 2 on the album.
3. Calling - nice song , one of her best vocals. Can imagine all girls killing this track as a group.
4. Feels Like Sex - totally inspired by George Michaels - I Want Your Sex - This would have been a killer single !! Should have been the single after IRM. Should be track 1 on the album.
5. Circles - A country vibe here , catchy track. I feel Radio could have got behind this.
6. Love Is The Only Light - decent album track
7. Strength Of A Woman - Totally Geri’s personality at the time. I miss this Geri, this is so catchy.
8. Dont Call Me Maybe - filler
9. Lovey Dovey Stuff - filler
10. Its Raining Men - Great cover and amazing video. Did not think this would work on paper.
11. Heaven and Hell - reminds me of shampoo , crazy Geri , im here for it
12. I Was Made This Way - nice enough

My singles
1. Its Raining Men
2. Feels Like Sex
3. Circles
4. Scream / Calling double a side

Posted by: schizo_spice 27th January 2021, 07:48 PM

Cant believe this album will soon be 20 years old. Where does time go.

I think this revised tracklisting takes it from a 7/10 to a 9/10 for me

I didnt include Breaking Glass as I believe she said that hadn't been recorded at the time the album was mastered.


1. Scream If You Wanna Go Faster
2. Brave New World
3. Calling
4. New Religion
5. Circles Round the Moon
6. Love is the Only Light
7. Strength of a Woman
8. Don't Call Me Baby
9. Getting Better
10. Its Raining Men
11. Heaven and Hell
12. I Was Made That Way

Posted by: spiceboy 28th January 2021, 09:57 AM

That track listing is just 😍 going to listen to that!

Posted by: sammy01 28th January 2021, 10:24 AM

I always feel with scream that the big problem was the uptempo songs were like parody Geri songs. As if someone said to her you are naughty, bonkers and cheeky let's ramp it up to 10 and it comes across trying too hard to be that.

It's amazing to think she went from clever and fun songs like Look at me and Mi Chico Latino to the tacky Feels like sex and Shake your bootie cutie. You're in bubble did zany and cheeky much better.

Posted by: spiceboy 28th January 2021, 11:46 AM

I completely agree with this, the best songs on the album are the ones that don't have such zany lyrics. Strength of a woman, circles around the moon, Love is the only light more melodic tracks which don't try too hard to be bonkers like Feels like sex, shake your bootie cutie and Heaven and hell (although I don't mind heaven and hell lol).

Huge mistake leaving off Brave new world and New religion in favour of other tracks! I never got the rationale for that, both those tracks are stronger than most of the album!? Very much a Reason B-sides like experience.

Posted by: sammy01 28th January 2021, 11:54 AM

Oh God I forgot Heaven and hell that sounds like a song a cartoon would release, the cartoon version of Geri.

Also she went away from her strength of big rousing choruses, Look at me, Bag it up and It's raining men the chorus are were she shines.

Posted by: Mr.X 28th January 2021, 12:52 PM

This is very true and interesting. I never thought of that but it does make sense. She really did lean in on the parody version of herself... Not to say that it was wrong, just that it maybe went too far and she moved away from what made her successful in the first place.

Personally, I prefer Scream as an album over Schizo but I can see why the appeal started to go with this era... There are no BIG HITS here apart from Its Raining Men, certainly no huge chorus even the most obvious single Feels Like Sex felt more like a joke about sex rather than actually a progressive song.

Might give this album another listen actually today and will listen to it in the order suggested by schizo_spice

Posted by: spiceboy 28th January 2021, 03:28 PM

I'm really surprised you think Feels like sex is an obvious single... I think it's the second worse song on the album (and one of the worst she has ever done).

I think the singles play a huge part, while I love Calling it wasn't right for Geri or her target audience, then Scream doesn't have the chorus to really push it. Strength of a woman however would have been a great choice it has the chorus is melodic and continues to push the 'girl power' that Geri was the most strongly associated with. Circles around the moon also has a kick ass chorus and possibly Don't call me baby. There are songs on there she just didn't release them.

Posted by: sammy01 28th January 2021, 03:45 PM

Circles round the moon is the obvious single to my ears. It's melodic and catchy and a ballad (but not a horrible one like Lift me up) would I think help push the album sales.

Posted by: spiceboy 28th January 2021, 03:50 PM

Will you stop posting things I agree with.

