...Baby One More Time (song) - Background

Background

In June 1997, Spears was in talks with manager Lou Pearlman to join female pop group Innosense. Lynne Spears asked family friend and entertainment lawyer Larry Rudolph for his opinion and submitted a tape of Spears singing over a Whitney Houston karaoke song along with some pictures. Rudolph decided he wanted to pitch her to record labels, therefore she needed a professional demo. He sent Spears an unused song from Toni Braxton; she rehearsed for a week and recorded her vocals in a studio with a sound engineer. Spears traveled to New York with the demo and met with executives from four labels, returning to Kentwood the same day. Three of the labels rejected her, arguing audiences wanted pop bands such as the Backstreet Boys and the Spice Girls, and "there wasn't going to be another Madonna, another Debbie Gibson, or another Tiffany." Two weeks later, executives from Jive Records returned calls to Rudolph. Senior vice president of A&R Jeff Fenster stated about Spears's audition that "It's very rare to hear someone that age who can deliver emotional content and commercial appeal. For any artist, the motivation—the 'eye of the tiger'— is extremely important. And Britney had that." They appointed her to work with producer Eric Foster White for a month, who reportedly shaped her voice from "lower and less poppy" delivery to "distinctively, unmistakably Britney." After hearing the recorded material, president Clive Calder ordered a full album. Spears had originally envisioned "Sheryl Crow music, but younger more adult contemporary" but felt all right with her label's appointment of producers, since "It made more sense to go pop, because I can dance to it—it's more me." She flew to Cheiron Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, where half of the album was recorded from March to April 1998, with producers Max Martin, Denniz Pop and Rami Yacoub, among others.

Martin showed Spears and her management a track titled "Hit Me Baby One More Time", which was originally written for American R&B group TLC; however, when the song was submitted to them, they rejected it. Spears later claimed that she felt excited when she heard it and knew it was going to be a hit record. "We at Jive said, 'This is a fuckin' smash'," revealed the label's A&R executive at the time Steven Lunt; however, other executives were concerned that the line "Hit Me" would condone domestic violence, later being revised to "...Baby One More Time". Spears recorded her vocals for the song on March 1998 at Cheiron Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. The singer revealed that she "didn’t do well at all the first day in the studio, I was just too nervous. So I went out that night and had some fun. The next day I was completely relaxed and nailed it. You gotta be relaxed singing ‘… Baby One More Time’." The track was produced by Denniz Pop, Martin and Rami, and was also mixed by Martin at Cheiron Studios. Thomas Lindberg played the guitar, while Johan Carlberg played the bass guitar. Background vocals were provided by Spears, Martin and Nana Hedin. Spears also recorded a track called "Autumn Goodbye", written and produced by Eric Foster White, that was released as a b-side to "...Baby One More Time". The track was recorded in 1997 at 4MW East Studios in New Jersey. "...Baby One More Time" was released as Spears's debut single on September 30, 1998 by Jive Records, when she was only 16 years old. The singer has named "...Baby One More Time" as one of her favorite songs from her entire career, naming "Toxic" and "He About to Lose Me" as the other two.