火辣辣 (1996)

Spice is the debut studio album by English girl group the Spice Girls, released in Japan on 19 September 1996 and in the United Kingdom on 4 November 1996 by Virgin Records. The album was recorded between 1995 and 1996 at Olympic Studios in Barnes, London, and Strongroom Studios in Shoreditch, London, by producers Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard, and the production duo Absolute. Spice is a pop album that incorporates styles such as dance, R&B and hip hop. It is considered to be the record that brought teen pop back, opening the doors for a wave of teen pop artists. Conceptually, the album centered on the idea of Girl Power, and the hype surrounding the group was compared to Beatlemania.

A worldwide commercial success, Spice topped the charts in more than 17 countries across the world, and was certified Multi-Platinum in 27 countries, Platinum in 14 countries and Gold in three countries, including 10-times Platinum in the United Kingdom and Canada, eight-times Platinum in Europe, and seven-times Platinum in the United States. It became the world's top-selling album of 1997, selling 19 million copies in over a year. The album has sold a total of 23 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album in music history by a girl group and one of the best-selling albums of all time.

Four singles were released from the album. The lead single, "Wannabe", reached number one in 37 countries, becoming one of the best-selling singles of all time as of 2010 by selling over six million copies worldwide. The next two singles, "Say You'll Be There" and "2 Become 1", reached number one in 53 countries. "Who Do You Think You Are" was released as the official Comic Relief single in the UK as a double A-side with "Mama" and both songs reached the top 20 in charts across Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In the band's native UK, all four singles went to number one on the UK Singles Chart and, on the Billboard Hot 100, the album spawned three top-five singles.

Background

In February 1994, Chris and Bob Herbert, who together with financer Chic Murphy traded under the business name of Heart Management, placed an advert in The Stage magazine, which asked the question: "Are you street smart, extrovert, ambitious, and able to sing and dance?". The management received hundreds of replies, but eventually reduced their search down to a final group of five girls: Victoria Beckham, Mel B, Melanie C, Geri Halliwell and Michelle Stephenson. The new band was originally called Touch and moved to a house in Maidenhead. Emma Bunton was the last to join after Stephenson dropped out when her mother became ill.

The group felt insecure about the lack of contract and were frustrated by the direction in which Heart Management was steering them. In October 1994, armed with a catalog of demos and dance routines, the group began touring management agencies.

They started to meet with producers, musicians and other business executives, among which were composer Tim Hawes, and writers Richard Stannard and Matthew Rowe. Hawes worked with the group and watched the evolution in their singing and writing abilities. Together they composed a song called "Sugar and Spice", which served as the inspiration behind the change of the group's name to "Spice". Eventually the name was changed again to "Spice Girls" due to an American rapper using the name "Spice" at the time. On 3 March 1995, because of the group's frustration at their management's unwillingness to listen to their visions and ideas, they parted from Heart Management. The group stole the master recordings of their discography from the management offices in order to ensure they kept full control of their own work.