From the first time listening to the album I thought Circles was screaming to be the second single was really surprised when she released Scream and then Calling.

Posted by: schizo_spice 28th January 2021, 04:13 PM

In hindsight it would've been a good tie in with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, she'd already had a big soundtrack hit so maybe it would've been overkill to have another so soon though.

Posted by: sammy01 28th January 2021, 04:22 PM

Scream the song is so bare lyrics wise, it's barely a song. It has no melody, it's just a bit of noise.

I could see radio lapping up circles and Geri needed a softer moment after Its raining men.

Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 28th January 2021, 04:54 PM

I've just been reminded of this mix which I used to love.



Should've released that!

Posted by: spiceboy 28th January 2021, 06:26 PM

I have to say, I've always liked scream as an album opener, however after listening to the album in Schio-Spice's order, having Brave New World as the second track highlighted how it's really not a great song!

Posted by: Mr.X 28th January 2021, 06:50 PM

I just came here to say that even Schizo_Spice's tracklist didnt do much for me and I had never heard Brave New World before and let me tell you that it did make me want to Scream if I Wanted It To End Faster

Posted by: schizo_spice 28th January 2021, 06:50 PM

I think its a decent little pop song certainly better than Shake.

I always wanted someone to make a mash up of it and Brave New Girl by Britney

Posted by: Last Dreamer 29th January 2021, 07:06 AM

Without "It's Raining Men", "Feels Like Sex" and "Shake Your Bootie Cutie" this album could be near with my all-time # 1.

"Heaven and Hell" is epic.

Posted by: Jay❄ 30th April 2021, 08:06 AM

It’s Raining Men was released 20 years ago today!

Random fact: The original Weather Girls version was 18 years old when Geri released her cover of it.

Posted by: Maz! 30th April 2021, 08:13 AM

HBD It's Raining Men
Random fact: I turned 14 on the day it was released.

Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 30th April 2021, 10:00 AM

One of the worst cover versions ever.

Posted by: Jay❄ 30th April 2021, 10:02 AM

Leave (Get Out) x

Posted by: tommie 30th April 2021, 10:03 AM

Yaas, gurfren.

I love Gerita, but this was utterly uninspired. Nothing can top the Weather Girls.

Posted by: schizo_spice 30th April 2021, 10:09 AM

I find the continued popularity of Geris version of Its Raining Men really interesting. It definitely still appeals to people and is one of the cover versions that has really had legs and wasn't just a success of its time like so many covers.

Posted by: Jay❄ 30th April 2021, 10:17 AM

I've always enjoyed how frenetic Geri's version is, it has a lot of energy and gusto... she really sold it! It's no wonder that it was a huge hit internationally. #1 and certifying Diamond in France was a particularly major achievement.

I unashamedly love it!

Like schizo_spice says it's clearly retained an audience via streaming above and beyond her other songs. Weather Girls' version does reign supreme, but Geri's version definitely hasn't been forgotten.

Posted by: Mr.X 30th April 2021, 10:40 AM

This. It is trully awful.

To be honest, our girls have never been that great at cover versions* and unfortunately however successful Geri's version of this song still is, it just overshadows her whole catalogue...


* (Crickets Sing for AnaMaria and its b-sides not included in this assessment as it is a breath of fresh air and great quality thanks )

Posted by: tommie 30th April 2021, 10:41 AM

soon youll start defending my happy place for the sake of argument x

Posted by: Spice Girls Net 30th April 2021, 02:28 PM

I remember getting this on cd single. I think it’s definitely a well remembered cover as Jay says and I think Geri pulled it off.

Posted by: spiceboy 30th April 2021, 02:34 PM

Crickets sing is crap

I actually prefer Geri's version to the weather girls version, I find theirs very shrill wheres Geri's has some more bass and gutso to it.

Posted by: Nina West 30th April 2021, 02:40 PM

This is how the singles should have gone =

'It's Raining Men'
'Strength of a Woman'
'Calling'
'Circles Round The Moon'

Posted by: Mr.X 30th April 2021, 05:13 PM

Oh hun... Dissing Crickets Sing for AnaMaria as crap? Dissing the Weather Girls OG as shrill?....

better get that checked my love

Posted by: Spice Girls Net 30th April 2021, 06:30 PM

Some anniversary stories, facts and charts coming soon on my Instagram ☺️

Posted by: Alberto! 30th April 2021, 11:27 PM

And on Geri's stories, I saw

Posted by: spiceboy 1st May 2021, 08:31 AM

I think this would have been a great singles run.

