The Year is 1998!
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Max Martin wrote this song and produced it. Martin is a Swedish citizen with a knack for catchy pop songs. He created hits for The Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync in addition to Spears.
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Many interpreted “hit” in the “Hit Me Baby One More Time” in a more literal sense, but John Seabrook’s pop history book The Song Machine explains that Swedish songwriter Max Martin thought “hit” was American slang for “call,” thus squelching the domestic violence angle.
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This was first offered to the group TLC, who turned it down. It was later accepted by Britney. TLC’s “T-Boz” Watkins explained to MTV News that the trio passed on the song as they didn’t feel it represented the band appropriately. “I was like, I like the song but do I think it’s a hit? Do I think it’s TLC? I’m not saying ‘hit me baby.'”
“No disrespect to Britney,” she added. “It’s good for her. But was I going to say ‘hit me baby one more time’? Hell no!”
- The single went Platinum, with sales of over a million in America, and the album went a staggering 14x Platinum for sales of over 14 million in the United States. Worldwide, that number is closer to 25 million. It is the biggest-selling album ever recorded by a teenage girl – a milestone that is unlikely to ever be broken.
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The video was shot at Venice High School in Los Angeles, which was the setting for Rydell High in the movie Grease.
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