Baby One More Time (song)

...Baby One More Time" is the debut single from pop singer Britney Spears, released from her debut album ...Baby One More Time during the fourth quarter of 1998.

The song, which was written and produced by long time hit-makers Denniz PoP and Max Martin, recalls the singer regretting her previous decision to end a relationship and how much she wishes to reconcile because of what he means to her, emphasizing how much she wants him to "hit me baby one more time".

Baby One More Time is ranked at No.25 on Rolling Stone & MTV's 100 Greatest Pop Songs of all time and it is listed as the 38th best selling song of all-time on the United World Chart and #5 in the chart from 1999 to the present (only behind Cher's Believe, Shakira's Hips Don't Lie, James Blunt's You're Beautiful and Madonna's Hung Up).

Lyrics for “Baby One More Time”

Oh baby, baby
Oh baby, baby
Oh baby, baby
How was I supposed to know
That something wasn’t right here
Oh baby baby
I shouldn’t have let you go
And now you’re out of sight, yeah
Show me, how you want it to be
Tell me baby
‘Cause I need to know now what we’ve got

[CHORUS:]
My loneliness is killing me
I must confess, I still believe
When I’m not with you I lose my mind
Give me a sign
Hit me baby one more time

Oh baby, baby
The reason I breathe is you
Boy you got me blinded
Oh baby, baby
There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do
That’s not the way I planned it
Show me, how you want it to be
Tell me baby
‘Cause I need to know now what we’ve got

[Repeat CHORUS]

Oh baby, baby
Oh baby, baby
Ah, yeah, yeah
Oh baby, baby
How was I supposed to know
Oh pretty baby
I shouldn’t have let you go
I must confess, that my loneliness
Is killing me now
Don’t you know I still believe
That you will be here
And give me a sign
Hit me baby one more time

[Repeat CHORUS]

I must confess that my loneliness
Is killing me now
Don’t you know I still believe
That you will be here
And give me a sign
Hit me baby one more time

Covers by other artists

The song has been recorded by Fountains of Wayne, and this version gained popularity after being played on Howard Stern's radio show. It was never released as a single, although the song is present on Fountains of Wayne's 2005 two-disc set of b-sides and cover songs, Out of State Plates.
Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa, sons of rockstar Frank Zappa, recorded an Electronica and guitar-based version of this song for the soundtrack of the 2000 film Ready To Rumble.
South African Punk/Ska Band "Hog Hoggidy Hog" recorded a cover of Baby One More Time for their 2001 Album "Driving Over Miss Davie".
The song has notably also been recorded by Travis, Bowling for Soup, The Dresden Dolls, and Doll Factory.
Mr. Bungle has performed the song during live acts.
The parody band Poop 'N Stain parodied this song under the title "Hit me up one more time"
Brendon Urie from Panic! at the Disco sang cover with Dresden Dolls on July 1, 2006.
It was originally offered to the group TLC to record, which they passed on.
It has spawned a series of spoofs such as this one by Chris Csefalvay relating to constitutional law and MADtv's explicit "Lick My Baby Back Behind".
Nicotine's version is on the Punk Goes Pop compilation.
Hardcore techno artists Heretik Sound System released a cover LP of the song.
A band from the Netherlands named Intwine have also recorded a live version of this song.
Darius Danesh performed a rather novel version of the song on the British show Popstars.
The British cover band Ten Masked Men has done a death metal version of the song on their second album.
An American band named Kevorkian has also performed a death metal version of the song on their first album.
The German a cappella group Wise Guys covered the song under the title "Schlag mich baby noch einmal", after translating the lyrics into German.
The doom metal band Type O Negative does a version of "baby one more time"
Actor Billy Boyd sang "Baby One More Time" on a Sharon Osbourne talk show, while playing guitar.

Other uses of the title

In April, 2005, the British network ITV aired a short series called Hit Me Baby One More Time hosted by Vernon Kay. The show pitted one-hit wonders who generally had their moments of fame in the 1980s against each other to play their own hits and a currently popular cover song. The favorites were chosen by audience voting.