Posted by: Warwick Avenue 2nd May 2021, 09:07 AM

I loved this album back when it came out, Heaven and Hell being my favourite at the time.

Posted by: Spice Girls Net 14th May 2021, 08:21 AM

Scream If You Wanna Go Faster was released 20 years ago today!

Posted by: schizo_spice 14th May 2021, 10:16 AM

I vividly remember buying it on release day and listening to it on the bus home on my Discman

I remember Circles Round the Moon standing out to me as a potential single right away.

Posted by: Warwick Avenue 14th May 2021, 11:31 AM

I might need to revisit this album, but I remember Heaven and Hell being my favourite back in 2001.

Posted by: Spice Girls Net 14th May 2021, 11:36 AM

My Dad took me to Virgin Megastores in London to buy it. I remember being so excited as I never really got albums much as they were so expensive

Posted by: Jay❄ 14th May 2021, 02:35 PM

Wow, 20 years...

I was a little underwhelmed by the album at the time, to me it seemed partly middle of the road, partly uptempos that didn’t seem as strong as the Schizophonic era.

I keep meaning to give it another listen because it’s been years!

Posted by: spiceboy 14th May 2021, 07:17 PM

I never knew Emma had a role in that movie with Pamela!!

Posted by: Babyboy 6th October 2022, 08:37 PM

I found on an old website a track by track from Geri on Scream.

Scream If You Wanna Go Faster
I had the title before I wrote the song. It just popped into my head – that happens to me all the time. It’s about seeking out a way to change your mood, get an adrenaline rush. We’re all chasing something that we think will fix us, whether it’s sex, shopping, fast cars, whatever. I wrote it with Rick Nowells and we just clicked. He really took on board my ideas. I’d been listening to Led Zeppelin, and I went in with this riff: ‘Give me some, give me some gasoline.’ It also introduces one of the themes of the album: the child within, the creative fun-loving person that gets conditioned out of us. I’m just such a big kid. We all are. And I don’t want to lose that. You can still be playful. Immaturity is a good thing.

Shake Your Bootie, Cutie
I wrote this with Gregg Alexander from New Radicals, and someone said that it’s the first song he’s written that doesn’t sound like a New Radicals record. You can tell who’s written what. He’s so the bridge, and I’m so the chorus. It’s inspired by a Ricky Martin concert I went to. I was doing a lot of running around my garden when I wrote these lyrics. I tend to get phrases from all sorts of places, without realising at first. So ‘shut up and dance’ I got from a dance record. ‘I’m Mr Big, baby can you dig?’ is from Mr Big in Sex In The City. Then there’s a rap on it that’s so Wham! George hasn’t heard it yet. I’m sure he won’t mind. I wrote verses when I was 16 years old and they’re still in my head.

Calling
To me this is the biggest track on the album. I’m really proud of it, because I think it’s some of the most mature writing I’ve done. The melody is really rich. It’s all about wanting.. romance, I suppose. I’m such a big romantic. I was looking at the moon in Ibiza, and I was thinking somewhere, someone is looking up at that moon, and that person is my soul-mate, with the same will and desires. It’s like a wish, an affirmation. I wrote this with Peter Vetesse, who is a genius on the piano. Some of the chords he came up with were amazing, which were really good for me to be inspired by and get melodies off.

Feels Like Sex
I said to the Absolute boys, ‘I want to write a record about sex.’ Because no one’s talked about sex for ages. But I wanted it to have a positive message. The chorus bridge is: ‘If the mood is rude, then you’ve got the right attitude/ you better get down, you don’t have to get undressed/ just because it feels like sex.’ You know when you get on top of someone, but you keep your clothes on? To me, that’s sexier. For me the anticipation of what’s to come is far sexier, and it’s safe sex as well.

Circles Round the Moon
I soak up whatever I’m reading at the time. I read all four of the Harry Potter books in one go, and off I went, completely obsessed. So this song is inspired by that. It’s just a loving song, a good MOR record for women. I write for women, and the gay guys come along for the ride. They’re the people I make my records for. And if anyone else comes along, then cool. Again, it’s romantic. My lyrics are never throwaway. Some are deep as a puddle, but then the next line will be so expressive.

