Also, now that I put so many Free Me and Maybe performances here, I kind of want to make the thread full of I'll Be There and Crickets Sing for AnaMaria performances too

 

Also, now that I put so many Free Me and Maybe performances here, I kind of want to make the thread full of I'll Be There and Crickets Sing for AnaMaria performances too

 

 

 

DO ITTTTT :wub:

B-) now don't say you didnt ask for this :cheer:

 

I'll Be There

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crickets Sing For AnaMaria amazed at how many performances there are :wub:

 

 

This first one is my absolute FAVOURITE performance of this song!! THAT INTRO :yahoo:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HATS OFF TO BUNTON!! :w00t:

 

That's a lot of performances per single, an avarage of 10 per single on UK TV, which is quite a lot actually.

 

Good times. We didn't know how lucky we were back then but we got to experience this era and it should make us all very happy and proud :heart:

Edited January 27, 20214 yr by Mr.X

:wub: Pretty crazy that she did over 40 television performances for the era! Plus she performed 2 Become 1 on CD:UK. She was booked and busy :cheer:

:wub: Pretty crazy that she did over 40 television performances for the era! Plus she performed 2 Become 1 on CD:UK. She was booked and busy :cheer:

 

She really was :w00t:

 

She also performed these:

 

TOMORROW

2 BECOME 1

 

 

 

:cheer: Good times to be a Bunton fan really...

 

She also did a few European and USA TV performances (and a few private ones apparently too)

 

Some examples...

 

Germany

Italy

 

 

 

 

Greece

 

 

USA

 

 

 

And loads more. I remember she did a few in Germany and maybe some in Spain and France too? Not too sure but seem to remember, though cant find them now...

 

She was certainly busy :cheer:

Edited January 27, 20214 yr by Mr.X

^ Yup! In the US, I think she also did a performance on a short-lived Tony Danza talk show.

 

As great as the album is...and as wonderful as the era's videos are, her team's strategy in the US was super weird. What was released to American radio/MTV was a dance remix of Free Me...which wasn't at all indicative of the album. (the only place I ever saw/heard it was in an ad on The TV Guide Channel) Then, she didn't even perform that version of the song on shows...instead doing the original. As far as I can remember, no version of Maybe was ever released, though we did get that one performance on The View. I was always a little disappointed in it...because despite the stage in front of a larger American audience, the performance, energy, and general fabulousness feels scaled down from her UK appearances (this was also true of Geri's US Look at Me performances...the full set of dancers not have passports?).

 

Ultimately, I wish her team just had the confidence to give Maybe and Free Me a fair shot. They may not have taken off, but it wasn't too long after this that a few Brits got US hits off 60s-sounding songs. So.

 

Anyway. The interview bookings, they mostly got it right...though it was an oddball move to put her on ultra-conservative Fox News. This publicity tour also saw yet another disastrous "Spice Girl goes on Howard Stern" appearance...

Edited January 27, 20214 yr by Piers

I think they knew at that point that solo Spices just weren't taking off in the US, so they focused on the dance market for Free Me since that's where she was the most likely to have a hit. I don't think the plan was ever to attempt to have a proper hit but to try and slowly build her profile and maybe for future releases to gradually do better as she builds a fanbase there (obviously that didn't happen), but that also explains the scaled down performances - they obviously weren't going to spend money on something that ultimately was a low-key release.

 

I'd compare the strategy to what Kylie's been doing in the US after Body Language flopped.

 

ETA: Maybe was at the very least released to the clubs in the US.

Edited January 27, 20214 yr by tommie

I think they knew at that point that solo Spices just weren't taking off in the US, so they focused on the dance market for Free Me since that's where she was the most likely to have a hit. I don't think the plan was ever to attempt to have a proper hit but to try and slowly build her profile and maybe for future releases to gradually do better as she builds a fanbase there (obviously that didn't happen), but that also explains the scaled down performances - they obviously weren't going to spend money on something that ultimately was a low-key release.

 

I'd compare the strategy to what Kylie's been doing in the US after Body Language flopped.

 

ETA: Maybe was at the very least released to the clubs in the US.

 

Was the US Maybe release another remix? I seem to vaguely remember that.

 

Anyway. I'd agree with you that was probably Simon's US plan of attack. But I'd find that approach to be muddled as she wasn't doing anything to push herself in the dance direction. She was performing the regular versions of the songs and talking in interviews about loving the album's 60s sound. Also, if the Free Me remix had somehow actually taken off, it would have been something of a bait-and-switch for anyone buying the album based off the remix...and finding the album was nothing like it.

 

I'd assume the plan was to try to get them to take off on dance radio + club charts and if they took off, properly send them out to pop stations; it's not like anyone was forbidden to play the regular single version mixes. Again it's not an entirely unusual strategy to try and stir some mainstream interest by first focusing on one format in the US since there are so many charts.

