"2 Become 1" is a song by the British girl group the Spice Girls. Written by the group members, together with Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard during the group's first professional songwriting session, it was produced by Rowe and Stannard for the group's debut album, Spice (1996). "2 Become 1" is an R&B-influenced pop ballad that features instrumentation from a guitar, an electronic keyboard and string instruments. The lyrics focus on the bonding of two lovers, and also address the importance of safe sex. Its Big TV!-directed music video, which features the group performing against time-lapse footage of Times Square in New York City, was completely shot against a blue screen at a studio in London. The backdrop was later superimposed.
Released as the group's third single on 16 December 1996 by Virgin, it was generally well received by music critics and was a commercial success. It topped the UK Singles Chart for three weeks, becoming the group's third consecutive chart-topper, their second million-selling single, and their first Christmas number-one single in the United Kingdom. In July 1997, the song was released in the United States, peaking at number four on the Billboard Hot 100, and receiving a gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It performed similarly internationally, peaking inside the top ten on the majority of the charts that it entered. The song was named "Song of the Year" at the 1998 ASCAP London Music Awards.
In 2019, Emma Bunton covered the song, as a duet, with Robbie Williams on her fourth solo album, My Happy Place. In December 2024, an orchestral version by Bunton with the Budapest Scoring Orchestra was released.
Background In December 1994, the Spice Girls persuaded their former managers—father-and-son team Bob and Chris Herbert—to set up a showcase in front of industry writers, producers and A&R men at the Nomis Studios in Shepherd's Bush, London.McGibbon, 1997. p. 93.Sinclair, 2004. p. 33. Producer Richard Stannard was originally at the studio to meet pop star Jason Donovan, but he ended up in the showcase after hearing Melanie Brown, as she went charging across the corridor. Stannard recalls:Sinclair, 2004. pp. 40–41.
More than anything, they just made me laugh. I couldn't believe I'd walked into this situation. You didn't care if they were in time with the dance steps or whether one was overweight or one wasn't as good as the others. It was something more. It just made you feel happy. Like great pop records.
Stannard stayed after everyone had left the showcase to talk to the group. He then reported back to his songwriter partner Matt Rowe that he had found the pop group of their dreams. In January 1995, Chris Herbert booked the group's first professional songwriting session with the producers at the Strongroom in Curtain Road, East London. Rowe remember feeling similarly to Stannard when he first met the group, "I love them. Immediately. [...] They were like no one I'd met before, really." The session was productive as the duo seemed to get along with the group; together they discussed the songwriting process and what they wanted to do with the record. In her autobiography, Brown recalled that the duo instinctively understood their point of view and knew how to incorporate "the spirit of five loud girls into great pop music".Brown, 2002. p. 175.
Writing and inspiration
"2 Become 1" was co-written by the Spice Girls along with partners Richard Stannard and Matthew Rowe. Stannard and Rowe also co-produced the track. After writing more uptempo dance-based songs, such as "Wannabe", the group and the two producers decided to write a slow ballad. But as the group were writing the song, they realised that it was a bit too slushy, so it was decided to address the importance of contraception with the lyrics: "Be a little bit wiser, baby. Put it on, put it on".
The song was inspired by the "special relationship" that was developing between Geri Halliwell and Rowe.Sinclair, 2004. pp. 42–43. Brown hinted at this development in her autobiography, commenting: "When [Rowe] and Geri started making eyes at each other I knew what was going on, even though they denied it. I knew them both too well for it to be a secret for me."Brown, 2002. p. 176. Stannard commented about the fondness between Halliwell and Rowe: "I don't want to get into the side of things. They were very close. They clicked. And I think the lyrics in '2 Become 1' came from that, especially the first verse, which they wrote together."
Spanish version The group recorded a European Spanish version of the song, written by them, Rowe, Stannard, and N. Maño. The title was "2 Become 1" (Spanish Version), although the title is loosely translated in one line of the song, "Seremos Uno Los Dos". It was released as the eleventh track of their debut album, Spice, in Latin America and South Africa, in a special re-edition of the album in Spain, and as one of the tracks of the "2 Become 1" maxi-single in the US. A Spanglish edit that traded verses between the English and Spanish versions was created by DJ Mike Rizzo and production director Bill Schultz for New York-based radio WKTU.
Composition
"2 Become 1" is a pop ballad with R&B influences, written in the key of F major; it is set in the time signature of common time and moves at a slow tempo of 72 beats per minute.Spice Girls, 2008. pp. 43–47. The song is constructed in a verse–chorus form, and its instrumentation comes from a guitar, an electronic keyboard, and string instruments. The song opens with an instrumental introduction, with a chord progression of Em add9–D/F–G–Am7 sus4, that is also used during the first part of the verses. The last two lines of each verse changes the progression to C–Bm7–Am7–D11, and changes again during each chorus to G–D–C–D. It closes with a string outro that uses the chord progression F–G–B–C, which is arranged by Scottish composer Craig Armstrong.Sinclair, 2004. p. 88.
The lyrics focus on how the bonding of two lovers can become so strong that they practically become one entity, through the act of sexual intercourse.Spice Girls, 1997. pp. 38–39. Apart from the sexual connotations, there is an aspirational undercurrent to the lyrics, and like many of their subsequent songs, desire is explicitly linked to ambition: "Free your mind of doubt and danger/Be for real don't be a stranger/We can achieve it/We can achieve it".
Two different versions of the song, each with different lyrics, were recorded: in the album version, the two first verses are sung by Melanie C and Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton sings the pre-choruses, the next second two verses are sung by Melanie C and Geri Halliwell, and the first and third lines of the chorus are sung by Bunton and Halliwell together, the second and fourth lines are sung by Melanie C and Victoria Beckham together and the fifth line is sung by Brown. The second line of the second verse, "Any deal that we endeavour/Boys and girls feel good together", was changed in the single version to: "Once again if we endeavour/Love will bring us back together". Halliwell sings on the album version, while Beckham sings on the single version, after Halliwell confessed that she had a hard time singing in that particular key. Bunton later stated that the lyric change was necessary after realising that the group had become LGBT icons. Despite the original lyrics still being used in album pressings of Spice, due to the album not being revised since 1997, the single version appeared on the 25th anniversary reissue of the album, in place of the album version. The single version also contains slightly different vocals from the rest of the group.
The single version appears in the music video and is available on the group's Greatest Hits album, and on stage the girls always performed the single version before and after Halliwell's departure.
Release "2 Become 1" was released in the United Kingdom on 16 December 1996, in three single versions.Sinclair, 2004. p. 297. The first one, a maxi single that included the single version of the track, an orchestral take, the Junior Vasquez remix of "Wannabe", and "One of These Girls", a song written by the group with Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins—the songwriters and production duo known as Absolute. The second version was the special Christmas pack, a standard CD single in a cardboard case that included a signed postcard with a Christmas message from the group. This version contained the single version, the Dave Way remix, and their own version of Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride". The third version was a two-track cassette single, featuring the single version and the orchestral take of the song. The same track listing was also used for the release of the European CD single.Golden, 1997. p. 172. In the United States, the single was serviced to contemporary hit radio on 1 July 1997. Four weeks later, on 29 July, two CD singles were issued in the US.
Reception Critical response The song was generally well received by music critics. Brian Grosz from Albumism described it as "a smooth R&B jam". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called it a "perfect adult contemporary confection". In a review of the group's 2007 compilation album, Greatest Hits, Talia Kraines of BBC Music called it "shimmering", adding that "only a cold heart could fail to love their first festive #1". Larry Flick of Billboard magazine said that "they are surprisingly adept at weaving warm and romantic imagery over a sweet melody", adding that "[Everyone] will delight in the track's arrangement of soft harmonies and delicate acoustic guitar riffs". Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune said that their first album "is a compendium of slick secondhand urban pop encompassing [...] G-funk synths on 'Say You'll Be There' [...] and Babyface's guitar and strings balladry on '2 Become 1'". Digital Spy's Nick Levine noted that the group's slower songs were "probably their strongest suit", and thought that the song "manages to combine every element of the perfect Christmas ballad–a touch of elegance, a hint of romance, a soupcon of sexiness and a generous sprinkling of sparkle–and still finds time for a coy safe sex message". Whitney Pastorek of Entertainment Weekly said that it is "too slow, and the lyrics appear to have been written by a safe-sex-loving unicorn", adding that "it's almost impossible to identify the individual Spice Girls by their voices here, so airbrushed are the proceedings". A reviewer from Music Week rated the song five out of five, adding, "No turkey this as Spice Girls virtually guarantee a third chart topper and look a strong bet for the Christmas number one with a seasonally lush ballad. Anticipate much smooching 'neath the mistletoe." Time magazine's Christopher John Farley called it a "slumberous ballad [...] [that] seem[s] designed to amuse, titillate, ingratiate". In a review of the group's debut album Spice, Dev Sherlock of Yahoo! Music Radio called it a "glossy ballad that would do Mariah Carey proud".
Chart performance "2 Become 1" was originally going to be released in the UK on 9 December 1996, but the release date was delayed to let Dunblane's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"—a tribute to the children killed at the Dunblane Primary School in Scotland—stay at the top of the UK Singles Chart.McGibbon, 1997. p. 121. The single was released the next week, debuting at the top, becoming the group's third chart-topper and their first Christmas number-one single in the UK. It sold 209,000 copies in the first three days of release and 462,000 in the first week, becoming the fifth best-selling single of the year. "2 Become 1" sold 1.14 million copies in total, giving the Spice Girls their second and final million-selling single in the UK. Despite being released during the final two weeks of 1996, "2 Become 1" was the 5th best seller of the year and that year's fastest selling single of the year.