Love Is the Only Light
I wrote this in my iamspamspamamiwith Jorgen Elofsson. This little girl asked to meet a ‘star’ – me – but I felt I met an angel. She looked like Audrey Hepburn, and she was waiting for a heart and lung transplant. I wrote it after seeing her a few times – I was really inspired, I felt strength from her. She had serenity. She knew she was here for a moment. And she was so smart. Then she died, and I was devastated. I was so angry with God. What I learned from it is, you have no control. There’s no point trying to manipulate relationships, work, anything – the only way to win is to give up the fight, and just go with it.

Strength of a Woman
I wrote this in the back of a taxi-cab in Los Angeles. This Iranian taxi was driving me like a nutter and I just wrote it in the back. I worked with Rick Nowells to make it sound really 60s. It had to go on the album because it’s all about my relationship with women, which is so important. The second verse goes ‘Hey girl I remember you, you’re not alone because I feel it too../ We’re running out of heroes, a good guy’s hard to find/ Mr Perfect Wonderful is not on my mind./ You’ve got to do it.’ We girls all think some guy’s going to come and fix us, we can’t help it. We live, love and learn, but we can’t do it alone. I can’t do it alone. I need female solidarity. I’ve really learned that. This is our song: the Serenity Sunday Sisterhood.

Don’t Call Me Baby
When I wrote this song in October 2000, I was in such a depressed mood. It’s a bitter-sweet song. It’s a cliché, but all that pain that some people – some men – cause me, I use productively. Thank God I can do that. Then the Madison track came out, and I was gutted. I thought about changing it to ‘Don’t Kill Me Baby’, which I thought was quite funny, but then I decided to stick with it. The Absolute boys produced it, but I knew how I wanted it to sound. I heard this David Bowie track on the radio, and I wanted it to sound as crusty as that. I wrote the chorus to the Spice Girls ‘Stop’, and for me this is the next song on from that.

Lovey Dovey Stuff
When I went to the Absolute boys and said I wanted to do a reggae song, they cringed. But I explored lots of different reggae beats, and came up with one that worked. The lyrics are very simple, sweet and intimate things about a partnership, but it’s also talking about the differences between boys and girls: ‘I do smooth and you do rough, I used to think that you are tough – but you’re not.’

It’s Raining Men
I loved Bridget Jones. I read both books. In fact I am Bridget Jones. So many of us are. So when they asked me to do this for the film, it was like a gift. I thought it was just for the soundtrack album, but then when they heard it, they wanted it to be a single. We were ready to go with ‘Feels Like Sex’ as the first single, but this was just such a great excuse to put leg-warmers on! And it’s fun. Normally doing a cover would be scary, but I do think this is as good if not better than the original. Steve Lipson has done a great job, and I love the string arrangement. We rushed the vocal, because they needed it really fast. It’s ironic: we spent a year of blood sweat and tears on my album, then put out a boshed-down vocal for my first single. The video was done really quickly too. I had this idea about Fame and Flashdance, because I was into Fame especially growing up. And we used directors [Jake & Jim] who’d never even worked with a big budget like this before. So it was quite a risk. But we totally pulled it off. I love giving new talent a chance they were editors in my Look At Me Video. They showed me what they’d done for seven thousand pounds and I was really impressed.

It’s Heaven It’s Hell (Being Geri Halliwell)
I wrote this with Jorgen Elofsson, who I worked with on ‘Love Is The Only Light’. One’s really spiritual, the other all about ego – you couldn’t get more opposite ends of the spectrum! He came up with the backing track and the concept. It was his idea, not mine. I sat in the vocal booth and just talked and talked about fame. It’s using my experiences to examine what it’s like being famous today. Rob [Williams] loves it. ‘Have a drink – alcoholic./ Grab your coat – shopaholic./ Have a bite – anorexic./ Intelligent? I’m dyslexic./ Feeling happy – Could be gay. / Maybe, not today./ So you think you want to be famous, so you think you want to drive my car/ Don’t you know you’ve got to be shameless if you want to be a star?/ 15 minutes show me what you’re made of/ 15 minutes what are you afraid of? / 15 minutes I’ll show you the trade-off / It’s heaven, it’s hell being Geri Halliwell.’