No performance in France :(

The only solo song to get any sort of traction in the US was ITTY. The US dance market is niche but decent at the time if you could breakthrough on it.

You guys all talk like the Free Me and Maybe remixes completely bombed in the US, when in fact both of them were Top10 on the Dance chart? Those are big achivements specially for someone who had never released in the US before...

 

Yes the strategy was flawed as the original songs werent sent to radio, so what would be the point when no-one knows about the original songs and only hard-core fans and dance-fans know about the existence of the remixes?...

 

It was obvious that it wasnt going to smash with this strategy but I am just sorry that they didnt invest properly in these campaigns. Maybe, at least, could have been a hit there!

Edited January 27, 20214 yr by Mr.X

Another thing that bugs me about the gap between the early-2000s and the digital/streaming era was when a single had been in the shops for a few months to a year, depending on what shop you went to, making it difficult to get hold of again.

 

Unless that particular song that you were looking for was on an album, there was never any possibility of being able to purchase it again. If iTunes had been around in the early to mid-2000s and fans had heard a spice girls or solo song on TV or on the radio, they could go and download it and keep adding to their sales total.

 

And as I’ve said before in a different discussion many years ago, the girls, both as a group and as solo artists, technically lost years and years of trickle single sales until the digital revolution came along. You could buy the album but there was such a big gap between the physical era and the download era. It would have been so interesting to see their sales totals now had that gap never existed.

Edited January 27, 20214 yr by Spice Girls Net

You guys all talk like the Free Me and Maybe remixes completely bombed in the US, when in fact both of them were Top10 on the Dance chart? Those are big achivements specially for someone who had never released in the US before...

 

The US dance chart is a somewhat odd thing, though. This is the same chart where Mel C had success with I Turn To You...and Mel B's For Once In My Life got to #2. I know the chart description says that it's a national survey of club disc jockeys of the most played songs of the week.

 

But. I don't know. Even though she struggles on the Billboard charts now, nearly every song Madonna has released in the past ten years has ended up at #1 on that chart.

 

I'm not much of a club person. But I do have to wonder...were four different Madame X songs honestly the most played songs in American clubs for a week? Was For Once In My Life honestly the second most played song in American clubs at one time? Like I said. By and large, I wasn't there. Maybe they were. I just figured the crowds would be requesting remixes of the Billboard hits.

The labels have never been good at pushing the girls in the USA except for Geri. She got a very decent push with her first album and first single, lots of big TV shows and promo slots and then well advertised in Virgin Megastores across the country, when it charted just out of the top 40 though they basically abandoned it rather than trying to push it with a second single (which is bizarre as Mi Chico Latino was pretty much perfect for the Latin fused wave across the USA at the time). Then Melanie C got a smaller push with some appearances on TV shows but I don't recall seeing any big performance slots for her? Tbh Going down wasn't going to do anything over there, but then I turn to you kind of took off on it's own and Virgin USA did nothing to take advantage and help push the album or even the single onto the main Billboard chart, something which Melanie has been quite vocal about being annoyed at. Then Emma's label did this quite bizarre dance promo. None of the girls have been handled well over there ironically the two most successful ones weren't even involved in music rather Melanie B with TV and Victoria with fashion.

 

Also apparently Virgin made things really difficult for Bryan Adam's label working with Melanie C, he once commented about it in an interview about it and said that was why they didn't release it it in America... which was such a wasted opportunity for Mel over there. It made me wonder if the same applied to Missy Elliot's label with Melanie B as again it was such a wasted opportunity not to release that song there... both tracks sound perfect for US radio.

 

 

Another thing that bugs me about the gap between the early-2000s and the digital/streaming era was when a single had been in the shops for a few months to a year, depending on what shop you went to, making it difficult to get hold of again.

 

Unless that particular song that you were looking for was on an album, there was never any possibility of being able to purchase it again. If iTunes had been around in the early to mid-2000s and fans had heard a spice girls or solo song on TV or on the radio, they could go and download it and keep adding to their sales total.

 

And as I’ve said before in a different discussion many years ago, the girls, both as a group and as solo artists, technically lost years and years of trickle single sales until the digital revolution came along. You could buy the album but there was such a big gap between the physical era and the download era. It would have been so interesting to see their sales totals now had that gap never existed.

(Moved your post into here from Life in Mono :heart: )

 

I agree with all of this, and unfortunately it makes it quite difficult and ultimately unfair to compare different artists from different eras. Spice Girls group singles sales were phenomenal at the time but ultimately each one didn't really have much more than a 3 month shelf life before stock became low... and obviously the shelves literally had to include the most recent releases. Regarding the solo singles, a lot of their sales were honestly pretty good in the context of the time. It is a shame that for a few years they could add virtually nothing to those totals. Again, comparing different eras is futile, but with today's conditions hits like What Took You So Long? would definitely have had thousands of sales added to its total many months after release, with it being one of 2001's biggest hits. Oh well :heehee:

 

(I'm realising that this post of mine isn't specifically about Free Me, so...)

