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The Telstar / 19 Management era
Single cover for "Let your Head Go/ This Groove"Telstar Records signed Victoria
in 2002 in a deal made with Simon Fuller's 19 Management. She spent much of 2002
recording a 'pop-influenced' album, but Victoria herself shelved it after not
being happy with the results. Instead of pop, Victoria wanted to record tracks
with a more RnB and hip hop influence, and to accomplish this she began working
with urban producer Damon Dash. These plans reportedly worried Telstar and Simon
Fuller, but they compromised with Victoria, allowing her to release a Dash
produced track (This Groove) along-side one of her earlier pop tracks (Let Your
Head Go) from the shelved album.
The resulting double A-side single Let Your Head Go / This Groove was released
in the UK in late December 2003, following heavy promotion and many TV
appearances across the Christmas period. The single charted at #3, although
critics were fast to point out this was not much of an accomplishment due to
singles receiving their lowest sales of the year the week after Christmas. This
double A-side remains Victoria's last single release to date.
As another compromise, Telstar allowed Victoria to release some of her urban
tracks on The Real Beckhams DVD. This 2003 documentary was released in January
2004, and bonus material included the videos for Let Your Head Go and This
Groove, as well as four previously unreleased tracks: Resentment, That Dude, Me
And You This Time and Valentine (none of the songs had a writing credit from
Victoria). Resentment has since been covered by Beyoncé Knowles and released on
her solo album 'B'Day' (2006).
Outside of the UK, Damon Dash had plans for Victoria in the United States,
including a potential release of Let Your Head Go / This Groove under the name
of "Posh Spice Victoria Beckham". The release was proposed for sometime between
March to May 2004, but never occurred. A Dash produced track It's That Simple
featuring M.O.P. was promoed to vinyl, and received a premiere on BBC urban
music radio station 1Xtra. This only generated further criticism, with the
feeling being that Victoria was a far from convincing urban act. Around this
time, a 90 second snippet of a track called Come Together was released to the
media, which was notable for sampling the Beatles' song Come Together.
With the UK media describing her music career a failure, and combined with a
rumored fall out between Dash and Fuller, remaining plans for Victoria's music
career were cancelled. To try and salvage her music career, Victoria again began
work on pop-styled tracks in 2004. It is known that she recorded a track she had
written with Cathy Dennis entitled My Love Is For Real (not to be confused with
the Paula Abdul song of the same name). With the collapse of Telstar Records,
the pressure to stay with her family caused by the Rebecca Loos scandal, and the
announcement of Victoria's third pregnancy, this song has never been heard,
except for a remix by Armand van Helden.
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