Forever (Spice Girls album)

Forever
Studio album by Spice Girls
Released	6 November 2000
Recorded	1998–2000
Genre	Pop, R&B, dance-pop
Length	49:28
Label	Virgin
Producer	Richard Stannard, Matt Rowe, Rodney Jerkins, Fred Jerkins III, Harvey Mason, Jr., Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis
Spice Girls chronology
Spiceworld (1997) Forever (2000) Greatest Hits (2007)
Singles from Forever
"Goodbye" Released: 14 December 1998 "Holler" / "Let Love Lead the Way" Released: 23 October 2000

Forever is the third and final studio album by the English pop girl group the Spice Girls, released in 2000. It is their only album without Geri Halliwell, who later reunited with the group for their Greatest Hits release in 2007. The album saw a huge drop in sales, as the album barely cracked the Billboard 200 Top 40 at #39 selling only 34,000 copies in its first week, compared to their first two albums partly because of lack of promotion especially in the United States, where their previous albums sold multi-platinum. In the end, Forever managed to sell 5 million copies worldwide, peaked at number two in the United Kingdom and number one in Brazil.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	(45/100)
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Amazon	(negative)
Billboard	(positive)
CDNOW	(positive)
Entertainment.ie
Entertainment Weekly	(C)
Rolling Stone
Sonic Net	(mixed)

Upon its release, the album received mixed to average reviews from most music critics, based on an aggregate score of 45/100 from Metacritic. Stephen Thomas Erlewine editor from Allmusic rated it two-stars out of five and said that: "Sure, they make all the right moves, hiring superstar producer Rodney Jerkins to helm most of the tracks and attempting to seem mature, but this all results in a record that is curiously self-conscious and flat." Erlewine conclued that: "Forever plays like the Girls realized that it's their final album, and they put in just enough effort to make it palatable, but not enough to make it appetizing." The Billboard review was positive, saying that: "The set oozes with timely funk beats and the kind of well-crafted songs that No. 1 hits are made of." Courtney Kemp from Amazon was negative, by saying that: "Forever's strategy is a serious misstep--one that will disappoint their old fans and alienate new ones." The CDNOW review was positive, stating that Forever is "a frothy soufflé of an album, heavy on the groovy dance beats and go-girl goodwill, light on profundity." Andrew Lynch from Entertainment.ie gave the album a rating of two stars (out of five) and said that: "The production is as slick as ever, but all of that old Girl Power enthusiasm seems to have drained away- and with it most of the fun that used to redeem their fundamental tackiness. A sorry, half-hearted footnote to a truly remarkable pop phenomenon." James Hunter from Rolling Stone was mixed, by saying that: "Forever, will probably provoke a reaction somewhere in the middle — with one exception, it's just OK." David Browne from Entertainment Weekly gave to the album a "C" rating. He said that: "Every genre cliché, from homogenized harmonies to delicately plucked stringed instruments to male rapper interjections, is securely in place. The music is so tasteful, restrained, and assembly line proficient that it makes early singles like Say You'll Be There sound like the rawest punk rock." The Sonic Net review said that: "Yes, this is their "mature" album, the one where the once effervescent combo that could be counted on for enough hooky innuendoes to excite pre-teen girls and dirty young men alike aspire toward some sort of longer-lasting pop relevance. Which translates here into ballads and a huge dose of R&B-lite. It all sounds very professional, though only a hardcore fan can deny that the bloom is definitely off the rose."

Track listing

#	Title	Songwriter(s) and prodcuers	Lead vocals	Length
1.	"Holler"	Victoria Beckham, Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm, Rodney Jerkins, LaShawn Daniels, Fred Jerkins III Produced by: Rodney Jerkins a.k.a Darkchild	Brown, Chisholm, Bunton, Beckham	4:15
2.	"Tell Me Why"	V. Beckham, M. Brown, E. Bunton, R. Jerkins, L. Daniels, F. Jerkins III, Mischke Butle Produced by: Rodney Jerkins a.k.a Darkchild	Beckham, Bunton, Brown, Chisholm	4:13
3.	"Let Love Lead the Way"	V. Beckham, M. Brown, E. Bunton, M. Chisholm, R. Jerkins, L. Daniels, F. Jerkins III, Harvey Mason, Jr.. Produced by: Harvey Mason Jr, and Rodney Jerkins	Chisholm, Beckham, Bunton, Brown	4:57
4.	"Right Back at Ya"	V. Beckham, M. Brown, E. Bunton, M. Chisholm, Eliot Kennedy, Tim Lever Produced by: Uncle Freddie	Brown, Chisholm, Bunton, Beckham	4:09
5.	"Get Down with Me"	V. Beckham, M. Brown, E. Bunton, R. Jerkins, L. Daniels, F. Jerkins III, M. Butler, Robert Smith Produced by: Rodney Jerkins and Robert Smith	Brown, Bunton, Beckham, Chisholm	3:45
6.	"Wasting My Time"	M. Brown, E. Bunton, M. Chisholm, L. Daniels, F. Jerkins III Produced by: Uncle Freddie	Bunton, Chisholm, Beckham	4:13
7.	"Weekend Love"	V. Beckham, M. Brown, E. Bunton, M. Chisholm, R. Jerkins, L. Daniels, F. Jerkins III Produced by: Rodney Jerkins	Bunton, Chisholm, Brown, Beckham	4:04
8.	"Time Goes By"	V. Beckham, M. Brown, E. Bunton, R. Jerkins, L. Daniels, F. Jerkins III, M. Butler Produced by: Rodney Jerkins and Uncle Freddie	Chisholm, Bunton, Brown, Beckham	4:51
9.	"If You Wanna Have Some Fun"	V. Beckham, M. Brown, E. Bunton, M. Chisholm, James Harris III, Terry Lewis Produced by: Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis	Brown, Bunton, Beckham, Chisholm	5:25
10.	"Oxygen"	V. Beckham, M. Brown, E. Bunton, M. Chisholm, J. Harris III, T. Lewis Produced by: Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis	Chisholm, Bunton, Beckham, Brown	4:55
11.	"Goodbye"	V. Beckham, M. Brown, E. Bunton, M. Chisholm, Richard Stannard, Matt Rowe Produced by: Richard Stannard and Matt Rowe	Bunton, Brown, Chisholm, Beckham	4:35

