Posted January 21, 20214 yr Emma Bunton's Official Top 10 biggest songs in the UK 21 January 2021 | By Jack White January 21 marks Baby Spice's date of birth, so what better time to look back at the success of the Spice Girl's solo hit singles. Number 1 20 years ago, Emma's first solo single as a lead artist What Took You So Long? kick-started her solo career in style. Emma reunited with Spice Girls hitmaker Biff Stannard (Kylie Minogue, Ellie Goulding, Will Young), for What Took..., with its signature guitar and desert highway music video setting Emma's first solo effort apart from the other girls' singular offerings. Emma's only chart-topping single in her own right, What Took You So Long? is her most physically purchased and streamed song, racking up 295,000 combined sales, split between 270,000 paid-for sales and 2.9 million streams. Prior to What Took You So Long?'s release, Emma dipped her toe into solo territory, featuring on electronic duo Tin Tin Out's What I Am in 1999. Famously released the same day as Geri Halliwell's solo single Lift Me Up, Emma ended up in the runner-up position that week, and What I Am also ranks second in her solo best-sellers. What I Am has notched up chart sales of 234,000, which includes 225,000 CD and download units, and one million streams. Follow-up to What Took You So Long?, the Number 5 hit Take My Breath Away, is Emma's third most popular solo single, the Number 6-peaking Maybe from 2003 finishes fourth, and Emma's most downloaded single Downtown is Number 5 in her discography's best-selling songs. Rounding out the Top 10, 2003 Top 5 hit Free Me ranks in sixth, Emma's unexpected cover of Crickets Sing For Anamaria hits ninth, and Melanie C collaboration I Know Him So Well lands in tenth. Emma Bunton's Official Top 10 biggest songs in the UK POS TITLE ARTIST PEAK YEAR 1 WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG EMMA BUNTON 1 2001 295k 2 WHAT I AM TIN TIN OUT FT EMMA BUNTON 2 1999 234k 3 TAKE MY BREATH AWAY EMMA BUNTON 5 2001 4 MAYBE EMMA 6 2003 5 DOWNTOWN EMMA BUNTON 3 2006 6 FREE ME EMMA 5 2003 7 I'LL BE THERE EMMA 7 2004 8 WE'RE NOT GONNA SLEEP TONIGHT EMMA BUNTON 20 2001 9 CRICKETS SING FOR ANAMARIA EMMA 15 2004 10 I KNOW HIM SO WELL MELANIE C FT EMMA BUNTON N/A 2012 ©2021 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved. https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/e...-the-uk__32251/
January 21, 20214 yr Author Adding in sales that Jay received in May/June last year: 1 WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG EMMA BUNTON 1 2001 295k 2 WHAT I AM TIN TIN OUT FT EMMA BUNTON 2 1999 234k 3 TAKE MY BREATH AWAY EMMA BUNTON 5 2001 90k 4 MAYBE EMMA 6 2003 89k 5 DOWNTOWN EMMA BUNTON 3 2006 82k 6 FREE ME EMMA 5 2003 57k 7 I'LL BE THERE EMMA 7 2004 41k 8 WE'RE NOT GONNA SLEEP TONIGHT EMMA BUNTON 20 2001 37k 9 CRICKETS SING FOR ANAMARIA EMMA 15 2004 20k 10 I KNOW HIM SO WELL MELANIE C FT EMMA BUNTON N/A 2012 10k Criminally low sales for 'Maybe' i.e. one of the best pop songs of the 2000s!!
January 21, 20214 yr Physical sales were really low in the 2000s, so those songs were much bigger than the sales suggest.
January 21, 20214 yr 'What Took You So Long' is such an overrated song. 'Maybe' however is ace! Need to dig out the Free Me album again, it's been such a long time.
January 21, 20214 yr Maybe is brilliant and her best song by far. Shame it was the second single from the second album so interest had already waned, as well as sales having collapsed by that point generally. Edited January 21, 20214 yr by JulianT
January 21, 20214 yr Take My Breath Away being higher than Maybe threw me but I guess it shows how sales were collapsing at the time. Can’t believe Maybe isn’t over 100k. One of the best solo Spice Girls songs.
January 21, 20214 yr I was too young for the Free Me and Maybe mature sound tbh. Maybe sounds a bit like Biology by GA, which I also didn't like at the time. I wonder how big it would have been released after What Took You So Long though... People were all in on the solo Spices in 2000/2001, wo if one released a bop it smashed.
January 21, 20214 yr Iconic set of solo tracks - still love her music especially her ‘Free Me’ and ‘Life In Mono’ albums :wub: Edited January 21, 20214 yr by ___∆___
January 21, 20214 yr Maybe should be Emma's biggest hit - probably my favourite solo Spice song alongside When You're Gone (if that counts) and This Groove. The title says Burton btw. :P
January 21, 20214 yr Maybe should be Emma's biggest hit - probably my favourite solo Spice song alongside When You're Gone (if that counts) and This Groove. The title says Burton btw. :P This Groove :wub:
January 21, 20214 yr 'Free Me' and 'I'll Be There' are both sublime, and actually that whole album is pretty decent!
January 21, 20214 yr The title says Burton btw. :P Edited :cool: Like others have said, her 'Free Me' era sales are criminally low! As pointed out, physical sales were pretty low back then :( Free Me era also suffered a bit due to the album not being available to download for quite a few years. 'Maybe' sold 68,000 in 2003 and that was enough for it to be the 96th best selling single of the year. Whereas 'Take My Breath Away' sold 77,000 in 2001 but was only the 151st best seller of the year. Maybe has managed to close the gap since June 2009: 81,015 - Take My Breath Away 77,247 - Maybe May 2020: 90,281 - Take My Breath Away 88,848 - Maybe
January 21, 20214 yr Author Even for the time, the sales for 'Maybe' seem so low. I remember it being all over the music channels! I also remember I had some sort of 2003 hits compilation on cassette and this, 'Sweet Dreams My L.A. Ex' and 'Superstar' were my three go-to songs. I tried to find the album online but no such luck.
January 21, 20214 yr I've just heard 'Free Me' (the song) for possibly the first time in 10-15 years and my god it's AWFUL. I actually used to like it back then.
January 21, 20214 yr I've just heard 'Free Me' (the song) for possibly the first time in 10-15 years and my god it's BRILLIANT. Corrected that for you ;)
January 21, 20214 yr 'What Took You So Long' is such an overrated song. I've just heard 'Free Me' (the song) for possibly the first time in 10-15 years and my god it's AWFUL. I actually used to like it back then. Aly... please don't come back to this thread, thank you x
January 21, 20214 yr I've just heard 'Free Me' (the song) for possibly the first time in 10-15 years and my god it's AWFUL. I actually used to like it back then. Should do something about your ears cause they seem to have a malfunctioning.
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