Readers of That Grape Juice know what avid music lovers we are – especially of hits past.
So, just as our retrospective features ‘From the Vault’ and ‘TGJ Replay’ allow us the chance to re-spin the gems and jams of yesterday of one artist, our newest feature Chart Rewind – a variation of our current Retro Rewind assay – accedes salutes to an entire era of music history.
This week, we wanna take you back to ‘Wannabe’ – the debut single from history-making Brit girlband Spice Girls. After making a splash on the U.K. side of the pond in late 1996, the single was sent to test the waters in the U.S. at the top of the following year. History would show the girls passed the test with flying colors.
Ending the extensive reign of Toni Braxton‘s ‘Unbreak My Heart,’ the funky song shot to the Hot 100’s top spot after only 5 weeks. Lodged there for the 4 weeks that followed, ‘Wannabe’ may have catapulted the quintet into the pop stratosphere, but interestingly it would be their first and last time occupying the chart’s top slot.
Currently touted as one of the best-selling singles of all time by any female group, the pop cult classic also remains their signature tune. Take a listen after the jump and see what other familiar faces you remember from the top 25 this week in 1997…
Hot 100 This Week in 1997
Hot 100 This Week
See this week’s full chart check by clicking here.
Where is flopation?
Did Shakira’s last album go teeth whitener with all the promo it had? It had a ton of it, The Voice, Target, etc.
I can’t believe how much R&B was well received back then. Now people act as though it doesn’t/ never existed. #SMH
And when you compare the charts 19 year later, it makes you realize just how much people just don’t care if you’re not talented anymore!
Wow R&B used to rule, where are all the consumers now? Loved the spice girls too
The consumers of rnb are now mostly illegally downloading and only buying their favs albums.
The fans are getting into Stan wars and segregating…
A lot of those R&B tracks from the 90s aged really well. Can’t say the same for these Drake/Weeknd ripoff ass songs from Bryson Tiller, etc. His album will sound extremely dated by next year. Even Drake himself already moved away from that sound.
Music back then probably were the best into today music how it’s
Now hopefully some of u kids understand why those of us who grew up in the 90’s consider today’s music garbage.
Britney and the whole t*** pop explosion is what happened! (No Shade!) Every record label then after wanted a “Britney” or a boy band. And R&B acts slowly started getting back seated then by 2005ish R&B was obsolete and thus the quality of it went down. Hence why acts like Jazmine Sullivan and Ledsi and so forth can’t catch a break.
My God what a fanatastic list the one from 1997. In fact the #1 was probably the less talented artist/group in the whole list but it was cute.
Wow at that Jewel girl at #4 in singles charts. She was phenomenal during that time. Real songwriter and what a beautiful voice. You could never see something like that in the charts now except for Adele. And then Madonna, Whintey, U2, Toni and more… wow at the diversity and quality.
The ones from 2016 keeps being the worst in history. With Justin Beiber several laughable hits and now one more forgettable and fake Rihanna “hit”.
Just from the list in 1997 compared to the list now, you can actually see how much music has changed. I remember when the Spice Girls blew up back then. They were everywhere! It was like the British Invasion all over again! They were like the female version of The Beatles. But music has definitely changed. Most of the music now focuses on materialism, egotism, s**, drugs, etc. They may have touched on some of these topics back in the day. But, just about EVERY song was not about those things. People actually sung about love, love lost, family, socially conscience issues, etc. Now, everything is all about, “Look at me, I’m better than you, I have more money than you, You’re not on my level”, etc. I miss music that had “genuine” meaning behind it.