Happy 20th Anniversary to Emma Bunton’s debut solo album A Girl Like Me, originally released April 16, 2001.
Issued in the final quarter of 2000, Forever—the third and conclusive album from the Spice Girls—was an accomplished collection of pop tunes tempered by (then) contemporary dance and R&B aesthetics. Although home to the quartet’s eighth and ninth number-ones in the United Kingdom—“Goodbye” and “Holler”/“Let Love Lead the Way”—the record yielded mixed critical and commercial results.
Over time, however, the four women ended up having the last laugh when Forever ultimately found the audience and praise it lacked upon release. But, in the immediate aftermath of its initial arrival, everyone—from loyalists and pundits alike—waited to see just how the Spice Girls would respond to what was perceived as their first “failure.”
A brief, but polite hiatus announcement—tendered by their public relations team—went out into the world at the outset of 2001. Said hiatus stretched six years before all five women came together again for their initial reunion on June 28, 2007.
But individual efforts for each Spice Girl continued to roll ahead in that preceding interim. In fact, only four months parted from Forever, Emma Bunton’s first album A Girl Like Me appeared. Sessions for the project commenced at least two years before its reveal and ran parallel to the pre-scheduled Forever studio bouts—it was a testament to Bunton’s “nose to the grindstone” labor principle that she juggled both her Spice Girls commitments and solo aspirations.
Three of her Spice sisters—Geri Horner, Melanie C and Melanie B—had already put recordings forward between 1999 and 2000; this left Bunton and Victoria Beckham as the last two Spice Girls to step out with their own albums.
Bunton knew that she had one shot to make a declarative statement of artistic intent with her debut—she was not about to waste it. The coterie of talent enlisted by Bunton to pen and craft material with her for A Girl Like Me spoke to the stakes. The experienced crew included (but was not limited to) Julian Gallagher, Andrew Frampton, John Themis, Martin Harrington, Carl Sturken, Steve Mac, Chris Braide, Rhett Lawrence, Richard Stannard, Darren Stokes and Lindsay Edwards.
Within that eclectic assemblage of writer-musicians it was Stannard who possessed a considerable amount of work history with Bunton; he was one of the major figures to partner with the Spice Girls on their output. However, it was Bunton’s time spent with Stokes and Edwards—collectively known as the in-demand production outfit Tin Tin Out—that helped her settle upon one of several sonic directions she pursued on A Girl Like Me.
Bunton guested with fellow English vocalists Shelly Nelson and Wendy Page (of Skin Games renown) on Eleven to Fly (1999), the conclusive Tin Tin Out set on VC Records, a subsidiary arm of Virgin Records. Appearing on that long player was a punchy, but ultimately reverent cover of the Edie Brickell & New Bohemians 1988 smash “What I Am”—Bunton’s sweet, soulful performance powered the track and sent it hurtling into the upper reaches of the British charts. Unintentionally, Bunton usurped “What I Am” as her own de facto inaugural solo single within the eyes of the music press and the public; its eventual inclusion on A Girl Like Me did little to disprove this notion.
That rich, album-oriented-rock sound that Bunton couched herself in on “What I Am” was gorgeously replicated on four of the sides contained on A Girl Like Me: “What Took You So Long?,” “Take My Breath Away,” “High on Love,” and “Sunshine on a Rainy Day.” Three of these songs are Bunton originals that saw her exercise her songwriting skills alongside the creatives she elected to collaborate with—only “Sunshine on a Rainy Day,” a lush rendering of English indie darling Zoë’s 1991 chestnut, did not belong to her. Out of the total twelve cuts featured on the long player, ten of them spotlighted Bunton as either a lead writer or co-writer.
Concurrent to those guitar-pop vibes abounding on A Girl Like Me are also the adult contemporary, modern R&B, throwback soul and Latin flourishes heard via “A World Without You,” “Spell It O-U-T,” “Better Be Careful” and “We’re Not Gonna Sleep Tonight”—all of them fine canvases for Bunton’s uncanny vocal instrument. But, in addition to illustrating her keen abilities as a singer, these entries signposted the album’s main theme: Bunton’s unostentatious transition from girl to woman.
