Steptacular
Steptacular is the second studio album by British pop group Steps, released in the United Kingdom on 25 October 1999, through Jive Records. The album was accompanied by five singles; "Love's Got a Hold on My Heart", "After the [Love Has Gone (Steps song)|After the Love Has Gone]", "Say [You'll Be Mine (Steps song)|Say You'll Be Mine]", "Deeper Shade of Blue" and "When I Said Goodbye / [Summer of Love|When I Said Goodbye]" all hit the UK top 5, making Steptacular the first Steps album to contain six consecutive UK top-five hits. Steptacular debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, and it remained on the position for three weeks, selling 260,000 copies in the same time frame.
The album was reissued on vinyl for the first time ever in February 2024. It debuted at number 5 on the UK Vinyl Albums Chart.
Background and release
Like the group's debut album, Steptacular also contains covers, including a song originally released by female pop group Bananarama entitled "Movin' On", "Make It Easy on Me" originally recorded by Sybil and "Deeper Shade of Blue" originally recorded by Tina Cousins. The album also includes the group's version of "Tragedy", which was originally recorded for the Bee Gees tribute album Gotta Get a Message to You, which was released shortly after Step One. Early UK copies of the album featured a holographic silver "STEPS" logo on front. It was also released in cardboard and tin boxed sets, internationally.Commercial performance
On 31 October 1999, the album debuted at number one in the United Kingdom and remained for three consecutive weeks. The album sold 84,000 units in its first week—only 1,000 copies ahead of Westlife's debut album, Westlife, beating the Irish boy band.Track listing
Notes- Steptacular was released in Australia with a revised track listing, including two bonus tracks.
- Steptacular was released in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Taiwan in a boxed set limited edition, containing the UK track list of the album and the CD single for "After the Love Has Gone".
Personnel
- Producers
- *Topham, Twigg and Waterman
- *Frampton and Waterman
- *Work in Progress
- *Sanders and Waterman
- Engineers
- *Chris McDonnell
- *McDonnell and Tim "Spag" Speight
- *Dan Frampton
- *Paul Waterman
- *Speight and Al Unsworth
- Mixing
- *Tim "Spag" Speight
- *Dan Frampton and Paul Waterman
- *Frampton
- *Waterman
- *Chris McDonnell
- Backing vocals: Mary Carewe, Mae McKenna, Andrew Frampton, Lance Ellington, Bernadette Barlow
- Assistant engineers: Al Unsworth and Roe Waterman
- Photography: Mike Owen
- Mastered by Richard Dowling at Transfermation
- All tracks were recorded and mixed at PWL studios in London and Manchester.
Charts and certifications
Weekly charts
| Chart | Peak position |
| UK Vinyl Albums | 5 |
Year-end charts
| Chart | Position |
| UK Albums | 45 |