25 million copies sold and 20 years later, Britney Spears' debut album, ...Baby One More Time, is still the pop icon's most successful album ever. And it makes sense, seeing as how the 37-year-old's first outing lead the resurgence of teen pop music and defined a generation.
Spears, then just 17 and somewhat known for her time on The Mickey Mouse Club as a child, became the most famous teenager in the world...and since then, the world has never stopped being transfixed by the princess of pop.
But did you know her iconic "...Baby One More Time" single, one of the most successful songs of all-time, almost went to another artist?
...Baby One More Time was released on Jan. 12, and thanks to the monster success of its first single and its accompanying music video of the same time, went on to become the second best-selling album of 1999, and is still one of the best-selling albums of all-time.
And in an era where music groups (TLC, Backstreet Boys, The Spice Girls, 'N Sync, etc.) were dominating the music scene, Spears' solo success at such a young age was almost unprecedented and helped lead the charge for teen queens such as Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore and Jessica Simpson. She held the Guinness World Record for having the "best-selling album by a teenage solo artist."
To pay proper respect to the genre-defining album's anniversary, we're going back to 1999 and revealing some secrets about Spears, ...Baby One More Time and that schoolgirl out...
Spear's first major hit, of course, was "…Baby One More Time," but the song almost went to a different artist, after famed songwriter Max Martin, one of Spears' longtime collaborators, wrote it with an R&B flavor in mind. He sent it to TLC.
"I was like: ‘I like the song but do I think it's a hit? Do I think it's TLC?'" T-Boz told MTV in 2013. "Was I going to say ‘Hit me baby one more time'? Hell no!"
After TLC passed, the song was then offered to Robyn, but it didn't end up working out. Spears' record label Jive then set up a meeting between their young star and Martin. "I was pretty young at the time, so I was nervous," Spears recalled, "but he was so nice and put me right at ease."
The rest, as they say, is history.
In Depth
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