Number 1 this week in 2001: Emma Bunton's debut solo single hits the top

Do you ever wish you could stumble across a time machine and travel back to a more innocent age? An age, perhaps, where S Club 7 were still churning out huge hits, When Atomic Kitten could storm the charts and, of course, when a solo Spice Girl single was still a big event.

Compared with most of her other fellow Spices, our Baby, aka Emma Bunton, was a little slow off the mark when it came to going it totally alone. She had, of course, first dipped her toe into a solo career with a feature on Tin Tin Out's cover of What I Am in 2000, only to be mortifyingly beaten to Number 1 by the Spice sister she'd once called Ginger – Geri Halliwell.

QUIZ: How well do you know your British 00s pop?

The end of 2000 had seen the Spice Girls release their first album as a foursome, the unfortunately titled Forever, which prove to be something of a jinx. It missed Number 1 any talk of further singles from it dried up.

But Emma didn't let it get her down. Instead she painted on her sunniest smile – not to mention a few freckles – and went it alone. And her first solo single, the stripped back midtempo What Took You So Long (how fitting!) went straight in at Number 1 this week a whole 15 years ago.

Co-written by long-time Spice collaborators Biffco, What Took You So Long debuted at the top of the chart with over 76,000 sales – and to date has amassed 269,737 chart sales over its lifetime and is her bestselling solo effort. It lasted two weeks at the top before Destiny's Child's Survivor came along and karate-chopped it down to Number 8, but What Took You So Long ended up the 41st best seller of 2001.

Six more Top 10s would follow for Emma – her most recent being 2006's cover of Petula Clark's Downtown. Click here to see where all her solo singles and albums charted in the UK.

So how was the Top 10 looking back in 2001? Click on the pic to see how the rest of the Top 100 was shaping up:

Emma's new entry meant that winners of TV talent search Popstars, Hear'Say, were bumped off the top spot after three weeks. The line-up included Kym Marsh, now appearing on Coronation Street, and TV presenter Myleene Klass. 

Elsewhere in the Top 40, pint-sized rapper Lil Bow Wow scored the first of two Top 10 hits with Bow Wow (That's My Name) and French dance outfit Modjo followed up their monster hit Lady with Chillin' landing just outside the Top 10.

But today in 2001 belonged to Emma Bunton. Here's What Took You So Long:

Remember all these '00s popstars? Click through and take a trip down memory lane in our gallery below: