I highly doubt that to be honest... Simon was probably the one who told them to use the old sound/producers in the first place

I did a little more digging on the songwriters credited on Angels beside the Spice Girls. The producers of the track are French producers Yann Mace and Luc Leroy. They are known together as Trak Invaders. Heiðrún Anna, the other songwriter on the track does have an official Instagram. Maybe someone could ask her for more info on Angels.

 

https://www.instagram.com/heidrunna

https://www.discogs.com/artist/384835-Yann-Macé

https://www.discogs.com/artist/384837-Luc-Leroy

https://www.discogs.com/artist/979004-Trak-Invaders

 

This is all so interesting about the background of Angels. The Greatest Hits era is such a fascinating thing...with the team behind Angels, George Michael, and Ne-Yo all contacted to write for the girls. It just didn't seem like there was any particular direction. Maybe testing all sorts of things and seeing what worked?

 

I know the concept of someone writing for the girls without them present seems very against their brand...but then, it was clear the five of them were too busy to reunite for studio sessions. Different times perhaps called for a different approach. Obviously, I would love to hear Angels. But my guess is the group probably leaned toward material written with Richard Stannard, Matt Rowe, Emma, and Geri all in the room together. It probably felt at least more authentic to who they are as a group as opposed to "song that almost went to Jordin Sparks" (I don't mean that as a knock on Jordin or the song)

 

I will say this. The Angels writer saying Headlines came through at the last second is a bit of an odd statement. I'm not sure it went exactly like that. Over on the old DenDen forums, we had an insider (she worked for Geri) who was telling us about the progress of two songs Biff's team was doing...a ballad and a party song...that did, indeed, turn out to be Headlines and Voodoo. We also had paparazzi shots of Emma and Geri leaving the studio. I don't remember any of this being absurdly late in the process, per se. I kinda figure the Biff tracks were always likely to be favored...and the Angels writer was only given the bad news late in the game.

I find it fascinating precisely because they were stepping out of their sound during the recording process, trying new things...

 

At the time, for all we knew (and also judged by the name of the tour itself), it seemed like they were possibly trying to test the waters to have more music out, and it would make sense to try new sounds/approaches. The times had moved on and so had they, but also they all lived in different places and were not as 'together' as before, so the recording was done separately (this was confirmed by pretty much everyone at the time).

 

Headlines and Voodoo seemed to have always been a part of the GH, and it makes sense for them to tap into that sound in a Greatest Hits collection of music.

 

I think Simon and their A&R person at the lable probably sourced songs for them to try out for future releases or at least to just step into the studio again and try a new sound/approach. But it didn't work, and eventually the band disbanded again anyway...

 

What I find the most curious was the George Michael song... whilst George had a relation to all of them, that song was not Spice Girls-adjancent at all... yet it was written for them or with them in mind at the time...

 

I would love love love to hear all the unreleased songs from the Greatest Hits era!

From Heiðrún Anna's interview I get the sense the record label's A&R and Simon Fuller were looking for potential songs for the group to record for the greatest hits. They all had their own thing going and it wouldn't be possible for all of them to write new material together, which is a shame. It does sound like Simon was pushing for Angels to be the single, but the girls went with Headlines instead.

 

I'm surprised Melanie C recorded Voodoo. That song is easily one of their worst.

The girls prob didnt want to accept a song that was not written by them!

C U Next Tuesday aka Likely Stories has appeared again on YouTube :teresa:

 

Likely Stories is a decent song for an anniversary edition of Spice. It's funny one of the girls vetoed this song. It's not even dirty as originally rumored to be. The group has the opportunity to expand their discography, but they choose not to. It's so frustrating.

^ Emma sounds delish!

This would’ve been fairly cool in 1996. I think I prefer it to Feed Your Love. Could’ve been a b side.

 

Would like to see the lyrics though. Sounds like Emma sings “diddly-do day”. That can’t be right?

Edited December 11, 2024Dec 11 by McAndrew

Just stumbled across a quote from her old website where Emma mentioned she wrote 'a lot of songs by the piano' with writer Blair MacKichan but as far as I know, we only know of I'm Not Crying Over Yesterdays from the Life in Mono album.

 

Does anyone have access to the ASCAP music database to figure out if any other songs from Emma and Blair come up on there?

There's a few registered on ASCAP.

 

Come Whatever

Disappear With You

Me And My Amore

 

There's a few registered on ASCAP.

 

Come Whatever

Disappear With You

Me And My Amore

 

Great thank you so much

 

I hope we get to hear these one day :cheer:

This would’ve been fairly cool in 1996. I think I prefer it to Feed Your Love. Could’ve been a b side.

 

Would like to see the lyrics though. Sounds like Emma sings “diddly-do day”. That can’t be right?

 

Yeah but to be honest, just like in the case of Feed Your Love, these are rough demos. Had the song been chosen to be a potential part of Spice or even a b-side, a lot of production, re-write and re-recording would have happened before it got released.

 

These are just demos to try out melodies and song ideas. For that, I absolutely love both Feed Your Love and Likely Stories.

Say You'll Be There demo version with rap - has leaked! 😮

And its v amazing

Judging by the tag it may have originally been called "I'm Giving You Everything" in the demo stage?

Here's a reminder of the lyrics from the rap, which matches what could be heard in that clip from the One Hour from Girl Power video:

(Yeaaah I want you!)

Mel B: Not as a lover but a friend

Emma: But maybe we could get under the covers now and then

Geri: Just a little freaky, not too serious, Don’t lose the plot boy, don’t get delirious

Victoria: There's nothing wrong with being there for each other

Melanie C: I wanna be close like a sister or a brother

Melanie B: I’ll give you everything on this I swear

All: Just promise you’ll always be there!

I'd say... it's certainly fun to hear it after all this time, but I'm glad this rap didn't make it until the final version tbh. In my opinion they made the right call to take it out.

This really should have been included on Spice 25 though.

Geri Halliwell - Last Man Standing (leaked last week)

Where can we hear the Geri one?

They definitely made the right call re SYBT, the rap is cute but not needed, and Melanie C's line is weird lol. Deffo should have been on Spice 25 though.