Spice Girls’ ‘Spiceworld’ Turns 25 With New Expanded Editions
Since its initial 1997 release, the iconic UK girl group’s second album has since sold more than 14 million copies worldwide.
Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Spiceworld, the multi-million selling second album by the biggest girl band of all time – the Spice Girls release new and expanded versions of the album on multiple formats via UMC / Virgin Records – out November 4.
Curated by the band themselves, Spiceworld 25 brings together the original chart topping album with some of their favourite bonus tracks and B-Sides, along with previously unreleased live recordings from the Virgin Records archive.
The band say, “The ‘Spiceworld’ era was such a fun time for us; we’d just had a number one album with Spice, we were travelling all over the world and meeting our amazing fans, we released our second album AND we had our very own movie! Who would’ve thought it? It’s crazy to think that 25 years have passed.”
The iconic Spiceworld album, released on November 3, 1997, spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Official Charts UK album chart and 48 weeks on the UK Top 40. It sold 192,000 copies in the UK Week 1, passing a million sales after just eight weeks, reaching No. 1 in eleven other territories, No. 2 in Canada, No. 3 in the US and No. 6 in Japan. Spiceworld has since sold more than 14 million copies worldwide, including more than 1.6 million in the UK (where industry trade body the BPI has certified it 5 x Platinum) and 4.2 million in the US (certified 4 x Platinum by the RIAA).
Across the formats, highlights include fan favourite “Step To Me”, originally the soundtrack to a 1997 soft drinks campaign where fans were required to collect twenty pink ring pull tabs from cans in return for a four track ‘not in the shops’ CD single. ‘SPICEWORLD 25’ digital and 2CD formats include the previously unheard original demo recording.
Fans who have long clamored for a live album that captured the excitement generated by the Spice Girls’ hugely successful 1998 ninety-seven-date European and North America tour will delight at the four previously unreleased live recordings included on both the 2LP set and the 2 Cassette tape set, all captured at different venues.
Together with some timeless remixes, a search of the archives revealed a previously unreleased version of “Viva Forever” – the ‘John Themis Ambient Mix’ is named after the much in demand Australian-born guitarist who later co-wrote Emma Bunton’s April 2001 solo No. 1 “What Took You So Long”.
The digital, CD and cassette formats are rounded off by a brand new “Spice Girls Party Mix”, which pulls together some of the bands biggest and most popular hits in a near-fifteen minute fiesta of brilliant Pop music.
After their iconic 1996 debut single “Wannabe” topped the charts in 37 countries, Spice Girls’ debut album Spice went on to sell more than 31 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album of all time by a female group. The girls have gone on to sell more than 90 million records around the globe, releasing three studio albums and 11 singles and winning a host of awards including a BRIT Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music.