Singles

Released Singles

• "Goodbye" (1998) #1 UK
• "Holler"/"Let Love Lead the Way" (2000) #1 UK

Cancelled Singles

Further planned singles to be released off the album never materialized in 2001. However promotional singles of the songs "Weekend Love", "If You Wanna Have Some Fun", and "Tell Me Why" surfaced and went into circulation. In November 2000 "Tell Me Why" was syndicated to UK radio networks, whilst a promotional montage video for "If You Wanna Have Some Fun" was released to UK television networks. "Tell Me Why" was widely believed to be the second UK single to be released from the album.

• "Tell Me Why" was written by Victoria Beckham, Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown and various other writers. Melanie C was not involved with the writing of this song due to scheduling conflicts with her solo album, Northern Star. The song is about the remaining Spice Girls' frustration after ex-bandmate, Geri Halliwell, left the group.
• "If You Wanna Have Some Fun" was written by Victoria Beckham, Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm along with producers Jimmy Jam and Rodney Jerkins during the London recording sessions. A promotional video was created by Virgin and was distributed to UK television networks. The video includes footage, chronicling the Spice Girls' journey to stardom. Geri Halliwell was strategically edited out of every shot. Promotional singles were pressed and distributed to various media outlets. It was widely rumored that "If You Wanna Have Some Fun" would be the lead North American single released from Forever.
• "Weekend Love" was written by Victoria Beckham, Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm and various other writers. The song is about a girl who has grown tired of her lover after a weekend fling. Melanie Brown offers an R&B rap for the bridge of the song in which she mentions the album's producer Darkchild ("Darkchild and all my girls got my back like that"). Promotional singles were pressed and distributed to various media outlets.
• "Oxygen" has been released in a promotional CD-R version in South America (particularly in Brazil where it received airplay in 2000) and other locales including Asia and Oceania.

Other Recorded Tracks

The Spice Girls began recording material for Forever in 1998 during the North American leg of their Spice World Tour. Once again, the girls teamed up with recording duo, Richard "Biff" Stannard and Matt Rowe. This is when "Goodbye" was recorded. In the two years between the release of "Goodbye" in December 1998 and the release of Forever in November 2000, the Girls, along with the pop-music landscape in general, changed dramatically. Hoping to cultivate a more mature image, the Girls teamed up with a team of new, American producers to give Forever a more R&B sound. Unfortunately, this meant that much of what was recorded with Stannard & Rowe would be excluded from Forever.

Among these excluded tracks is a song entitled "W.O.M.A.N." As late as December 1999, it appeared that the Girls had every intention of including it on their forthcoming album, as they performed it at their Christmas In Spiceworld tour. The song was thought to be too much in the vein of Spiceworld and ultimately this is why it was not included. In an interview with biographer David Sinclair, Stannard relays his disappointment of the omission of "W.O.M.A.N.: "I thought that song was really interesting lyrically, because it was making the progression from girls to women, which was something Matt and I thought it was time for them to do. They needed something to suggest that they were still the same group of friends, but that they were gaining more maturity."

It was widely speculated that "W.O.M.A.N." would be released as the b-side to "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)" when the Spice Girls reunited in 2007, however, a newly remixed version of "Wannabe" was included on the single. To date, "W.O.M.A.N." remains unreleased.

Personnel

• Susan Drake — background

• Producers: Rdney Jerkins, Harvey Mason, Jr., Matt Rowe, Richard Stannard
• Engineers: Adrian Bushby, Paul Foley, Ben Garrison, Brad Gilderman, Steve Hodge, Ian Robertson, Dave Russell, Tony Salter
• Assistant engineers: Jake Davies, Brad Gilderman, *Mastering: Bernie Grundman
• Digital editing: Harvey Mason, Jr.
• Vocal Daniels, Susan Drake, Eliot Kennedy
• Drum programming: Paul Waller
• String arrangements: Will Malone
• Design: Vince Frost
• Photography: Terry Richardson

Certifications, peaks and sales

Charts	Peak position	Certification	Sales/shipments
Argentina	2		160.000
Australia	6
Austria	9	Gold	25,000
Belgium	44	Gold	25,000
Brazil	1	Gold	100,000
Chile	21
Canada	6	2× Platinum	200,000
Europe	5		600,000
Finland	24
France	43
Germany	6	Gold	150,000
Italy	11
Japan	12		40,000
Hong Kong	6
Mexico	6
Netherlands	30	Gold	40,000
New Zealand	25	Gold	7,500
Norway	26
Russia	5
Spain	26	Platinum	100,000
Sweden	1
Switzerland	1	Platinum	50,000
United Kingdom	1	Platinum	364,420
United States	1		208,000