 

 

What do you all think about the artwork from this era? Which is your favourite cover? I think Maybe UK cover stands out the most to me, it's a captivating image - but she also looks stunning on both Free Me singles! Crickets... I hate how the colour of the background has made its way onto her neck

The US dance chart is a somewhat odd thing, though. This is the same chart where Mel C had success with I Turn To You...and Mel B's For Once In My Life got to #2. I know the chart description says that it's a national survey of club disc jockeys of the most played songs of the week.

 

But. I don't know. Even though she struggles on the Billboard charts now, nearly every song Madonna has released in the past ten years has ended up at #1 on that chart.

 

I'm not much of a club person. But I do have to wonder...were four different Madame X songs honestly the most played songs in American clubs for a week? Was For Once In My Life honestly the second most played song in American clubs at one time? Like I said. By and large, I wasn't there. Maybe they were. I just figured the crowds would be requesting remixes of the Billboard hits.

 

Im not sure it is just clubs though, isnt it also about radios that play remixes too?

 

Either way yes it is an odd chart but it did warrent her releasing an album there after Free Me took off in that chart so I guess they deemed it commercially-relevant enough (but not enough to do it properly lol)...

(Moved your post into here from Life in Mono :heart: )

 

I agree with all of this, and unfortunately it makes it quite difficult and ultimately unfair to compare different artists from different eras. Spice Girls group singles sales were phenomenal at the time but ultimately each one didn't really have much more than a 3 month shelf life before stock became low... and obviously the shelves literally had to include the most recent releases. Regarding the solo singles, a lot of their sales were honestly pretty good in the context of the time. It is a shame that for a few years they could add virtually nothing to those totals. Again, comparing different eras is futile, but with today's conditions hits like What Took You So Long? would definitely have had thousands of sales added to its total many months after release, with it being one of 2001's biggest hits. Oh well :heehee:

 

(I'm realising that this post of mine isn't specifically about Free Me, so...)

What do you all think about the artwork from this era? Which is your favourite cover? I think Maybe UK cover stands out the most to me, it's a captivating image - but she also looks stunning on both Free Me singles! Crickets... I hate how the colour of the background has made its way onto her neck

 

Do you think we could do some estimates of how many sales have been lost in that period? :arrr:

 

When it comes to art work, I think the Free Me pink album cover is Iconic. Trully a great cover. I was never fond of the international cover to be honest, it is very much a single-cover...

 

I'll Be There cover focused on her face is gorgeous, and so are the Free Me singles and Maybe ones. Crickets unfortunately is a bit meh. Such a fun track deserved better and we know there were some really great pictures left from that photo session...

WHAT ABOUT THE B-SIDES GUYS!!!??!?

 

It was an amazing and strange era for b-sides in Bunton world, I would say... I dont think she has the best collection of b-sides ever, but in this era she really gave us some absolute gems.

 

Free Me - both Who The Hell Are You and Tomorrow were stunning songs which really paved the way to the next single and the album overall. Of course, both ended up on the album too so they functioned more like previews of what was to come and whilst at the time I was a bit dissapointed we had already heard like half the album, both songs really fit well in the album so I am not complaining!

 

Maybe - Don't Tell Me You Love Me Anymore felt like a return to the A Girl Like Me sound, and a bit of an odd pairing with the iconic and experimental brilliancy of Maybe. Personally, it is one of her weaker songs and whilst it is nice, it never does much...

 

I'll Be There - Well, we all know how So Long is definitely her 'lost' gem, the song that should have made the album but somehow it was left out... Maybe it was a bit too different from the sound of the album, but there is a really good rawness to it that somehow fits in well with the rest of the album, to me at least. Not saying the rest of the album is full of raw sounding songs, but this has such a 'throwback' sound that it wouldnt sound out of place at all there...

 

And then of course Takin' it Easy is just gorgeous, fun pop. It's not her best ever, but it does a fun job. If she ever released a delux, I would imagine both these b-sides to make it!

 

Crickets - So Nice is so on point for her. It's perfect for her voice and the production is stunning. Eso Beso is just pure, unadultered fun! I love it, its so cheeky. And SHOUT OUT to that amazing Maybe (latino mix) which sounds like a straight up new song! A perfect combination of tracks, this single had!

 

Which ones are your favourites?! :cheer:

Did you see she posted about I'll Be Theres anniversary.

 

I'll Be There :wub:

 

Always one of my faves.