Well we know it hit 1.8m in sales in November as it got its 3 times platinum cert then. It was doing 3.1k weekly average between the last update before the cert and the cert update. So even at 2.5k weekly that would put us at about 1.85m.

 

That music week figure must be a typo or mistake.

The article is on their website but is still showing the wrong figure, sigh.

 

Spice Girls’ Wannabe is many things. An introduction to one of the biggest music acts of all time. The moment Girl Power took over the world. Oh, and a pop masterpiece. Not bad for an hour or two’s work, recalls Richard ‘Biff’ Stannard...

The road to Wannabe is interesting. The song I had out at the time was Steam by East 17 and I was at a studio to see, of all people, Jason Donovan. When I got there I bumped into Chris Herbert who was the Spice Girls’ original manager. Next thing I know, Mel B was there, like, ‘Who are you?’ and she jumped on my back, and that was it! I mentioned I’d done Steam and the girls all sang it, dragged me into a room and did a three-song set just for me [Laughs]. It was love at first sight. As a gay man, too, what I saw in them wasn’t sexual, which I think was refreshing for them.

 

When it came to recording Wannabe, me and Matt Rowe had the backing track before they came in. At the time I was obsessing over Summer Nights from Grease and I wanted to do something like that. We were all in this tiny room with the Spice Girls sitting on the floor, and we wrote about six songs in three days – and Wannabe was the second one. With all the hits I wrote with them, the writing was really easy. All my biggest hits have taken under two hours.

 

I never work to a brief, but the one thing I did know beforehand was that I wanted to write about how ‘force of nature’ they were. It is quite anarchic. It was all done in one frenzy, the energy would just rise in the room whenever we did the up-tempo things. I just had to listen, observe, and help them piece it together. I heard ‘zig-a-zig-ah’ and was like, ‘Let’s put that in!’ It does mean something, but we’re never going to tell anyone what. I’ll say one thing: it’s quite rude [Laughs].

 

One of the myths of Wannabe – and I don’t want to knock Simon Fuller because he is a genius – is that them all being ‘individual’ was manufactured. That’s the biggest misconception about the Spice Girls. It was always there from day one, so, it was easy for me to go, ‘Well, Emma can sing the sweet bit’ and, ‘You two noisy ones do this!’ They co-wrote and sang everything. That’s where the ‘Girl Power’ thing came from – they were writing about what it was like to be five girls at that age, at that time. That’s also something I have, quite unintentionally, done throughout my career with Kylie, Marina And The Diamonds and Ellie Goulding. It’s all about empowerment because I just find that strength in women so inspiring to write about. And I always have since I was a kid, I’ve got a strong mother, so that’s where it comes from.

 

I don’t think the label understood Wannabe, they wanted something else as the first single but the Spice Girls’ deal meant they had creative control. That’s quite a profound bit of information that I don’t think has been mentioned an awful lot. But I always loved Wannabe. I’m always eternally proud of it, but I ended up worrying I was going to be defined by it. For a few years, I was literally having A&R people say, ‘We want Wannabe 2’ – that’s not A&R! What they meant was they wanted something unique and special.

 

It was life-changing on all levels. All of a sudden the whole music industry wants a piece of you. It was crazy and brilliant, but everything has a yin and yang. Obviously, for the girls it was more severe, but it’s still difficult. I was 25 or 26 at the time, which is a young age to have that happen. Suddenly you’re travelling all over the world. I started to take more risks because I could. I got drunk and started talking to Bono – his quote on Wannabe was, ‘It sounds like a night out!’ which is my favourite quote ever about the song – and I ended up working with him. I still work with all kinds of different people.

 

The gift Wannabe gave me was a lifetime doing what I love. It’s soppy, but true. It’s gone way beyond the money and blah blah blah. It’s about how it’s engrained in people’s lives.

 

Writer’s Notes

Publishers Concord, UMPG, PeerMusic, EMI

Writers Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell, Matt Rowe, Mel Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Richard ‘Biff’ Stannard, Victoria Beckham

Release Date 21.06.96

Record Label Virgin EMI

Total UK Sales (OCC) 1,184,335

Is there anyone specific at Music Week who could be emailed about this? Sending them a link to the 3xPlat certification is enough to prove it’s wrong, and additionally a link to the Millionaires list from 2017 would show it isn’t pure sales only (if they tried to claim it was a figure without streams). Surely they would have to acknowledge their mistake? :drama:

Is there anyone specific at Music Week who could be emailed about this? Sending them a link to the 3xPlat certification is enough to prove it’s wrong, and additionally a link to the Millionaires list from 2017 would show it isn’t pure sales only (if they tried to claim it was a figure without streams). Surely they would have to acknowledge their mistake? :drama:

 

George Garner wrote the article: https://www.musicweek.com/user/read/102622

 

He has a twitter account, but couldn't find a specific e-mail adress: https://twitter.com/george_garner8

 

Just as a sidenote in case some loonies read this: please don't harass the poor man. It's likely just a simple mistake on his part.

