IWITW #10 on Billboard's Top 100 Pop Songs

Back - Index - Submissions - - What is RSS? Date: Nov 14, 2000 Source: Billboard Submitted By: Jessica and Newsdiva D This week's Rolling Stone features the Top 100 Pop Songs. IWITW was at #10. Backstreet Boys "I Want it That Way" Album: Millennium Release date: May 1999 Peak chart position No, 6 (31 weeks on the chart) Songwriters: Max Martin, Andreas Carlsson Producer: Kristian Lundun In the beginning, there was doubt. "When we heard it, we just htought it was wack," admits Backstreet Boy Nick Carter of the group's biggerst-ever single. "Except for the chorus," adds A.J. McLean, "The verses don't make any sense." (Sample: "No I can see that we've fallen apart/From the way that it used to be, yeah.") As many of the Backstreet Boys' hits did, "I Want it That Way" came from Swedish hit factory Cheiron Studios in Stockholm. While the lyrics were sometimes bewildering, the soaring chorus and sleek harmonies were flawless. Still, the choise of "I Want it That Way" as the first single from the much-anticipated album was hardly unanimous. "I remember when we were first talking about the album and they asked us about that song, I think we all would have rather gone with an up-tempo song," recalls Carter. "But Jive talked to us and said, 'Let's make this the bridge from the last album to this album, so you don't all of a sudden come up with something that makes people go, "Whoa, Where have they gone to now?"'" "We had kind of got caught up in the sophomore slump thing and we were a little worried, " says Brian Littrell. "We were thinking, 'Well, if we come out with an up-tempo, it'll be a shmash and it'll be different, it'll be a new look and a new everything.' But it's kind of hard to be involved with it and then step out and look at the overview. And that's what the record company did. They made us realize, 'Let's just do something that's melodic and simple, and then we'll branch out from that.'" "I Want it That Way" was embraced wholeheartedly, as was Millennium. The song picked up steam only when the Wayne Isham-directed video hit MTV. "That didn't help the song make sense," says McLean, "but it helped people identify with it more." Comment on this item. Recent Comments Submitted by: nice penalty removal IY2OPY It's actually a nice and useful piece of info. I'm happy that you shared this helpful information with us. Please keep us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing. Submitted by: cheap oem software dhhTjW Not bad post, but a lot of extra !!... Comment on this item. Next Item: Tomorrow's Backstreet Boys Today Prev Item: Backstreet Boys Among AMA Nominees