...Baby One More Time

This article is about the album. To see alternate articles, check out ...Baby One More Time.

...Baby One More Time
Studio album by Britney Spears

Standard
International
Japan
Digital

General information

Recorded

February - November 1998

Released

January 12, 1999

Genre

Pop, Teen-Pop, Bubblegum Pop

Length

00:42:40

Label

Jive Records

Producer(s)

The All Seeing I
Jörgen Elofsson
David Kreuger
Kristian Lundin
Per Magnusson
Max Martin
Eric Foster White
Rami Yacoub

Studio Albums Chronology
Current	Next
...Baby One More Time (1999)	Oops!... I Did It Again (2000)

Singles from ...Baby One More Time

...Baby One More Time
Released: September 28, 1998
Sometimes
Released: April 6, 1999
(You Drive Me) Crazy
Released: August 24, 1999
Born to Make You Happy
Released: December 6, 1999
From the Bottom of My Broken Heart
Released: December 14, 1999

...Baby One More Time is the debut studio album by American recording artist Britney Spears. It was released on January 12, 1999, by Jive Records. It became a worldwide commercial success, reaching the top five in 19 countries, and number one in 15, including the U.S Billboard 200. The album and its singles helped propel Spears into mainstream popularity.

With the release of the lead single, "...Baby One More Time", Spears became a pop phenomenon; the single peaked at number one in the Billboard Hot 100, a feat Spears would not repeat for another ten years, In October 2008, when her single "Womanizer" peaked at number one on the chart. Every single released in the United Kingdom charted within the top-five position in the UK Singles Chart and the top-three position in the Eurochart Hot 100.

The album's lyrics and its music videos maintained the typical virgin-like image of the late 1990s teen pop revival for Spears. The album is certified 14× Platinum by the RIAA. ...Baby One More Time has sold 26 million copies worldwide, becoming one of the most successful albums of all time and is Spears' most successful and best selling album to date.

Background[]

In 1996, Spears briefly recorded demos with R&B group Boyz II Men's recording company Stonecreek. In June 1997, Spears was in talks with manager Lou Pearlman to join female pop group Innosense.

Her mother, Lynne, asked family friend and entertainment lawyer Larry Rudolph for his opinion and submitted a tape of Spears singing a Whitney Houston song along with some pictures. Rudolph decided to pitch her to record labels which required a professional demo. He sent her an unreleased song from Toni Braxton and Britney rehearsed for a week and recorded it in a studio with a sound engineer. Britney traveled to New York with the demo and met executives from four record labels and returned to Kentwood, Louisiana the same day.

Three labels rejected her, arguing that audiences wanted pop groups such as the Backstreet Boys and the Spice Girls and that "there wasn't going to be another Madonna, another Debbie Gibson or another Tiffany."

Two weeks later, Jive Records executives returned calls to Rudolph and they appointed Spears to work with producer Eric Foster White for a month. He reportedly shaped her voice from "lower and less poppy" delivery to "distinctively, unmistakably Britney."

Spears recorded ten songs with White that included "Autumn Goodbye", "E-Mail My Heart", "From the Bottom of My Broken Heart", "I'm So Curious", "I Will Still Love You", "Soda Pop" and "Thinkin' About You".

She also recorded a cover of All Seeing I's version of Sonny & Cher's 1967 single "The Beat Goes On." White was responsible for the vocal recording and song production while additional production was done by English electronic music group All Seeing I.

After hearing the material Britney recorded, president Clive Calder ordered a full album. Britney flew to Cheiron Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, where half of the album was recorded from March to April of 1998 with producers Max Martin, Denniz Pop and Rami Yacoub, among others.

Martin showed Britney and her management a track titled "Hit Me Baby One More Time". However, other executives were concerned that the line "Hit Me" would condone domestic violence, deciding later on to remove this from the song's title. While the line is still used in the song itself, the necessary context is given within the lyrics.

