February 23, 1997: Spicemania

Left ot right: Melanie Chisholm, Geri Halliwell,

Victoria Beckham, Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown

February 23, 1997: The Spice Girls have their 1st U.S. Number 1 hit with "Wannabe." Spicemania had hit America, and it was out of control.

The Spice Girls were 5 young women from England:

* Geraldine Estelle Halliwell, a.k.a. Geri Haliwell, born August 6, 1972 in Watford, Hertfordshire, northwest of London. She was known as Ginger Spice, for her bright red hair, though her natural color was a lighter shade of red. She was the leader, the most outspoken one. She was known for wearing Union Jack outfits or low-cut dressed advertising her top-heavy figure. She supports hometown soccer team Watford Football Club, with its long association with neighbor Elton John.

* Melanie Jayne Chisholm, a.k.a. or Mel C, born January 12, 1974 in Whiston, outside Liverpool. She was known as Sporty Spice, for her tracksuits and her fandom of Liverpool Football Club.

* Victoria Caroline Adams, born April 17, 1974 in Harlow, Essex, northeast of London. She was known as Posh Spice, for her expensive outfits and her haughty attitude. During the group's first wave of success, she met David Beckham, star of soccer team Manchester United. "Posh and Becks" have been together ever since, married in 1999, with 4 children.

* Melanie Janine Brown, a.k.a. Mel B, born May 29, 1975 in Leeds, West Yorkshire. The only nonwhite member of the group, her father was a black man from the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. She was known as Scary Spice because of her in-your-face attitude, and she tended to wear skimpier outfits than the others. She supports her hometown team, Leeds United.

* And Emma Lee Bunton, born January 21, 1976 in Finchley, North London. She was known as Baby Spice, because she was the youngest member. She supports Tottenham Hotspur, arch-rivals of North London team Arsenal. (I said she was the youngest member of the group. I didn't say she was the smartest.)

In 1994, The Stage magazine placed an ad for singers and dancers. The final five chosen were Halliwell, Chisholm, Adams, Brown and Michelle Stephenson. Stephenson didn't last long, but there's a dispute as to why she left: She said at the time that it was to care for her ill mother, while the group's original manager, Bob Herbert, said it was because she didn't fit in with the others.

Herbert died in a car crash in Windsor Great Park in 1999, having never changed his story. In 2002, Stephenson released a memoir, changing hers, saying she didn't share the other members' passion for the group. She went on to become a popular TV presenter.

Bunton was brought in, and the group was named Touch. But they weren't happy with Herbert's management. They signed on with Simon Fuller, the publicist who went on to create the TV show Pop Idol, from which American Idol and so many other countries' versions spun off. He created the Spice Girls name and image, and let them develop their musical style and their "Girl Power" personae. By late 1996, they were the biggest thing going in Britain, and "Wannabe" had begun to be played in America.

Now, there's nothing wrong with promoting feminism, or with telling girls they can do anything boys can do, and calling it "Girl Power." But... It's not that they were bad, but what bothered me was that they were publicized to death: I tend to resist such things, and felt the same way about the "boy bands" of the late 1990s, and the later all-male British vocal group One Direction.

(This begs the question: If I felt that way about "Spicemania," how would I have felt about the "Beatlemania" of 1963-65? It might well have depended on how old I was at the time. Director Stephen Spielberg, 17 when they debuted in America, said he wasn't a fan of theirs until he heard "The White Album" in 1968.)

And it seemed to me that the Spice Girls had so little confidence in the quality of their music that their respective prepackaged images became more important. That's never good. "Wannabe," which was their de facto trademark song, was played so much, if they asked me, "Tell me what you want, what you really, really want," I'd have said, to quote a later song of theirs, "Stop right now, thank you very much!"

Their film Spiceworld, released for the 1997 Christmas season in connection with their 2nd album, with the same title, was patterned after A Hard Day's Night, the film designed to ride The Beatles' stardom a third of a century earlier. But it tanked. The bubble had burst. Tensions were already rising within the group. On May 31, 1998, Halliwell left the group, reducing them to a quartet. The phenomenon had run its course: In the Summer of 1996, they were nobodies; by Christmas 1998, they were has-beens.

All 5 members had solo hits, all got married, and, between them, they had 12 children. The group reunited for a tour in 2007; did so again as a one-shot for the Closing Ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics in London; and did so again for a tour, minus Victoria Beckham, in 2019.

Halliwell moved to Australia, where she hosts a TV show, and continues her solo singing career. Brown moved to America, and became a judge on America's Got Talent. Bunton has been a presenter on several British TV shows. As we now have nostalgia for the 1990s, the group is looked back on with fondness as icons by their generation. As of February 22, 2022, Geri/Ginger is 49 years old, Mel C/Sporty is 48, Victoria/Posh is 47, and Mel B/Scary and Emma/Baby are 46.

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February 22, 1997 was a Saturday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 4 games in the NBA:

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 97-80 at the CoreStates Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 93-92 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Golden State Warriors, 120-87 at the United Center in Chicago. Michael Jordan scored 34 points.

* And the Toronto Raptors beat the Dallas Mavericks, 99-92 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

And there were 8 games in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 3-2 at the Ice Palace (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-1 at the Molson Centre (now the Bell Centre) in Montreal.

* The Hartford Whalers beat the Washington Capitals, 2-0 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Florida Panthers, 4-3 at the Miami Arena. Eric Lindros scored the winning goal, with 57 seconds left in overtime.

* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Detroit Red Wings and the St. Louis Blues played to a tie, 2-2 at the Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.

* The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 4-2 at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim (now the Honda Center).

* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-0 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.