Up to that point, the congeniality that suffused the “Baby Spice profile” was, on occasion, crowded out by the personalities of Bunton’s fellow Spice Girls—either within the group dynamic or as they began branching out separately. Yet, on the flip side of that, Bunton was ever affable.
That natural magnetism shines brightly in each of the scripts found on A Girl Like Me, but with a freshly minted adult sophistication that comes through best on two of its pluckiest deep cuts: the title piece and “Been There, Done That.” This is to say nothing of the outtakes left off of the LP—“Let Your Baby Show You How to Move,” “Close Encounter,” “Invincible,” “Merry-Go Round,” “(Hey You) Free Up Your Mind”—that further advanced Bunton’s newfound confidence and clarity. Thankfully, all these non-album tracks were assigned to be the B-sides for all three singles A Girl Like Me spun off during its commercial lifespan.
With the completed product under her belt, Bunton knew that these songs—appetizingly presented in a diverse pop style—about life, love, and all the general particulars in between were going to be universal in their appeal. She was sure to enamor not only her established bloc of Spice Girls fans, but prospective listeners divorced from the Spice phenomenon.
Fourteen days before A Girl Like Me impacted, courtesy of Bunton’s longtime label Virgin, its first single “What Took You So Long?” went out to radio and retail. It was an instant smash that brought Bunton her first number-one single—she occupied that lofty summit for an awesome two-week span. Reviews for A Girl Like Me ranged from mixed-to-positive—nearly every critic had nothing but praise for Bunton’s good taste and warm presence.
Follow-up singles emerged in the triumphant slipstream of “What Took You So Long?” with “Take My Breath Away” and “We’re Not Gonna Sleep Tonight” in August and December of 2001, respectively. Intent to capitalize on that forgoing hit, the top brass at Virgin felt it necessary to modify the two tracks from their LP iterations for broader consumption—Bunton politely acquiesced to this edict.
Whereas “Take My Breath Away,” in its breezy pop-rock comportment, was a solid successor to “What Took You So Long?” and in no need of the sanitized renovation that befell it, “We’re Not Gonna Sleep Tonight,” subjectively, benefited from its nu-disco tailoring. (Note that only the original album version is available in official form via streaming platforms.)
Respectable chart positions were earned with each single though and helped A Girl Like Me achieve its gold certification in the United Kingdom. Even with that win, approval for Bunton’s germinal idea for what was to become Free Me (2004) was withheld by Virgin who expressed skepticism at its marketability—it was an unfortunate conclusion to a seven-year business relationship to be sure.
Still, opportunity presented itself with a contract as offered by 19/Universal Records, who embraced Bunton’s approach for her sophomore album that extrapolated—albeit on a much grander scale—her vintage inclination initially entertained on the A Girl Like Me non-single entry “Better Be Careful.” Her prescience was rewarded when Free Me produced four U.K. Top 10 hits and her second gold certification. Two other affairs manifested post-Free Me: Life in Mono (2006) and My Happy Place (2019). The nearly thirteen-year gap separating them and another label change—My Happy Place was hosted on BMG Records— did not affect on the impeccable quality of either long player.
Behind Bunton’s ever-sunny disposition is the mind of a mature songstress capable of operating comfortably within the confines of a superpower like the Spice Girls or breaking out by herself. Regarding the latter point, it all began with A Girl Like Me, an understated blueprint to the fetching adult pop approach that Bunton wielded to consolidate a staunch, cross-generational, record buying base over the course of her next three albums.
Read more about Emma Bunton and the Spice Girls in the second edition of Quentin Harrison's book Record Redux: Spice Girls, which is available to order here; he uses the ambitious project to trace the rise of the British quintet by examining every studio album and single in their respective group and solo repertoires. Additional entries in the Record Redux Series include the second edition of Record Redux: Kylie Minogue issued in 2022.
LISTEN: