A bargain!

 

I was biding my time for months to buy a second copy of the picture disc to keep sealed, and I finally got one during the £12 deal during Black Friday. If only I'd waited a couple more weeks lol, never mind.

 

GH vinyl is #281 on Amazon at the moment!

I’ve put it on my Christmas list I better flipping get it now!

Greatest Hits' single 'Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)' was released 13 years ago - 5th November 2007! This was its download release date - the physical CD followed 2 weeks later.

 

 

 

Their last ever single :cry:

I've always enjoyed Headlines I think the instrumental is absolutely gorgeous and they all sound so good vocally. The live tour version with the guitar is also great, glad we got a good version of it with the Radio 1 broadcast.

 

I do wish they had pushed it more than they did. Strictly was just waiting for a Headlines performance to give the single that big kick it needed to be Top 10 and potentially stick around the charts for a while.

 

I can see why they went for 2 Become 1 though its their classic festive time hit and the dancers on the show are 2 becoming 1.

 

The less said about the MV the better :no:

Greatest Hits was released 13 years ago on this date! 12th November 2007. Spice Girls went head to head with Leona Lewis’ debut album. Leona massively outsold them, but they still managed #2 with over 75k first week sales.

What were the expectations for the greatest hits at the time? I'm sure no-one expected them to outsell Leona but 75k seems a little low for 2007's standards?

I can’t remember what I predicted/expected at the time, or what was generally expected for it, but looking back - I definitely think the Greatest Hits underperformed in 2007! :( Only 2 weeks top 10, and being outside the Top 20 during Christmas shopping weeks... hmm, on paper it should have done better. From memory it ended the year on about 350k... which seems decent in today’s terms, but not particularly amazing in 2007. I’d be interested to know what Virgin/EMI expected at the time. I do have a feeling it wouldn’t have matched their expectations.

 

With hindsight, I wonder if 2007 was a little too early for nostalgia to have properly kicked in for their hits? The tour did well of course, but perhaps for the general public (particularly adults who were 30+ at the time) it was too soon to desire a collection of their singles?

 

It’s funny because I remember feeling in 2007 like it had been an eternity since the Spice Girls were together. But now I look back and think it was “only” 7 years since Forever! I suppose that’s because I’m getting older and 7 years is starting to feel like it’s not a massively long time ago. :kink:

 

Safe to say it really wasn’t a Take That - ‘Ultimate Collection’ success!

It didn't help that the new songs were way below par their previous material.

I suppose it was also 'only' 10 years since their heyday too, so perhaps the people who would be interested in the collection still had their first two albums to revisit instead? Must be a combination of things, but as you pointed out it seems odd that Take That's greatest hits sold so well a couple of years earlier, especially when they already had a greatest hits collection.

I've had a look back on this thread; turns out this album was meant to be released the week prior but was pushed back because Westlife were releasing the same week (Westlife previously beat the girls to #1 in 2000). Seems that most people here presumed the girls would easily outsell them, however Westlife debuted with 132k.

 

Not sure why it was thought that Spice Girls would fair any better against Leona Lewis though. :lol: It also appears that 'Greatest Hits' had an extra day of sales as it was released on the Sunday rather than the Monday, like standard practice.

I didn’t remember it coming out on Sunday :o That’s interesting. I never really understood why most albums didn’t come out on a Sunday. It would have been a slow sales day I suppose, but shops were still open. New albums denied themselves a day of sales. I’m sure Girls Aloud - Chemistry would have gone Top 10 if it had been out on Sunday :cry:

 

I’m glad they avoided Westlife, losing another battle with them would have been too much to cope with :kink:

Greatest Hits' single 'Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)' was released 13 years ago - 5th November 2007! This was its download release date - the physical CD followed 2 weeks later.

 

 

 

Their last ever single :cry:

 

Theirs worst single IMO. There’s a feel-good vibe in it that reminds me of Lift Me Up. And that’s not a good thing.

On the other side, thank God they chose this over Voodoo, that is their worst song ever.

 

Also 2019 tour > 2007

Headlines was definitely a dissapointment, and I think the strategy for the GH was terrible, hardly any promo or interest anyway...

Im glad it has catched up in terms of sales, but at the time, the whole thing felt like a dissapointment:

 

1. Headlines as a lead single

2. Headlines video being BAD

3. Promo was almost non existant apart from a couple televised mimed performances (and only then, Headlines only got ONE performance)

4. GH package was terrible. Only two bad new songs available? Friendship bracelet? That pink box was awful too. No sense of legacy, I thought. It all felt like it was just thrown out there with little care.

 

Having said that, it's a GH packed full of BOPS (bar the new songs lol)

Headlines was definitely a dissapointment, and I think the strategy for the GH was terrible, hardly any promo or interest anyway...

Im glad it has catched up in terms of sales, but at the time, the whole thing felt like a dissapointment:

 

1. Headlines as a lead single

2. Headlines video being BAD

3. Promo was almost non existant apart from a couple televised mimed performances (and only then, Headlines only got ONE performance)

4. GH package was terrible. Only two bad new songs available? Friendship bracelet? That pink box was awful too. No sense of legacy, I thought. It all felt like it was just thrown out there with little care.

 

Having said that, it's a GH packed full of BOPS (bar the new songs lol)

 

This.

I agree. And what came after (several years) aka Song For Her proved that they shouldn’t record any new material.

They have such a great catalogue! I’d rather have an Abbey Road Sessions álbum than another Greatest Hits with new songs or a new album.

I bet more people are listening to the Spice Girls Greatest Hits nowadays than Spirit by Leona Lewis. -_- :kink:

Problem for the GH is people wanted a new album in 2007 not a GH. It has become iconic now though and has the double platinum certification it deserves.

 

Im glad they went with the logo cover not a 2007 pic.

 

The pink box, no comment.

I bet more people are listening to the Spice Girls Greatest Hits nowadays than Spirit by Leona Lewis. -_- :kink:

 

Very true :lol: It feels strange that Spirit even managed to sell more than Spice in the UK, as of late November 2018 Spirit had sold 3,170,000 :o

Headlines was definitely a dissapointment, and I think the strategy for the GH was terrible, hardly any promo or interest anyway...

Im glad it has catched up in terms of sales, but at the time, the whole thing felt like a dissapointment:

 

1. Headlines as a lead single

2. Headlines video being BAD

3. Promo was almost non existant apart from a couple televised mimed performances (and only then, Headlines only got ONE performance)

4. GH package was terrible. Only two bad new songs available? Friendship bracelet? That pink box was awful too. No sense of legacy, I thought. It all felt like it was just thrown out there with little care.

 

Having said that, it's a GH packed full of BOPS (bar the new songs lol)

 

 

I agree with everything, the whole thing was a really cheaply done and that reflects in it's initial sales and chart run...

 

I do wonder how the GH would have performed had it been released in 2012 off the back of the Olympics performance (with a killer single)...

The promo wasn’t great. No group interview on GMTV, This Morning, Graham Norton, Jonathan Ross etc. They only performed Headlines a couple of times, along with Stop and in 2007 there wasn’t really any 90s nostalgia. By the end of 2008 the GH’s total was rather underwhelming now it’s over 650k it’s a much healthier looking total.

 

As for the Headlines campaign it was so silly to release the physical cd two weeks after the digital release and one week after the GH came out. Bizarre

I agree with everything, the whole thing was a really cheaply done and that reflects in it's initial sales and chart run...

 

I do wonder how the GH would have performed had it been released in 2012 off the back of the Olympics performance (with a killer single)...

 

They wouldn't have even needed a new song in 2012, the Olympic Spice up your life/Wannabe mix added to the track list would have done wonders.