The #93 Album of All-Time in the Rock Era--"Spice" by the Spice Girls

Spice is the debut album from the Spice Girls. The album received considerable airplay, of course one of the factors in determining the Top Albums of All-Time. Five singles, especially, received considerable airplay and exposure for the album: "Wannabe", "Say You'll Be There", "2 Become 1", "Who Do You Think You Are" and "Mama". "Wannabe" was a number one song in 31 countries while the next two releases, "Say You'll Be There" and "2 Become 1" rose to #1 in 53 countries.  "If U (sp.) Can't Dance" and "Love Thing" are other quality tracks.  The album itself was #1 in 16 countries.  Again those latter statistics do not affect ranking in the U.S. Top 100 Albums but will come into play when we do the worldwide list.

What is especially impressive, and it's a testament of longevity that we also saw in the album II by Boyz II Men which ranked at #94--Spice was #1 for five weeks, #2 for five weeks and #3 for seven weeks. Too many Top Albums lists will only focus on weeks at #1. Having a #1 album is no small achievement, to be sure, but it is more impressive to see an album hang around the top three for 17 weeks than it is to see an album reach #1 for seven weeks and then fall completely out of the Top Ten. This album did not--it remained in the Top Ten for 32 weeks and was on the album chart for 105 weeks, more than two years. So far, the album has sold 7 million copies in the United States.  It has a Track Rating* of 8.84.

1.   "Wannabe" (M. Rowe, R. Stannard) --2:53

2.   "Say You'll Be There" (Elliott Kennedy) --3:56

3.   "2 Become 1" (Stannard, Rowe) --4:00

4.   "Love Thing" (Kennedy) --3:37

5.   "Last Time Lover" (Paul Wilson, Andy Watkins) --4:11

6.   "Mama" (Stannard, Rowe) --5:03

7.   "Who Do You Think You Are" (Watkins, Wilson) --3:59

8.   "Something Kinda' Funny" (Watkins, Wilson) --4:02

9.   "Naked" (Watkins, Wilson) --4:26

10.  "If U (sp.) Can't Dance" --3:50

The Spice Girls were:  Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell.   Absolute played multiple instruments, Jackie Drew played violin, Judd Lander was on harmonica, Greg Lester played guitar and rhythm guitar, Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard played keyboards and Tony Ward played cello.

Spice was recorded at Olympic Studios in Barnes, London in 1995 and 1996 and was produced by Matt Rowe, Richard Stannard, Eliot Kennedy and the production duo Absolute.  Engineers were Adrian Bushby, Al Stone and Jeremy Wheatley.  The album was mixed by Absolute, Andy Bradfield, Mark "Spike" Stent, Al Stone and Dave Way and Arranged by Craig Armstrong and Mark Beswick.  The album was released on November 4, 1996 on Virgin Records.


Coming in at #93 on the Top 100 Albums of All-Time in the Rock Era--Spice.