...Baby One More Time is the debut album by American pop singer Britney Spears. Released on January 12, 1999 in the United States through Jive Records, ...Baby One More Time became a worldwide commercial success, reaching number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 and charting in nineteen countries. The album helped to propel Britney Spears into mainstream popularity, also the main track is considered Spears' signature song.

Max Martin produced the worldwide hit single for Spears debut album: "...Baby One More Time". It was Britney Spears' first diamond album. ...Baby One More Time was nominated for two categories at the Grammy Awards one for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 2000.

Album history

The album was first released with five snippets of demo songs on January 2, 1998. It was officially released on January 12, 1999 in Canada and the United States, and on March 8, 1999 in the United Kingdom. The cassette had the same cover that was later included in "...Baby One More Time" single booklet, although some editions, like the Australian edition, have an alternate cover picture, a picture of Spears in white, with her hands in a praying gesture. The picture also resembles the cover artwork of Björk's album Debut. The album was then meant to be named just Britney Spears, but due to the debut single success, the title was changed to make the album more recognized in the public.

On early pressings of the album, there is a commercial by Britney after the song "The Beat Goes On". In the message, Spears advertises her label mates The Backstreet Boys' album, and playing snippets of the singles from their album. The running time of "The Beat Goes On" with the special message at the end is 5:53.

Spears had originally not envisioned creating a pop album, she imagined herself singing, in her own words, "Sheryl Crow music, but younger more adult contemporary" but she was happy going along with pop music stating, "It made more sense to go pop, because I can dance to it -- it's more me."

Chart performance

Although the critical response to the album was lukewarm, "...Baby One More Time" was a huge commercial success. It debuted at number one in the U.S with 120,500 copies sold in its first week. Billboard 200, where it remained for 6 non-consecutive weeks, and it also debuted at number one in Canada, and reached the top ten in many other countries. The record has been certified 14× platinum in the United States. It is the highest selling album by a teenager both in the US and worldwide. The album also spent fifty-one weeks in the top ten of the U.S. Billboard 200 and sixty weeks in the top twenty. With this, it became the second best-selling album of 1999 in the United States, only behind Backstreet Boys's "Millennium". It stayed on the Billboard 200 for two years until being moved to the Pop Catalog chart. This album, its lyrics, and its music videos maintained the typical virgin image of the late 90's teen pop revival for Spears.

In France, the record debuted at number twenty-four, after thirty-eight weeks in the chart peaked at number-four, it has sold over 545,000 copies and has been certified 2× Platinum. In the United Kingdom ...Baby One More Time debuted at number two, and after one year in the UK Albums Chart earned 3× Platinum certification.

As of 2008, the album has sold 28 million copies worldwide.

Reception

The debut album of Britney Spears ...Baby One More Time received mostly mixed reviews, All Music Guide, gave the album four out of five stars, quoting "Baby One More Time has the same blend of infectious, rap-inflected dance-pop and smooth balladry that propelled the New Kids and Debbie Gibson." They also named ...Baby One More Time, (You Drive Me) Crazy, Soda Pop, and From the Bottom of My Broken Heart as their favorite songs from the album. Entertainment Weekly also gave it a positive review by giving it a B+, and saying that the album is the best teen album of all time. TheRolling Stone gave the album two stars out of five, calling it 'fun for teens.

Accolades

Despite most of the negative reviews since its release, ...Baby One More Time has featured heavily in various "must have" lists compiled by the music media. Some of the more prominent of these lists to feature ...Baby One More Time are shown below; this information is adapted from Acclaimed Music.

