Britney Spears’ Official "...Baby One More Time" Single Cover

“…Baby One More Time” is the debut hit single from pop singer Britney Spears, released from her debut album of the same name during the fourth quarter of 1998 in the United States, and in early 1999 internationally. The song was written and co-produced by Max Martin. The track was a smash hit success globally and remains Spears’ most successful single. The track went on to top all the charts where it appeared making it the only track to do so. It is the most successful debut single for any recording artist who has not had any former musical experience professionaly. The track established Spears as a pop cultural phenomenon, and became a tag with which the singer was associated for a long time. It is one of the most successful tracks ever released in music history reaching the #1 spot in the charts in every country it charted in.

Music video

Directed by Nigel Dick, the video’s original setup was in high contrast to what eventually became the final product. The plan was to have the video in a cartoon-like environment, in a likely attempt to attract the audience of younger children. However, Spears was unhappy with this, and argued that the set should be a bit more mature. So, the childish nature of the primary plan was scrapped, and instead was replaced with Spears’s idea for the video to be shot in a school. The schoolgirl outfit worn by Spears in the video is on display at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV. The knotted shirt design was Spears’ idea, she recollects saying, “The outfits looked kind of dorky, so I was like, ‘Let’s tie up our shirts and be cute’”

Shot in two days from August 7-8, 1998 at Venice High School in California (the same school which was used to film the movie Grease), the music video for “…Baby One More Time” begins with Spears in a particularly boring class right before the end of the day. Her assistant Felicia Culotta played the role of Spears’s teacher. When the bell rings, Spears runs out into the hall and begins a choreographed dance. After this, Spears is outside, now adorned in an athletic outfit. Along with a couple of other students, she performs a number of gymnastic moves before heading back inside. She is then sitting on the bleachers in the gymnasium watching a basketball game. Her love interest, played by her real-life cousin Chad, in the video is revealed. After this short segment, Spears begins her final dance routine and the video ends shortly afterwards, revealing that the whole thing had actually just been Spears’s daydream.

The video became an instant hit on MTV and other music channel vehicles, and eventually retired on TRL.

The Greatest Hits: My Prerogative DVD, released in 2004, contains two alternate versions of the video. One features Spears in a pink singlet top and white pants dancing with her back-up dancers. The other alternate version sees Spears in her school girl uniform dancing through the school hall from the start of the song to the end of the first chorus. It differs slightly from the original as the shots are longer.

On the final episode of TRL, the video made number one on the countdown as the most iconic video of all time, also making it the last music video to ever be played on the show. On MTV Latinamerica the video came in at number 7 of Los Videos mas MTV or The most MTV-like videos and in number 3 of The Top 100 Pop Videos only after Madonna and Michael Jackson.

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