things here and there. But pretty much it was a real quick process. They were confident in what they were doing, throwing it out there. The group stayed at Kennedy's house for the most part of the week. He named his studio Spice, after the group, because it had never been used before. Together, they composed their first two songs without Heart Management, "Love Thing", and "Say You'll Be There". The girls met with artist manager Simon Fuller, who signed them with 19 Entertainment in May 1995. The group considered a variety of record labels, and signed a deal with Virgin Records in July. Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins—the songwriters and production duo known as Absolute—would later produce the song and recorded it at Olympic Studios in Barnes, London. Fuller then sent the song, to audio engineer Mark "Spike" Stent to be remixed. In December 1996, while charting across Europe, "Say You'll Be There" became the focus of a controversy when Israeli soldier Idit Shechtman accused the group of copying her song (, "Come to Me"), an alleged similar song released two years earlier in Israel. Shechtman hired lawyers and threatened to sue. A spokesman of the group later declared: "Where there's a hit, there's a writ. There's always someone who crawls out of the woodwork claiming to have written a hit song. We look forward to seeing her in court." The chorus of "Say You'll Be There" use a highly similar melody to the song "What U R 2 Me", performed by R&B group After 7. American singer-songwriter Jonathan David Buck (Jon B.), wrote and produced the track for After 7's third album Reflections, released in July 1995. Buck was later added to the songwriting credits of the song in the group's Greatest Hits album, and the reissue of Girl Power! Live in Istanbul on DVD, both released in 2007. He is not credited in previous releases of the song, including the single and the Spice album. Composition and lyrics "Say You'll Be There" is a midtempo dance-pop song, with influences from R&B. It is written in the key of D major, with a time signature set in common time, and moves at a moderate tempo of 108 beats per minute. The song is constructed in strophic form, using the sequence Bm–E–Gm–D as its chord progression during the verses and the chorus. Musically, many critics noted the West Coast