I Was Made That Way
This is a song to my audience, almost. It’s admitting my moods and contradictions, but saying I hope you love me anyway. But it’s also addressed to a man, to a partner. It’s a really lush little song that says, ‘I’m just like the weather/ Never the same / I can’t help it / I was made that way.’ And there’s another bit that says ‘when I say goodbye I want you to stay’. We all do that. I can’t say what I mean sometimes – I’m saying no but I mean yes. And I hope other women identify with that.

Posted by: -Jay- 6th October 2022, 11:06 PM

Thank you for sharing!

Funny to think that Shake Your Bootie Cutie and Melanie C's On the Horizon come from the same writer

Posted by: schizo_spice 7th October 2022, 09:00 AM

Some interesting little tidbits thanx for sharing.

Its indeed a shame that she poured so much time, effort and creativity into this album for it now to be represented by her last minute cover of Its Raining Men. I am glad she chose that over Feels like Sex though which for me is in the bottom 3 tracks of this album. Her vocal on Its Raining Men may have been rushed but it sounds pretty good to me.

Calling is indeed a stellar track, I'm glad she got a chance to release it.

Posted by: Scary Spiceboy 7th October 2022, 01:41 PM

Calling is an excellent track really beautiful.

Still think Scream was a bad choice for single though, it works as an album opener but is a bit like NSAIG in that it is a weak single. FLS and SYBC are terrible otherwise I think it is a decent album.

Posted by: Sideout 7th October 2022, 03:45 PM

Scream If You Wanna Go Faster sounds more like a Pink or Avril Lavigne single from 2002. Geri was always going to have a hard time getting hits past 2001 when RnB and hip-hop started to dominate top 40.

Pretty much all of the ballads and mid tempos on this album are excellent. The up-tempo songs are the weakest part of the album.

Posted by: -Jay- 7th October 2022, 04:01 PM

I agree with this! I feel that some of the uptempos were just too brash to ever be singles (Shake Your Bootie Cutie, Feels Like Sex, Heaven and Hell). I kind of understand the thinking of them going with Scream If You Wanna Go Faster because it offers uptempo but not in the same vein as the previous three songs listed... but I don't think that song really demonstrates where the strengths lies in this album.

I would maybe have gone with Circles Round the Moon?

Posted by: Jessie Where 7th October 2022, 06:26 PM

I was coming here to say, why did that song never get released?

It's so much better than both 'Scream' and 'Calling', I think it would have done better than both of them too. The Almighty remix of it is banging!

Posted by: Sideout 7th October 2022, 07:11 PM

I probably would have released these as singles after It's Raining Men

Strength of a Woman
Circles Round The Moon
Don't Call Me Baby

Posted by: spiceboy 16th April 2023, 08:11 PM

Calling is one of Geri’s best songs!

Scream if you wanna go faster I was never a fan of even before the chart position, fine as an album track but not a single.

Posted by: Last Dreamer 18th April 2023, 07:36 AM

"Circles Round The Moon" is my favourite Geri's song.

I strongly dislike "It's Raining Men". It's her worst song.

Best tracks : Circles Round The Moon, Calling, Strength Of A Woman, I Was Made That Way

Posted by: Jessie Where 18th April 2023, 07:56 AM

Now THIS I can agree with you on!

Also, yes 'Circles Round the Moon' is fab and I don't get how they didn't single it.

Posted by: One_For_Sorrow 18th April 2023, 08:52 AM

It’s been two decades since I’ve heard this in full but I remember loving Heaven and Hell so much in 2001.

Posted by: Last Dreamer 18th April 2023, 11:57 AM

"Heaven and Hell" is hilarious track, it's the one from my favourites too.

Don't know why but "I Was Made That Way" always bring tears to my eyes.

Posted by: -Jay- 18th April 2023, 04:08 PM

It's Raining Men is far from being her worst song!

Posted by: Roba. 18th April 2023, 04:53 PM

I bought all the CD's to the singles from this era but 'Calling' is so lush stands out as an underrated release from her imo.

Posted by: spiceboy 18th April 2023, 05:58 PM

Agreed

Posted by: schizo_spice 18th April 2023, 06:45 PM

Circles Round the Moon definitely wouldve been a hit. Such a pity.

Posted by: Blond 2.0 18th April 2023, 07:10 PM

Circles Round the Moon was going to be a single after calling and she already wanted a harry potter kinda theme for the video but I don't know what happened I really love Scream such a fun album

Posted by: spiceboy 18th April 2023, 07:24 PM

She gave up on the album as she was upset by its lack of success.

