“Oh baby, baby.” Who hasn’t danced in the evening over the last 20 years to these few words spoken by Britney Spears. Well, that might never have happened! The singer’s iconic hit, « Baby One More Time, » which launched her career was turned down by two legendary 1990s bands before the pop star recorded her first song in 1998.
The 1998 single, by a then 16-year-old Britney – who releases her memoir « The Woman In Me » this Tuesday – propelled the star to stardom, topping the charts for 32 weeks in 22 countries, and became one of the best-selling songs in history, with more than 10 million copies sold.
What the story of this hit didn’t say until then was that Britney Spears could never have sung this song. We learn that the title – initially titled « Hit Me Baby One More Time » – was originally intended for the famous boy band the Backstreet Boys, long-time collaborators of Max Martin, the author of the song, for whom he had already written “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)”.
However, the performers of the extremely famous “Everybody” passed on this proposal from the lyricist and refused the song. And they’re not the only ones.
“Not every song is right for every artist”
TLC, the star US female rap group of the time, did the same, information which had already leaked in 2013. Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, who also collaborated with Max Martin, explained to MTV why they refused the pop princess’ first single. “I was like, I like the song but do I think it’s a hit? Do I think this is TLC? I’m not saying hit me baby. No disrespect to Britney. It’s good for her. But was I going to say hit me baby one more time? Of course not ! », Confided T-Boz, to the American music channel. “It worked for her, I’m happy for her, I like Britney,” she added.
“Not every song is right for every artist, and when you’re a real artist, you know what you believe in and what you really want to sing. So, I’m sure it would be a hit but I’m also sure it wasn’t for TLC,” concluded the orphan artist from Left-Eye, the 3rd member of the famous rap group.
“America’s Got Talent” host and music producer Simon Cowell also revealed last year that he too wanted his British band 5ive to record the song. He even called lyricist Max Martin and tried to bribe him with a Mercedes! “The guy played me the song Hit Me Baby One More Time on the phone, and I was like, God, I have to have this song,” he revealed to the Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast. . “Max, please, please give me this song,” he begged. He said, No, I promised it to someone else. I told him, I’ll send you a Mercedes – literally a Mercedes 500 SL – if I can get this song.
The hit songwriter didn’t want to offer the song to Cowell and told him that a brand new artist had to record it. What Cowell recounted: “I said: Who? And he said: Britney Spears. I said to him: Max, let me give you some advice. No one will be successful with a name called Britney Spears,” he said, a bit of a coward. So even the biggest producers can make mistakes.
