Boyband 5ive turned down the chance to release two huge pop hits at the height of their fame - including Baby One More Time.
The pop band, formed by the same team that managed the Spice Girls, had three UK number ones, including the upbeat Keep On Movin’ in 1999.
However, they nearly sabotaged their own success when they rejected Baby One More Time. When they were played a sample of the tune, the musicians allegedly branded it "f***ing w**k".
But it was picked up by Britney Spears - as her first single in 1998 - and has since become one of the best-selling singles of all time, with more than 10 million copies sold worldwide. For it, Spears was nominated the Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 2000, narrowly losing out to Sarah McLachlan's live rendition of I Will Remember You.
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Press Association)5ive's manager Chris Herbert said: "We brought the boys into the studio and said, ‘You’re going to listen to this song, it’s called Baby One More Time’.
“And the boys went, ‘It’s f***ing w**k’. This couldn’t get any worse. We also got offered Bye Bye Bye which then became a massive hit for NSYNC as well. The boys turned that one down."
Though it only came third in the UK singles' charts, Bye Bye Bye was also nominated for a Grammy - for Record of the Year. It was considered a huge commercial success.
And despite 5ive's Let's Dance chart topper in 2001, the London lads faced difficulties and ended up splitting. Scott Robinson, who was the lead singer, recalled an aggressive confrontation with a boss at the group's record label.
He told The Sun: "I pinned one of the big cheeses at the record label up against his desk with my foot, crushing him into the wall, and said, ‘I will f***ing leave this band, you try and f***ing stop me’, with Simon Cowell trying to fight me off him. I’d lost my mind. They had to call security and carry me out of the building kicking and screaming like a f***ing wild dog."
English (US) ·