Britney revealed that she "didn't do well at all the first day in the studio [recording the song], 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'."

By June 1998, the album was completed and Spears embarked on a promotional tour sponsored by L'Oréal. ...Baby One More Time was released as her debut album on January 12, 1999.

Urban Outfitters reissued the album on vinyl for the first time in 2017. 2,500 copies pressed on pink vinyl were made available for pre-order on August 14, 2017, selling out within 2 hours, with the albums being shipped out in November 2017.^[1]^[2] A clear vinyl was released a year later on October 5, 2018.^[3]

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the "...Baby One More Time" single's release, the album was also made into a picture disc vinyl^[4], and American retailer Target also reissued the album on a limited pink cassette tape.^[5]

Spotify[]

Track Listing[]

...Baby One More Time[]

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"...Baby One More Time"	Max Martin	Max Martin, Rami Yacoub	3:16
2.	"(You Drive Me) Crazy"	Jörgen Elofsson, Kirk Herbstreit, David Kreuger, Max Martin, Per Magnusson	David Kreuger, Max Martin, Per Magnusson	3:16
3.	"Sometimes"	Britney Spears, Jörgen Elofsson	David Kreuger, Per Magnusson	4:04
4.	"Soda Pop (feat. Mikey Bassie)"	Mikey Bassie, Eric Foster White	Eric Foster White	3:20
5.	"Born to Make You Happy"	Andreas Carlsson, Kristian Lundin	Kristian Lundin	4:03
6.	"From the Bottom of My Broken Heart"	Eric Foster White	Eric Foster White	5:10
7.	"I Will Be There"	Andreas Carlsson, Max Martin	Max Martin, Rami Yacoub	3:53
8.	"I Will Still Love You (feat. Don Phillip)"	Eric Foster White	Eric Foster White	4:02
9.	"Thinkin’ About You"	Mikey Bassie, Eric Foster White	Eric Foster White	3:34
10.	"E-Mail My Heart"	Eric Foster White	Eric Foster White	3:42
11.	"The Beat Goes On"	Sonny Bono, Eric Foster White	The All Seeing I, Eric Foster White	3:43

...Baby One More Time (Taiwan Edition)[]

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
9.	"Deep in My Heart"	Andreas Carlsson, David Kreuger, Per Magnusson	David Kreuger, Per Magnusson	3:35
13.	"I'll Never Stop Loving You"	Andreas Carlsson, David Kreuger, Per Magnusson	David Kreuger, Per Magnusson	3:41
14.	"...Baby One More Time (Davidson Ospina Radio Mix)"	Max Martin	Rami Yacoub, Max Martin, Davidson Ospina	3:25

...Baby One More Time (Japan Edition & Digital Deluxe)[]

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
9.	"Deep in My Heart"	Andreas Carlsson, David Kreuger, Per Magnusson	David Kreuger, Per Magnusson	3:35
13.	"I'll Never Stop Loving You"	Andreas Carlsson, David Kreuger, Per Magnusson	David Kreuger, Per Magnusson	3:41
14.	"Autumn Goodbye"	Eric Foster White	Eric Foster White	3:40
15.	"...Baby One More Time (Davidson Ospina Radio Mix)"	Max Martin	Rami Yacoub, Max Martin, Davidson Ospina	3:25
16.	"...Baby One More Time (Boy Wunder Radio Mix)"	Max Martin	Rami Yacoub, Max Martin, Boy Wunder	3:28

Notes:

In early pressings of ...Baby One More Time, a hidden spoken message by Spears following "The Beat Goes On" is included. The message includes Spears thanking fans for buying her album and also promotes the then-upcoming Backstreet Boys album, Millennium, with snippets of songs featured on the album.
Many countries changed the cover of the album as their governments deemed the American cover as innapropriate. However, this seems to have changed overtime as in 2023, ...Baby One More Time was reissued on vinyl with the American album cover in European countries.
The rainbow in the poster varies on the version of the album the International one has more colder colors while the American one has more warmer colors.