Posted by: schizo_spice 18th April 2023, 07:39 PM

I’m sure she would’ve gotten a 4th had sales for both Scream and Calling been higher.

Singles are only promotional tools to make people buy the album at the end of the day and if they don’t sell a lot or being the album back up the charts they aren’t going to keep pumping them out.

Not sure if it’s true either but there was a rumour that she had to choose between a 4th single or the third album. No idea if that’s true but it wouldn’t surprise me.

Posted by: Jessie Where 18th April 2023, 11:19 PM

This era would have panned out better had she gone with 'Circles' instead of 'Scream', gah. I honestly believe that was a mistake but it is what it is.

I can sort of see her reasoning for going with 'Calling' for the Christmas market, in a roundabout way. I don't dislike it as much as some do, but it is a very flimsy song and above all it highlights how bad her voice really is. It's probably a miracle it charted as high as it did looking back.

Posted by: One_For_Sorrow 19th April 2023, 12:58 AM

Agree as well.

Posted by: spiceboy 19th April 2023, 05:25 AM

I think strength of a woman was screaming to be released as the follow up to it’s raining men then circles after that.

Posted by: Last Dreamer 19th April 2023, 07:25 AM

"Calling" was radio hit in my country.

For sample it spent 2 weeks at # 1 on Russian Europe Plus top 40 chart.

https://eurohittop40.ru/charts/eurohit-top-40/2002-01-05-01-week

Posted by: One_For_Sorrow 19th April 2023, 09:17 AM

Just revisiting Circles Round the Moon and I can see the potential there in it as a single.

Posted by: Blond 2.0 19th April 2023, 06:52 PM

Calling went to n7 so it wasn't a flop at all but she thought it's going to be N1 and then she gave up on the album

Posted by: Jessie Where 19th April 2023, 08:00 PM

Did she actually?

I didn't realise she was that mad

Posted by: spiceboy 19th April 2023, 08:05 PM

I think to be fair to her she had at that point achieved 10 / 13 singles hit #1 and all of those except for one had gone top 2 so her expectations for singles were very high. Then she was really proud of the song, she thought it was a lot more grown up than anything else she had written plus George Michael himself told her he thought it was exceptional, so she had a lot of hopes for the song.

She says in her autobiography that she took it really hard when it went to #7 and pretty much says she gave up on the album at that point and felt really disillusioned with it all.

The girls had such unrealistic expectations on their music to be fair, there were plenty of acts at the time achieving Gold or Silver albums then not even charting top 10 or 20 with singles and being credited as a success while anything less than #1 and huge sales for the girls was an immediate flop.

Posted by: One_For_Sorrow 19th April 2023, 08:17 PM

I really need to see if I can find a copy of Geri’s autobiography. It sounds interesting.

Posted by: Nina West 19th April 2023, 08:36 PM

Posted by: One_For_Sorrow 19th April 2023, 08:44 PM

I forgot Feels Like Sex was a potential lead single.

Are there any other times a potential lead single has not ended up being a single at all?

Posted by: Nina West 19th April 2023, 08:45 PM

Why was 'Destiny', 'Brave New World', 'Getting Better' & 'New Religion' left off the album & were only b-sides, these are much stronger than some of the album tracks such as 'Lovey Dovey Stuff', 'I Was Made That Way' & 'Shake Your Bootie Cutie'

Posted by: Jessie Where 19th April 2023, 09:12 PM

I can think of one key example: The Spice Girls!

I remember reading one of them say that the label wanted to go with 'Love Thing' as their debut single. Can you imagine?

Posted by: spiceboy 19th April 2023, 09:12 PM

She has 2, If Only which is up to the release of her first era and then Just For The Record which is about life from then up to the end of Scream, and a lot more about battling with her eating disorder.

Posted by: spiceboy 19th April 2023, 09:13 PM

Everything was better than Shake your bootie cutie, that really was horrendous lol

Posted by: spiceboy 19th April 2023, 09:14 PM

It was the record label who wanted Love Thing not the girls themselves, they all pushed for Wannabe because Virgin didn't think it would do very well.

Posted by: Jessie Where 19th April 2023, 10:19 PM

I know!!