The American version of the show also aired on NBC later in the year, and it was also hosted by Kay.

Music video

Directed by Nigel Dick, the ...Baby One More Time music video is what arguably fueled the single to become a success. Its original setup, however, 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' idea for the video to be shot in a school. Spears also came up with the concept of tying up the uniform shirts to bare her midriff.

Shot at Venice High School in California, 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' 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 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' daydream.

The video became an instant hit on MTV and other music channel vehicles, and eventually became her first to retire on TRL.

The schoolgirl outfit worn by Spears in the video is on display at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV.

The Greatest Hits: My Prerogative (DVD) released in 2004 contains two alternate versions of the video. One features Britney in her pink singlet top and white pants dancing with her back-up dancers. The other alternate version sees Britney 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.

Awards

As mentioned above, the music video became a hit and it earned Spears her first three MTV Video Music Award nominations in the categories of Best Pop Video, Best New Artist and, most prominently, Best Female Video.

Despite her losses at the VMAs, the single still won numerous awards, including a Teen Choice Award for Choice Single and an MTV Europe Music Award for Best Song, proving that the single's success was not limited to the U.S.

The song was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

A successful dance mix was released into dance clubs the Summer before the single's album and radio release.

Year	Ceremony	Award	Result
1999	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Single	Won
1999	MTV Video Music Awards	Best Female Video	Nominated
1999	MTV Video Music Awards	Best Pop Video	Nominated
1999	MTV Video Music Awards	Best New Artist	Nominated
1999	M6 Awards	Best Music Video	Won
1999	MTV Europe Music Awards	Best Song	Won
2000	Grammy Awards	Best Female Pop Vocal Performance	Nominated

Chart performance

"...Baby One More Time" remains Spears' biggest U.S. (and international) hit to date. The song debuted at number seventeen on the Billboard Hot 100 (the highest debut of her career), and was able to climb to number one on the chart, staying there for two weeks and becoming her first (and only to date) number one single in the U.S. The song also reached the top spot of the Hot 100 Singles Sales, staying there for a solid four weeks; this eventually propelled the single to a Platinum certification. Though not as strong as its sales tallies, the single also experienced considerable airplay, becoming one of her top ten hits on the Hot 100 Airplay chart. The track spent thirty-two weeks on the Hot 100 (her longest run on the chart), with a vast majority (twenty-nine) of these weeks within the top forty. This single has sold worldwide 8.654.000 copies.

The single also became an all-around hit on Top 40 radio, going top ten on both the Top 40 Tracks and Rhythmic Top 40, and to number one for five weeks on the Mainstream Top 40.

Internationally, it was an even huger hit, reaching the top spot in every European country charted (including the UK) and also ascending to the summit in other countries, such as Canada and Australia.

Spears broke a first-week sales record for a debut act when "...Baby One More Time" sold a total of 464,000 in its first week of release in the UK. The single went on to sell 1.45 million copies, making it the biggest-selling single of 1999 in the UK, and until 2002 the best selling debut single ever in the UK, and in the U.S. has sold over 2.4 million copies.

Chart (1998/1999)	Peak Position
United World Chart	1
Austrian Singles Chart	1
Australian ARIA Singles Chart	1
Belgian Singles Chart	1
Canadian Singles Chart	1
Danish Singles Chart	1
Dutch Singles Chart	1
European Singles Chart	1
French Singles Chart	1
German Singles Chart	1
Irish Singles Chart	1
Israeli Singles Chart	1
Italian Singles Chart	1
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart	1
Norwegian Singles Chart	1
Philippine Chart	1
Portuguese Singles Chart	1
Russian Singles Chart	1
Spanish Singles Chart	1
Swedish Singles Chart	1
Swiss Singles Chart	1
UK Singles Chart	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	1
U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream	1