What in your opinion, were the true 'singles that got away'?

Not really thinking about songs that were rumoured to be singles at the time, but those you would want to?

For me:

Spice: If You Cant Dance

I think this would have been a really great final single for the era, and would have properly closed up the era in 1997, showcasing the more 'darker' side of the album. It is also really cool song and I could see it given them credibility that they were starting to loose by summer 1997! It would have also allowed them to have more space/time before they released Spiceworld.

Spiceworld: Never Give Up On The Good Times

No doubt, this would have been a perfect single in late summer 1998, to coincide with the tour. It was screaming to be a single and would have cemented them as a 4-piece even more and get the whole ' they are nothing without Geri' behind them as the song as a positive message to go with!

Forever: If You Wanna Have Some Fun and Right Back At Ya (pop)

Had they launched the era in Spring 2000 with the pop version of Right Back At Ya, I could see it working really well for them and get everyone back on board! Then do Holler/LLLTW for summer and If You Wanna Have Some Fun as an Autumn release. Would have been the perfect run of singles!

A Girl Like Me: A World Without You

No brainer. This wouldnt have been a Christmas #1 for sure, but it would have sold well and brought more people to the album. Completely wasted potential!

Free Me: Breathing

I kind of wish she had gone with a Double A-side between Crickets and Breathing. It certainly would have brought another audience to the album. I mean, what a song, what a perfect song!

Life in Mono: All That You'll Be

As much as I think All I Need To Know was a perfect song, it wasnt a great single by any means. All That You'll Be would have been a much better ballad imo...

(I will do more later)...

Spice : Love Thing - I think they could have released one more single in the summer of 1997. With Love Thing, give it a new remix (the Instanbul & Spiceworld Live remix would be perfect), it would have gone number one for sure.

Spiceworld: Never Give Up On The Good Time - Definitely the biggest loss here. This screams a global classic hit that the general audience never got the taste off. A guaranteed number one again. With the positive message, the song would be requested and played non-stop.

Move Over - Could have been released prior to Spice Up Your Life too since it was already a jingle and fans would have rushed to buy it since it's not featured on the album (yet).

Forever - If You Wanna Have Some Fun - To me, it's probably the likeliest song of the album that could have been big as it still has the spice girls sound to it.

A Girl Like Me : Spell it O.U.T. - maybe a remix to make it faster?

Free Me : No Sign of Life - Another James Bond anthem vibe that could have done well

Life In Mono : I wasn't looking when I found love - It's lush and lovely and could have gone well I think

Spice Girls

If U Can't Dance could have been a cool single indeed, but I think a single mix might have been required? I feel the same about Love Thing actually. Both cool tracks that had potential to be hits, but may have needed a bit of extra polish to suit as singles. Not necessarily radical changes, just a bit of sprucing up like both Mama and Who Do You Think You Are had.

Already releasing 5 songs out of the 10 as singles was a high proportion - would another one have pushed things too far? I wonder if the Spice phenomenon would have pushed yet another single to #1 in the UK, or if they'd have had their "Stop" moment then.

Never Give Up on the Good Times is definitely the most major 'single that got away'! Probably needed a radio edit but only in the sense of shortening it rather than altering the production. I don't think anything else from Spiceworld needed single status.

Pop version of Right Back at Ya would have started that era off nicely, in early 2000 like you say! That could have worked. I never would have wanted the R&B version to be a single though. If You Wanna Have Some Fun had hit potential. I would argue Tell Me Why had hit potential, but in a way I'm glad it didn't become one.

Emma

I certainly agree with your A Girl Like Me and Free Me choices. Perhaps Sunshine on a Rainy Day might have been a nice single in Spring 2002!

Life in Mono: All That You'll Be is a beaut for sure, but tbh I think it would have had much the same outcome as All I Need to Know. I don't think that album has incredibly obvious single choices. Take Me to Another Town is one of the catchier moments but I just can't see it being a hit.

Geri

I think she got Schizophonic just right.

Scream If You Wanna Go Faster... Circles Round the Moon was the missed opportunity from that album.

Passion: Love Never Loved Me for sure. Maybe she was destined to flop regardless of whatever she put out in 2005, but I think that would have been a less divisive choice of single than Desire.

Melanie C

Maybe a dance mix of Feel the Sun would have been a nice single for Northern Star? It was a great singles run though, and yes I'm including both Goin' Down and If That Were Me in that!

I don't exactly love Reason (the song) but maybe that was worth a try because she seemed really passionate about that song in particular. I personally prefer Positively Somewhere but I'm not sure if that's single material.