Goes to show these people sometimes truly have no idea what they're doing.

Posted by: One_For_Sorrow 19th April 2023, 10:34 PM

Thanks, will check them out online.

Posted by: Nina West 19th April 2023, 10:41 PM

Posted by: Matttttt 20th April 2023, 01:27 AM

Not sure if this has been shared, but I came across this Calling performance on YouTube today with live(?) vocals and thought I would post

Posted by: -Jay- 20th April 2023, 01:33 AM

I hadn't seen that before, thank you for sharing! A pity it cuts off It's Raining Men for some reason.

Posted by: tommie 20th April 2023, 03:14 AM

Honestly, Calling going to #7 in December wasn't as much of a disaster as it doing nothing for the albums chart sales. If anything that killed the project dead and made them not go for Circles as a fourth single.

Also, I feel like having a first single that gets scrapped and never released isn't that unusual. I guess it has to do with the overall campaign strategy changing.

Posted by: One_For_Sorrow 20th April 2023, 03:23 AM

Good points

On the latter, weren’t a few or at least one Little Mix albums meant to have different lead singles?

Posted by: Last Dreamer 20th April 2023, 08:01 AM

I don't know how that awful PPK track debuted in top 3 and "Calling" was only # 7.

Posted by: One_For_Sorrow 20th April 2023, 11:36 PM

That's a good track list. Are there any Geri songs not on streaming?

Posted by: Joshnat192 22nd April 2023, 06:38 PM

I have cute memories off this album for ‘Strengh of a Woman’. I’ve always been a Emma’s fan so on that period Emma was releasing and promoting WTYSL but here in Spain we didn’t have where to buy the single or listen the song on the radio, so I used to listen SOAW from Geri since was a similar style for me LOOOL. I really love Lovey Dovey Stuff (I play it sometimes) but sorry, and I don’t want to offend anybody here, I think her voice is terrible so I’ve never been able to enjoy an album of her, seems she is struggling while singing.

Posted by: Blond 2.0 27th April 2023, 05:07 PM

Oh no how dare you remove Lovey Dovey Stuff I love this song so much

Posted by: spiceboy 27th April 2023, 05:37 PM

Yeah I love lovey dovey stuff too “I know how you take your morning teaaaaa, you know how I take my tiiiiime, then you go and try to stea my reicpeeee, for making true love flow like wiiiine” love it 😂 used to sign those lines over and over when I was younger!

Posted by: schizo_spice 27th April 2023, 10:13 PM

I'm more upset by the exclusion of I Was Made that Way

One of Geris absolute peak moments for sure.

Posted by: Blond 2.0 28th April 2023, 11:49 PM

she performed I Was Made that Way and circles round the moon on CD:UK or totp I guess

Posted by: Blond 2.0 28th April 2023, 11:52 PM

Yeah the whole vibe of the song is amazing

Posted by: Piers 30th April 2023, 01:35 AM

This is my perception too...but it is an interesting thought. How would Feels Like Sex have fared as a lead single?

My general thought is the Spice Girls had a basic level of edginess that was expected/accepted by their fanbase. It was a level that included the outfits of the Say You'll Be There video, the safe sex lyrics of 2 Become 1, Geri's parade of pink underwear men at the Brits, etc. The very few times they went edgier than that...I don't think it really paid off for them. I'm specifically referring to Mel C's Goin Down and Mel B's original Word Up video and Hot album. Granted, I say that while knowing the Hot album's biggest problem was releasing so close to Forever. But I also don't believe the parental advisory sticker exactly helped sell copies.

Some of the girls were pulling from Madonna's playbook, but my guess is the fanbases were a bit different...and controversy didn't equal sales for the girls with quite the same effectiveness it often did for Madonna.

It's not that I think Feels Like Sex is really all that edgy. But a song with that title was going to draw a lot of attention. Tabloids would have been clutching their pearls. Would it have translated to sales? We'll never really know, but I *think* it would have made the lower end of the top 10 like Scream and Calling did.

Another question. What would a video for this song look like...?

Posted by: Blond 2.0 30th April 2023, 05:07 PM

They thought Feels Like Sex is gonna be Bag it up 2.0 but thank god they didn't go with it her team was right with this choice LOL

Posted by: -Jay- 18th May 2023, 06:15 AM

Scream If You Wanna Go Faster (album) turned 22 years old this week!