Steps - Words Are Not Enough (#Steps20)

Original release date: December 3rd 2001
Buy Words Are Not Enough here (Amazon UK)
Read all my #Gold20 posts here

Although we didn't know it at the time, the second single from Steps' Gold - Greatest Hits album would be their last for nigh on eleven years. Words Are Not Enough came 3 weeks before Christmas and their Boxing Day split, meaning that - in retrospect - the fab five went out at the top of their game. For me, Words Are Not Enough was their most sophisticated ballad to date. Sure, there is a lot to love about Heartbeat, and When I Said Goodbye had a real elegance about it, but WANE had (and has) a shimmering mid-tempo majesty too it that is hard for me to resist. I fell hard for it as soon as I heard it on the hits collection and instinctively knew that it would shine as their 2001 Christmas chart single. The radiant rhythm of the percussion alongside that textured score accentuated the aching yearning of the lyrics; meanwhile lovely solos and gloriously harmonised vocals added to the beauty of the song and sent that chorus soaring into the stratosphere. It was reswizzled ever so slightly for the release, which came amidst their triumphant juggernaut of a greatest hits tour - the media hoopla and rave reviews (mirrored only by their current, steptacular Party On The Dancefloor tour) pretty much ensured them a 13th consecutive top five hit (and a fifteenth top twenty single). Steps were always pretty generous with the extras that accompanied their singles and this was no exception. Sleazesisters remixes transformed the song into a pulsing rallying cry that actions speak louder than words, compelling you to shake what your mama gave you on the dancefloor. A fairytale, animated video hinted at a lucrative straight to blu-ray movie market that (sadly) never came to be (but still remains a tantalising peak at the possibilities). And then there was the flip side. Not only did we get a Lisa and Johnny Shentall co-write on the luminous Bittersweet (worthy of being a single in its own right - play it on a loop with Just Like The First Time, You'll Be Sorry and Baby Don't Dance), but Almighty remixes of their Benny-Bjorn cover, I Know Him So Well. They had first sung the song from Chess on Abbamania 2 years earlier - the ladies all sound lovely in a theatrical setting with sumptuous harmonies from the fellas. The remixes accelerated the tempo and had you swirling around with as much euphoric vigour as if I Will Survive had lured you to the dancefloor. I like to think these bonus tracks and remixes are what kept the song lingering in the charts for a whopping eleven weeks - a charming full stop to the first part of Steps career.