Scrapped debut album[]

Britney's debut album was supposed to come out during Autumn of 1998 as "Britney Spears". However, the original idea got scrapped, following the massive success of "...Baby One More Time".

Promo for this version of the album can be found inside the single's physical CD copies.

The photograph used in the Britney Spears album's cover was also used as the cover for the Taiwanese version of ...Baby One More Time.

This would've been one of the three self-titled albums by Spears, as she later released two eponymous albums, Britney (2001) and Britney Jean (2013).

Unreleased & Unused Songs[]

Underlined songs can be found online.

"I Have Nothing" - A cover song originally released by Whitney Houston, written by David Foster and Linda Thompson. It was recorded for her demo tape and an audition for label executives.
"I'll Be There For You" - Produced by Eric Foster White.
"I'll Never Stop Loving You (Original Version)" - A cover song originally released by J'Son. Spears first recorded it using the same instrumental as the original.
"Let Me Take You There" - Written and produced by Full Force.
"Love Is On" - Produced by Eric Foster White, recorded in the same sessions as "Autumn Goodbye".
"Luv the Hurt Away" - Produced by and featuring Full Force, released on Full Force's website on May 7, 2006.
"Nothing Less than Real" - Included on a cassette tape labelled "Britney Spears Demos".
"The Other Side" - Leaked on April 25th, 2024.
"Today" - Originally recorded by Toni Braxton but was unreleased. It was used on Spears' demo tape and was possibly intended for the album.
"Where Are You Now" - Included on Spears' second studio album, Oops!... I Did It Again.
"Wishing on a Falling Star" - Included on a cassette tape labelled "Britney Spears Demos".
"You Got It All (Original Version)" - Original R&B version produced by Full Force. Later rerecorded with new vocals and produced by Eric Foster White for her next album.

Unconfirmed or rumored outtakes:

Final Heartbreak - Produced by Eric Foster White. Included on Jessica Simpson's debut studio album, Sweet Kisses.

Trivia[]

...Baby One More Time is Spears' longest charting album on the Billboard 200 to date.
The making of the album is discussed in Time Out with Britney Spears.
Max Martin was supposed to produce two tracks on the album, but he ended up producing eight.
Despite its major success, the album was shut out from being nominated at multiple award shows.
The album's original direction was more R&B-based and involved R&B producers such as Full Force. Spears mentioned the sound of the album as "Sheryl Crow music, but younger [and more] contemporary".
The album was originally going to be titled Britney Spears.
The word "baby" was said 25 times in the title track, ...Baby One More Time.
The title track is Spears' only song to be performed on all of her tours and residencies.
Spears' A&R knew that the title track would be a big hit, calling it "a fucking smash".
The title track was originally offered to girl group TLC as a sequel to their single "Baby-Baby-Baby" for their album FanMail (1999) but was rejected.
- The song was also offered to the girl group Solid HarmoniE.

The title track's music video was originally supposed to be animated, featuring Spears dancing on a vinyl record.
- Another concept was supposed to feature Spears as a superhero fighting a giant robot monster.
- Both of these concepts were scrapped, and the iconic high school-themed music video was filmed instead.

The original version of "Sometimes" (which had a guitar intro and a different outro) was replaced by the single version. The original version can be found on first pressing promos of ...Baby One More Time and the album sampler.
"Soda Pop" was used on the soundtrack of the film Pokémon: The First Movie. There was also a promotional single inserted in the series of Britney dolls released in 2000.
The lyrics of "Born to Make You Happy" were partially rewritten, because Spears refused to sing a few verses which had sexual references. The lyrics were then modified by the authors.
Some initial copies of the album came with a business card from Britney.

CD Poster[]

Unlike her later albums, ...Baby One More Time's booklet is depicted as a poster rather than a booklet, with photoshoot pictures of Spears on one side, and credits on the other.