Sammy to get in touch with him please :cool:

Writers Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell, Matt Rowe, Mel Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Richard ‘Biff’ Stannard, Victoria Beckham

 

Quick question: does the order of names here indicate who had the most writing in the song? Isnt that usually the way writing credits are layed out?

 

If so, Queen Bunton smashes again :teresa:

It's just alphabetical based on their first names :kink:

 

But let's pretend that Emma fully deserves most of the revenue that song generates. Queen of songwriting! :cheer:

I reckon wannabe is Mel B and Geri’s baby tbh, I mean they dominate the song so I’ve always assumed they had the most input to writing it.

It's just alphabetical based on their first names :kink:

 

But let's pretend that Emma fully deserves most of the revenue that song generates. Queen of songwriting! :cheer:

 

MY QUEEN :cheer: :yahoo:

 

 

I reckon wannabe is Mel B and Geri’s baby tbh, I mean they dominate the song so I’ve always assumed they had the most input to writing it.

 

:nocheer: You're no fun! As if Gerita would have the talent for this (quasi) masterpiece!

Edited April 1, 20205 yr by Mr.X

MY QUEEN :cheer: :yahoo:

:nocheer: You're no fun! As if Gerita would have the talent for this (quasi) masterpiece!

 

 

Sorry but they probably came up with it while having sex “I’ll tell ya what I want what I really really want, so tell me what you want what you really really want I wanna I wanna I really really want a zig a zig ha (from you Geri)”

Hi!

Someone have physical chart runs of Headlines and Downtown?

Thanks

Hi!

Someone have physical chart runs of Headlines and Downtown?

Thanks

I have these, not updated for ages but I would be pretty surprised if they've re-entered in recent years!

 

Downtown

02-04-05-18-26-31-32-55-75-(Out for 6 years)-33-Out

 

Headlines

3-10-17-23-23-18-21-41-56-78-out-94-out

 

The Headlines Re-entry occurred in the 21-27 June 2009 chart. Not sure specifically when Downtown's re-entry happened, sometime in 2012/13 apparently!

 

I wish OCC had proper archives for all their charts where you can search for particular titles and find the full chart run easily. Going through hundreds of charts to try and get together a chart run... ew. Also it's very annoying that they have some May-September 2005 charts missing.

I have the missing weeks pdf files but phisycal singles chart is missing.

If you want them just call me!

 

Thanks for answered my request!

Edited April 13, 20205 yr by Babyboy

I found out the date of entry of Downtown if you need it. It's on 16/12!2012

I found out the date of entry of Downtown if you need it. It's on 16/12!2012

Headlines

3-10-17-23-23-18-21-41-56-78-out-94-out

 

 

THIS is now the official chart run for me :w00t:

We have a new sales total for Greatest Hits! 639,235 as of Friday 8th May.

 

 

It sold 733 last week and it would have been #229 in the chart. It was 72 sales away from making the Top 200. Format split: 546 streaming, 137 downloads, 50 physicals. Download sales are a lot better this week, thanks to the £5.99 price on iTunes.

 

 

The last update we had was on Friday 20th March, more information here: http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?s...t&p=6464091 // 634,862 total on that date, so it's increased by 4,373 copies in 7 weeks. That's an average of 624 or 625 sales a week. A week earlier, on Friday 1st May [6 weeks after 20th March], the average sales per week were 606 or 607 copies.

 

I'm glad that the download price drop is giving their weekly pure sales a boost, it's just a pity that they're still quite far off the Top 200.

Thanks for the update Jay. It is good they sell 600 copies a week of the GH but frustrating that a bit more would see them charting week in week out in the top 200.

 

Nice to think the GH is at 640k sales, we were stuck with that 380k figure for years till we got some updates those were dark times. The GH is a genuine success now and will only keep rising in sales, 700k will be a nice milestone next.

Thank you Jay for the sales update

 

P.S. I’ve given up hope that we'll get a single sales update

Thanks Jay!

 

So it probably will hit 700,000 copies in about 5 years yeah? :P