Last Night on Earth for Beautiful Intentions. Kind of funny that 2 of its 3 singles (Better Alone/First Day of My Life) don't really showcase what the album is mostly like.

This Time in its album version form instead of the sombre single mix. I don't think anything else had great potential.

Burn is the obvious missed opportunity from The Sea, even if by this point she was destined to miss the chart no matter what she chose.

I don't think she was spoiled for choice for Version of Me tbh.

She chose the best from self-titled but Good Enough or Here I Am could have worked.

Mel B

Hotter.

Victoria

So I do really like both Not Such an Innocent Girl and A Mind of Its Own, particularly AMOIO I have a soft spot for, but I also think they were two rather strange choices to try and sell that album. Neither of those tracks showcase that most of the album is quite cohesive i.e. That Kind of Girl Like That, Girlfriend, Midnight Fantasy, No Trix No Games, I Wish and Whatcha Talkin' About - to me - feel like they all compliment each other and that they belong together on this album. The single choices feel like outliers. Anyway, Like That or I Wish would be my top choices.

Second era... My Love Is for Real sounded like it had potential tbh, it's a shame she didn't give things one last shot with that. I know she'd pretty much abandoned the initial pop/dance sessions but Open Your Eyes is a banger.

Spice - was perfect , 4 huge singles (5 including the double a side)

Spiceworld - NGUOTGT should have remained as the Double A side with VF

Forever - IYWHSF single version , 4th should have been Tell Me Why , this would have ensures album sales continued!!

Northern Star - Closer single version should have replaced ITWM

Reason - (was a huge mess)

1. Yeh Yeh Yeh

2. Here It Comes Again

3. Lets Love

4. Love To You

Beautiful Intentions - Little Piece Of Me was such the sound of that time and i think was a missed opportunity.

This Time - Your Mistake instead of This Time

The Sea - was happy

Version Of Me - No singles on this album apart from Anymore

Melanie C - Good Enough / Overload remix should have replaced Fearless

Victoria Beckham - I Wish and Midnight Fantasy should have been the singles!

Melanie B - Hotter

Emma - A World Without You with a xmas video would have been my choice.

Take Me to Another Town should have been the single after Downtown and then All I Need To Know!

Geri - happy with first two albums!

And i can see why she went with Desire as it was the sound at that time!

Edited August 19Aug 19 by vibe

Melanie C

Northern Star - like Jay, I would have loved her to go a bit more left field again and do this remix of Feel The Sun. That would have been so so good, in my opinion. Dance again and experimental!

Reason - I don't think 'Reason' would have been a good single. It's a great song but not very radio-friendly at all... maybe with an edit?... I think maybe Yeah Yeah Yeah should have led the campaign and then follow with Positively Somewhere or Let's Love.

Beautiful Intentions - Little Piece of Me or Don't Need This would have been great singles imo

Version of Me - Probably Loving You Better but I am not sure...

Melanie C - Overload would have been good single!

Melanie B

Hot - Hotter for sure

Victoria Beckham

VB - Like That and I Wish were the obvious choices!

Geri Halliwell

Scream - probably Circles Around the Moon

Passion - Love Never Loved Me

For me both Spice and Spice World have a perfect singles run.

It's not east to decide for Forever. The sound is consistent. No song stands out or is different. Also I think IFWHSF is overrated.

Northern Star is perfect and Reason also.

Beautiful Intentions could have been a good fourth single, also I like Your Mistake from This Time.

Burn was the obvious choice. It was a missed opportunity.

Stages, Version of Me and Melanie C have a perfect singles run.

From A Girl Like Me I would have chosen High On Love for Mother's Day. World Without You in my opinion is not single material.

From Free Me, I would have like Breathing and No Sign of Life.

From Life in Mono, Take Me to Another Town and also Perfect Strangers.

And from My Happy Place I hoped for better treatment for Too Many Teardrops.

Schizophonic is perfect.

Circles Around the Moon and Love Never Loved Me deserved to be a single.

For Mel B, Hotter and If I Had My Life Again.

A lot of songs have potential from Victoria's album. Midnight Fantasy, Girlfriend, I Wish...

If U Can't Dance would have been a nice addition to their singles. The girls clearly love it as they always perform it on tour. I agree with Mr. X, they were losing some of their credibility/cool factor by the summer of 1997. If U Can't Dance would have probably helped them with retaining that.

Never Give Up On The Good Times and If You Wanna Have Some Fun are no brainers.

Melanie C is notorious for releasing the wrong songs as singles. If That Were Me, Here It Comes Again, Better Alone, I Want Candy, The Moment You Believe, Rock Me, Weak, Let There Be Love, Dear Life, Hold On, and Fearless should not have been singles.

