I Want It That Way

"I Want It That Way"
CD single cover
Single by Backstreet Boys
from the album Millennium
Released	April 27, 1999
Format	CD, 7", 12", cassette
Recorded	November-December 1998 at Cheiron Studios (Stockholm, Sweden)
Genre	Pop
Length	3:33
Label	Jive Records
Writer(s)	Max Martin Andreas Carlsson
Producer	Max Martin Kristian Lundin
Backstreet Boys singles chronology
"All I Have To Give" (1998) "I Want It That Way" (1999) "Larger Than Life" (1999)

"I Want It That Way" is the most successful song by the Backstreet Boys, and their first single from their 1999 album Millennium. It is considered to be their signature hit. It was written by Max Martin and Andreas Carlsson. The song was highly played on the radio & the video, directed by Wayne Isham, was well played on television. It was later released on the Backstreet Boys' greatest hits album, The Hits: Chapter One, in 2001. The song went on to reach the #1 spot in over 25 nations, making it the most successful song ever recorded by a boy band. Sometimes the song is reffered to as the definitive pop song.

Writing and inspiration

In an interview with HitQuarters, Carlsson described the genesis of song,

"‘I Want It That Way’ was a play with words. When Max came up with the original idea for the song, it already had the line 'you are my fire, the one desire'. We tried a million different variations on the second verse, and finally we had to go back to what was sounding so great, 'you are my fire, the one desire'. And then we changed it to 'am I your fire, your one desire', which made absolutely no sense in combination with the chorus - but everybody loved it!"^[1]

History

An alternate version of lyrics were written and recorded by the band. This version was included in some early demo presses of the album. In this alternate version, the song has the opposite message ("I love it when I hear you say/I want it that way"). Some of the lyrics are common among both versions, and other lines are changed but end on the same rhyming words ("My heart is on fire/Such a strong desire"). The alternative lyrics were written by Martin and Carlsson in collaboration with Mutt Lange.^[2] The alternate version became released on the internet via Napster and other methods in the early 2000s, and was also played infrequently on some radio stations.

According to then-member of the Boys' backing band, Tommy Smith, the released version is the "original version"; the alternate version was recorded because the chorus of the released version did not make sense.^[3]

Popular success

The single broke the record for most radio station adds in its first week with 165. It reached the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks charts, where it stayed for 14 weeks. On the Billboard Top 40 Mainstream chart, it set a record for most weeks at #1. The single, however, failed to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #6. The song was honored with three Grammy nominations, including one for "Record of the Year".

The song hit big in the UK, debuting at #1 on the UK Singles Chart. "I Want It That Way" made chart history in the Netherlands being the first single ever to debut at #1 in the Top 40, without being in the "Tip Parade" first. The song also entered the charts at #1 in Italy, Spain, Canada, Austria, Switzerland and Germany.

The song is also highly critically acclaimed. The song was voted #3 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the '90s in December 2007, #10 in the MTV/Rolling Stone list of the "100 Greatest Pop Songs Of All Time" in 2000. It was ranked #16 on Blender Magazine's 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born list and #61 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs Of The Past 25 Years in June 2003. It was ranked #1 in MTV's Top 99 Of 99 special. The song was also the 15th biggest selling boyband single of the 90's in the UK selling 423,300 copies. The video itself ranked as #3 on the top 10 list of the most iconic videos of all time at the TRL finale.

Track listing

Standard

1. "I Want It That Way"
2. "My Heart Stays With You"
3. "I'll Be There for You"

The Remixes - limited edition

1. I Want It That Way (Album Version)
2. I Want It That Way (David Morales Club Version)
3. I Want It That Way (The Wunder Dub)
4. I Want It That Way (Jazzy Jim Vocal Mix)

Remixes double vinyl

1. I Want It That Way (Morales Club Vocal) - 7:21
2. I Want It That Way (Original LP Version) - 3:32
3. I Want It That Way (The Wunder Dub) - 6:50
4. I Want It That Way (Def Drums Mix) - 7:49
5. I Want It That Way (Def Rascals Mix) - 9:19
6. I Want It That Way (After Hours Mix) - 7:51
7. I Want It That Way (Jazzy Jim Vocal Mix) - 3:42

Charts

Music video

The music video is set mainly at LAX International Airport on April 1, 1999 (date filmed), and features prominent special effects scene transitions between shots. Notably, a high-speed zoom effect which makes it appear that the foreground subject has not changed to a new shot while the background has, fades in and out of white, and shifting between different film speeds during shots. Another special effects sequence using greenscreen, in which the band, dressed in white, would perform a dance sequence while being manipulated over the backdrop of an airport lobby was mostly cut from the video, as it was felt that a dance sequence did not fit with the song, though elements of the dance remain in the second chorus, as do non-dance elements that sequence. As the band prepares to board their plane, they are greeted by a crowd of screaming fans bearing signs and flowers.

The video reached #35 on "Muchmusic's 100 Best Videos."

This song's music video has been parodied by blink-182 in thier music video for All The Small Things.

• [I Want it That Way]

Parodies and pop culture

• Ryan Adams performed the song live several times starting in 1999, albeit with a satirical slant. He played acoustic guitar on his cover version and routinely touted the quality of the song. However, he frequently attributed the tune to 'N Sync or claimed ignorance as to which boy band performed the original.
• Howard Stern had a parody on his show called "The Gay Way", which was sung by his band The Losers.
• "Weird Al" Yankovic made a parody called "eBay".
• A parody called "Which Backstreet Boy is Gay" became an Internet phenomenon and also became misattributed to "Weird Al" Yankovic. It was actually performed by Bob Rivers.[1]
• I Want A Fat Babe is a ShockWave video featuring the Backstreet Boys (referred to in the parody as the SnackTreat Boys) discovering and praising an obese woman in song and dance.
• I Want It That Way is a humorous video of two Beijing college students lip-synching and imitating the style of the Backstreet Boys.
• The above mentioned lip-synching students are parodied in the first episode of the first season of TV series Heroes. Two young men can be seen miming to the song in a scene featuring Hiro Nakamura and Ando Masahashi in a bar.
• Blink-182 sent the video up in the video for their song All the Small Things.
• Mr. Meaty characters Josh and Parker lip-synched this song in a commercial on Nickelodeon.
• ApologetiX wrote a parody called "I Want in That Place" on their 2000 "Spoofernatural" album.
• Bob Saget sings his version Danny Tanner is Not Gay in his stand-up routine.
• The Oh Boyz sing a parody called "I Want in My Way" on Kim Possible.
• Sanjaya Malakar, Phil Stacey, and Chris Sligh performed the song as a comical performance on American Idol Season 6 Tour.
• Josh Farro, Zac Farro, and Jeremy Davis of Paramore sang this song with a Japanese representative while on tour in Japan for their album All We Know Is Falling.
• Cricketers Brett Lee, Shane Watson, and Kumar Sangakkara sang this song during the inaugural DLF Indian Premier League tournament. [2]
• Main characters, Shawn and Gus from USA Network's Psych, played by James Roday and Dulé Hill respectively, sing a rendition of the song while trying to block Juliet (Maggie Lawson) from the spotlight during the end credits of the episode "Forget Me Not."
• Christian comedian Tim Hawkins parodied the song as "I Work at Subway".
• Posted in October 2009, a popular YouTube video titled "A Day at the Office" showed five young office workers recording themselves on laptop webcams doing a lip dub performance of "I Want it That Way."
• Selena Gomez and the Scene cover the song on their House of Blues 2010 Tour^[4].

References