Publication	Country	Accolade	Year	Rank
Blender	United States	1001 Albums as of Right Now	2008	9
Bruce Pollock	United States	Bruce Pollock 100 Greatest Albums of All-Time	2006	1
MTV	United States	The 100 Greatest Albums of All-Time	2000	25
Mojo	United Kingdom	100 Greatest Albums	2000	97
Q	United Kingdom	Ultimate Music Collection	2003	3
Toby Creswell	Australia	1000 Greatest CD's	2005	10

Track listing

#	Title	Composers	Time
1.	"...Baby One More Time"	Max Martin	3:31
2.	"(You Drive Me) Crazy"	Krueger, Martin, Magnusson, Elofsson	3:20
3.	"Sometimes"	Jorgen Elofsson	4:06
4.	"Soda Pop"	Eric Foster White, Mikey Bassie	3:22
5.	"Born to Make You Happy"	Andreas Carlsson, Lundin	4:05
6.	"From the Bottom of My Broken Heart"	Eric Foster White	5:12
7.	"I Will Be There"	Max Martin, Andreas Carlsson	3:55
8.	"I Will Still Love You" (Feat. Don Phillip)	Eric Foster White	4:03
9.	"Deep In My Heart" 1	Krueger, Magnusson, Carlsson	3:36
10.	"Thinkin' About You"	Eric Foster White, Mikey Bassie	3:36
11.	"E-Mail My Heart"	Eric Foster White	3:43
12.	"The Beat Goes On"	Sonny Bono	3:45
Special Edition
13.	"I'll Never Stop Loving You" 2	Steve Diamond, Jason Blume	3:43
14.	"Autumn Goodbye" 3	Eric Foster White	3:42
15.	"...Baby One More Time" [Davidson Ospina Mix]	Max Martin	3:26
16.	"...Baby One More Time" [Boy Wunder Mix]	Max Martin	3:27

Notes:

• ¹ Available in the international editions.
• ² Also available as the B-side to the "(You Drive Me) Crazy" single.
• ³ Also available as the B-side to the "...Baby One More Time" single.

Charts and certifications

Chart	Peak position	Certification	Sales/ shipments
United States Billboard 200	1	14× Platinum	14 million
Argentina	n/a	Platinum	60,000
Australia ARIA Charts	2	4× Platinum	280,000
Austria	2	Platinum	30,000
Belgium	2	3× Platinum	150,000
Brazil	1	Gold	100,000
Canadian Albums Chart	1	Diamond	1 million
European Top 100 Albums	n/a	4× Platinum	4 million
Finland	2	Gold	37,865
France	4	2× Platinum	545,000
Germany Media Control Charts	1	3× Gold	750,000
Japan Oricon	9	Platinum	279,700
Mexico	1	2× Platinum/Gold	375,000
Netherlands Megacharts	3	3× Platinum	240,000
New Zealand RIANZ	3	3× Platinum	45,000
Norway	5	Platinum	40,000
Poland	n/a	Gold	35,000
Sweden	10	Platinum	60,000
Switzerland	1	2× Platinum	100,000
UK Albums Chart	4	3× Platinum	1.1 million

Personnel

• Britney Spears – Vocals, Background Vocals
• Daniel Boom – Engineer
• Jimmy Bralower – Drum Programming
• Larry Busacca – Photography
• Andreas Carlsson – Background Vocals
• Tom Coyne – Mastering
• Nikki Gregoroff – Background Vocals
• Nana Hedin – Background Vocals
• Andy Hess – Bass
• Tim Latham – Engineer, Mixing
• Tomas Lindberg – Bass
• Per Magnusson – Keyboards, Programming, Producer
• Max Martin – Keyboards, Programming, Background Vocals, Producer, Engineer, Mixing
• Charles McCrorey – Assistant Engineer
• Andrew McIntyre – Electric guitar
• Jackie Murphy – Art Direction, Design
• Dan Petty – Acoustic guitar, Electric guitar
• Doug Petty – Keyboards
• Don Philip – Featured Vocals
• Albert Sanchez – Photography
• Aleese Simmons – Background Vocals
• Chris Trevett – Engineer, Mixing
• Eric Foster White – Bass, Arranger, Electric guitar, Keyboards, Producer, Engineer, Drum Programming, Mixing

See also

• List of BMG Music Club's top selling albums in the United States
• List of best-selling albums in the United States

References

External links

• Britney Spears — official web site.
• Britney Spears — official web site at Jive Records.