britney spears

This week marks 25 years since Britney Spears first stormed the Dutch charts. Then came her debut single …Baby One More Time entered the Top 40. Despite an error in the lyrics, the song became a number 1 hit.

“Hit me, baby, one more time” is probably one of the most sung-along phrases in pop history. There has been much speculation about its meaning over the years. Literally translated, the phrase means: “Hit me, baby, again.” But that is not at all what the the song’s writers wanted to say.

…Baby One More Time was written by hit producers Max Martin and Rami Yacoub, who have also created songs for the Backstreet Boys, Katy Perry and Ariana Grande. When Spears’ debut, the Swedes were still relatively at the start of their career.

According to writer John Seabrook, the lyrics of …Baby One More Time a topic of conversation behind the scenes, he writes in his book The Song Machine: Inside The Hit Factory. “Everyone who heard it thought it was a strange reference to domestic violence,” he explains to Entertainment Weekly. “But it was actually because of Swedes not using English correctly.”

“They actually wanted to say: hit me up on the phone one more time (call me again, ed.). But at that time Max wasn’t very good at English, so it sounded a bit strange.” Despite doubts from the record company and the team around Spears, Martin decides not to change the text anymore.

Britney Spears in 1998, when …Baby One More Time was released in the United States. Photo: Getty Images

Spears stayed up long for a breathy edge

A demo of the song was first offered to R&B group TLC and Swedish singer Robyn. They decided not to do anything with it, so it ultimately ended up with the still unknown Spears. The then only sixteen-year-old singer traveled to Stockholm to record the song in Martin’s studio.

“She was very well prepared,” says Martin The Billboard Book of No. 1 Hits. Spears herself says that she stayed up late the night before Tainted Love from Soft Cell. She hoped to create a slightly huskier voice that she thought suited her first single.

“…Baby One More Time was her first song, so we didn’t really know what the style should be,” Martin explains. “We just kept trying different things. After a while I heard her stomach rumbling in the microphone. We had already been at it for eight hours. I asked her if she was hungry, but she said she was fine,” the songwriter reflects on Spears’ tireless work. “When we finally took a break, she ate three burgers.”

‘Being told what to do by a sixteen-year-old’

Despite her young age, Spears already knew what she did and did not want with her debut single. She shot down an initial idea for the video clip. Director Nigel Dick wanted Spears to land on Mars in a spaceship to perform a dance. “Britney looked at the proposal and said, ‘This is terrible, I’m really not going to do this,'” says Barry Weiss, head of Spears’ record company at the time. The singer then changed tack, because this idea was used two years later for the video of Oops!… I Did It Again.

The final idea for the video of …Baby One More Time came from Spears himself. “She wanted to shoot it at a school, surrounded by handsome boys,” says Dick. The director started working on her idea. “At first I thought: I’m being told what to do by a sixteen-year-old. But then I realized that she probably understands better what her audience wants to see, so I got over my pride.”

During the shoot, Dick was surprised at how natural Spears was in front of the camera. “She was very relaxed and she knew all the dance steps by heart. I have worked with her four times and I don’t know anyone who is so well prepared and loves to keep rehearsing.”

Spears’ debut single became a worldwide number 1 hit and has proven to be a timeless classic. On Spotify the counter stands at more than 746 million streams and on YouTube the clip has been viewed more than 900 million times. The success of the song has flown by for Spears himself. Yet she still counts the song among her all-time favorites. “It was a fun and crazy time, but also really a blur.”

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2024-02-09 07:58:00


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