Two of her biggest missed single opportunities are Go and Independence Day.

I think 'Never Give Up...' is the big one and would've liked to see it shine on its own, but it feels well-known enough by most regardless.

With Mel C, I can only really think of 'Burn' criminally not being a single but like Jay rightly said she was way past the point of making any chart impact by that point. 'First Day Of My Life' should've been given a UK release, would've probably been at least a top 20 hit for her.

Geri, 'Circles Round The Moon' should've been the single instead of 'Calling'. I think 'Love Never Loved Me' would've perhaps been a wiser choice, but at that point I'm not convinced anything would've performed better (and I do love 'Desire' anyway)

With Emma... perhaps a single mix of 'A World Without You' instead of 'We're Not Gonna Sleep...', and also for 'Downtown' to have never happened, 'Take Me To Another Town' to be the single instead and allow Dannii to have had the CIN single as originally planned! Life In Mono bombed off the back of 'Downtown' anyway so an original better song may have helped.

With Mel B I don't really care enough, 'Hotter' would've been a better choice than 'Lullaby' but the album had long bombed by that point and there was no saving it.

With Victoria, definitely 'I Wish' instead of whatever that second single was at least. Probably wouldn't have saved the album though.

This is such a what if thread, I love it!

Spice Girls

Spice - Love thing / Step to me (double a-side)

I don't get the uber love for If u can't dance!? The tour version is excellent but on the album it sounds like a demo, think it would have needed a remix for it to be a single. Love thing however screams to be a single, if they have kept Step to me back or used something else for PEPSI (Move over jingle) then a double a-side single with these two would have been a fantastic bridge from Spice to Spiceworld.

Spiceworld - Never give up on the good times

As mentioned several times, this was such a missed opportunity. They didn't even need to film a video for it just do a tour montage video and some studio recording snap shots.

Forever - Right back at ya (pop version) and If you wanna have some fun (radio edit)

I also totally agree with Mr X about had Forever been released earlier (after the Brit Awards) then Right back at ya would have beena great pop launch for the album, moving into Holler / LLLTW and then closing out the era with If you wanna have some fun, however IYWHSF would have needed a shorter radio edit as the end is FAR too long. Again this nods to their pop roots they were more known for, it would be such a cool tour opener too.

The above releases would also have helped balance out some of the ballad / uptempo song ratio too as they do have too many ballads on the GH lol.

Melanie C

Northern Star - Feel the sun (remix) / Closer (double a-side)

Melanie did a live performance of FTS with a dancey production to it at one of her shows and I've always thought ever since that she missed a trick not releasing it as a single, especially after the huge success of ITTY at the time. I guess she wanted to showcase another side of the album with ITWM, and I do love it a lot so perhaps as a double a-side would have been better. I personally would have chosen Closer for the double a-side though, the production on that is divine and could see some gorgeous performances of it on TV shows.

Reason

Here it comes again / Yeh, yeh, yeh ( double a-side to showcase two sides to album)

I love without trying or Living without you

I think single one needed to showcase a bit of the album. I love HICA and I will die on a hill for it but I think a double a-side with YYY would have worked better, even with the same video as it's a good video. I think OTH was a strong second single choice and I still don't really understand why it didn't connect properly, Ronan Keating would have had an easy top 5 with the same single. Third single either ILYWT or LWY both outrageously b-sides should have been released as singles.

Beautiful Intentions

Last night on earth - this should have been released as the second single over BA, it showcases the album better and is much more anthemic.

First day of my life (UK release) - she really had nothing to lose by releasing this, and the interviews could have bigged up how successful it had been in Europe, she might have gotten some more radio play than usual due to it being a hit already too. Surely she could have gotten another top 20 hit at the time with it if IWC managed top 30?

This Time

I want candy should never have been released or at least it should have been a stand alone single away from the album to promote the movie.

Understand - instead she should have launched the album with this single in the UK and TMYB in Germany.

Already gone - should never have been a b-side it's stronger than the whole album. Carolyna was a good single choice for second single and it got a lot of radio play in Europe but I'd close out with AG instead of TT or at the very least the album version of TT which is way superior.

The Sea

Burn - I absolutely love Weak, and obviously it was one of her bigger radio hits in the UK so it did it's job on that side. Burn however was definitely a missed choice

Stupid game - I feel like this showcased another sound for the album ala NS era and I would have to have seen this have it's moment to shine.

Stages - Nothing

Version Of Me - Loving you better over Dear life.

Melanie C - Think she got this spot on tbh.

Geri

Schizophonic - Perfect choices tbh wouldn't change it at all, perhaps Walkaway as a double a-side for Look at me if she wanted to show the "schizo" side of the album on first release.

