Viva Forever May, the Spice Girls appeared on the National Lottery, performing "Viva Forever" and "Spice Up Your Life" without Geri Halliwell, the excuse being that she was ill. In early June, the single was confirmed to simply be "Viva Forever". The single was to be released on 13 July, over two months after the original release date of 11 May. Even though posters were printed showcasing the 13 July release date, it was not long before the release dates started changing again. On the day of release, stores around the United Kingdom received a notice saying that the single was not
British Hit Singles & Albums to those of the other charts: around 30 shops in 1963 in comparison to more than 100 used by "Melody Maker", and later around 80 in comparison to "NME"s 150 and "Melody Maker"s 200. As a result, the placings in that chart were more open to error and manipulation – a situation further worsened by the larger number of records listed in the chart. The first edition was published as "The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles" in November 1977. It wasn't the first Guinness music reference publication, as the previous year a book called "The Guinness Book of Music