Spice Girls "Wannabe"

I remember that I was slowly, lazily, getting ready for work when I flipped on MTV.

I caught only the last 40-or-so seconds of this song, but my immediate thought was:

Uh-oh.

At work, I dug through the stacks of new, yet-to-be-listened-to CDs and founds the song. I listened to the full thing.

Uh-oh.

I called over a couple of my fellow DJs and played them the song, introducing it by saying:

"Get ready to hear the song you'll be listening to over and over again for the next 6 months."

I was working at a Top 40 Radio Station in 1997, and when a song like this came around, you just braced yourself.

Say what you want. Mock them if you will. But there was no denying that "Wannabe" by The Spice Girls was destined to be a Number One Pop Radio Smash.

And so it came to pass. The song quickly climbed the charts, which meant playing it once every 8 hours, then soon every 4 hours, and within just a few weeks, we were playing every 2 1/2 hours, the heaviest rotation of we had.

It wasn't enough.

You'd have played the song last hour, and people would call and request it.

You'd have played the song 15 minutes ago, and people would call and request it.

I'd even be playing the song on the air, and while it was playing, people would call and request it.

One day, I just lost my shit.

"By request, here's 'Wannabe' from The Spice Girls!"

Two and a half minutes later, I came back on.

"And now, by request, here's 'Wannabe' from The Spice Girls!"

And when it ended:

"Here's a new one you probably haven't heard before. It's 'Wannabe' from The Spice Girls!"

The after that:

"We just got the new song from Metallica in. Here it is!"

And I played, that's right, "Wannabe."

The request line rang. It was 2 little girls.

"Can you play 'Wannabe' by The Spice Girls?" and they burst into laughter. At least they were in on the joke.

"One more time, 'Wannabe' by The Spice Girls."

"Because you don't want to here anything else, here's 'Wannabe' by The Spice Girls."

"Why should we play anything else? It's The Spice Girls again!"

I did this for a half hour or so, just playing it over and over, feeling more and more manic, but somehow liberated. The dread of having to play the song every 2 1/2 hours was gone, when you played nothing else.

And to this day, I kinda don't mind hearing the song. You know, once a year.


See the video on Youtube.