Scream if you wanna go faster - Strength of a woman and Circles around the moon

Think SOAW gets totally slept on and should have been the second single after It's raining men. It's very on brand, very radio friendly and I think would have fared far better than Scream as a single.

CATM should have been a fourth single, it would have been an easy top 20 and probs top 10. Geri obviously did not want to risk missing the top 10 though.

Passion - Love never loved me and Feel the fear

The obvious single of the album, should have been released over Desire and in fact should have been the single instead of Ride it.

Geri was also approached and considered for CIN in 2004 with Feel the fear. While I don't think it's a majorly missed opportunity album sales wise it would very likely have given her another top 5 hit at least which would have been nice for her.

Emma

A Girl Like Me - A world without you or High on love

Agree about the Christmas ballad statements, probs would have struggled against bigger releases then though.

Free Me - Breathing

A total misfire not releasing this, if she wanted to showcase Crickets then I understand but DEFINITELY should have been a double a-side! Easily the fourth top 10 single from the album!

Life In Mono - Take me to another town or Mischievous

Neither are my favourite track, I love Perfect Strangers, but these two are far more radio friendly!

Melanie B

Hot - Hotter

The obvious hit of the album can't believe they released Lullaby over it???

LA State Of Mind - If I had my life again

Nothing was going to hit with this tbh but this is the best song on the album and may have at least managed top 40.

Victoria Beckham

VB - Midnight Fantasy / Like that / I wish

These three were the OBVIOUS single choices from this album, again not sure what they were thinking with NSAIG and AMOIO?

Edited August 20Aug 20 by Spiceboy

SPICE: The singles are the right ones. For me, the only other track that comes a bit close is NAKED.

SPICEWORLD: Saturday Night Divas!!!

FOREVER: Right Back at Ya.

Spice Girls : The Lady Is A Vamp (their best song)

Geri : Circles Round The Moon (instead It's Raining Men), I Was Made That Way (or Streigth Of A Woman), Passion.

2 hours ago, Last Dreamer said:

Spice Girls : The Lady Is A Vamp (their best song)

The concept of the Spice Girls releasing this as a single and destroying their Top 10 streak a decade before Headlines did it for them

(Lol in all seriousness I have no idea how this would have charted as a single but I've never once considered it to be single material)

22 hours ago, -Jay- said:

The concept of the Spice Girls releasing this as a single and destroying their Top 10 streak a decade before Headlines did it for them

(Lol in all seriousness I have no idea how this would have charted as a single but I've never once considered it to be single material)

Yeah I never thought about The Lady is a Vamp as a single either... I find that it's always been a meh song, that works within the album but it is not really needed as a stand alone lol

On 20/08/2025 at 07:43, Babyboy said:

From Life in Mono, Take Me to Another Town and also Perfect Strangers.

And from My Happy Place I hoped for better treatment for Too Many Teardrops.

THE TRUTH!!!

Love me Perfect Strangers and could totally see it being a lovely single actually!

OK so I LOVE Lady is a vamp, I think it is the PERFECT closing track for Spiceworld and it's severely underrated by the Spice fandom (but loved by the girls). However it would not have made a good single, I think every other track on the album would be a better single tbh/

Go is a great shout for a single !!!

And Already Gone ♥️

"Lady Is A Vamp" is very old fashioned (like the most tracks from "Passion"), so I can understand small love for this beautiful track.

Don't judge me very strict, but it's only one Spice Girls song, which I like.

Goin' Down's Spotify plays kind of prove it shouldn't have been a single. It hasn't crossed the million mark yet while other songs such as Dear Life, If That Were Me and On The Horizon has.

Go would have made for a better lead single. It's much more radio friendly and also works as a statement of leaving the group.

Edited Saturday at 21:483 days by Sideout

19 hours ago, Sideout said:

Goin' Down's Spotify plays kind of prove it shouldn't have been a single. It hasn't crossed the million mark yet while other songs such as Dear Life, If That Were Me and On The Horizon has.

Go would have made for a better lead single. It's much more radio friendly and also works as a statement of leaving the group.

Totally agree that Goin Down shouldnt have been a single... I thought it was plain embarrasing lol she might like her rock music but she sounded awful in it, the song itself sounds like a try-hard... If she wanted to do a rock-start, she could have picked the better rock songs: either Ga Ga or Suddenly Monday.

Im not sure on Go! actually... it is a great album opener but I don't think it would have been a great single. I think she should have gone with Northern Star as the lead single.

Goin' Down video being notable enough to have French and Saunders do a skit of it though Iconic x