One of Britney Spears' most legendary songs almost went to a huge British boyband.
Aged just 16 years old, pop princess Britney Spears stormed onto the charts in 1998 with her banger ...Baby One More Time. The track was a defining song of the 1990s, and propelled Britney to international fame and spawned the beginning of her music career.
However, while the song dominated the charts at the end of the decade, Britney almost missed out on being given the song to record. This is because the breakout song for the singer was almost given to another iconic act from the 1990s – but a bit closer to home.
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Boyband 5ive have revealed they were offered the chance to record the song, but opted to turn the song down. As a result, this gave music execs the opportunity to hand the song to a fresh face and soon gave the song to Britney, who would make it one of her most well-known songs.
Coming together as part of a new documentary series looking at the rise and fall of boybands, 5ive admitted they were not that interested in the song at the time. Speaking to the BBC, who was producing the series, the band admitted they almost sabotaged their own careers by rejecting future hits.
The band's manager Chris Hebert said that they were offered a chance to record a demo for ...Baby One More Time, but the group were not impressed. "The boys went, ‘It’s f***ing w**k’; this couldn’t get any worse," he confessed.
This was not the only song that the band turned down which would go on to became a defining track of the decade. According to manager Chris, the five-piece had been given the opportunity to record Bye Bye Bye but again rejected the song, which later go to American boyband NSYNC.
5ive conquered the charts during the 90s, with hits like Everybody Get Down and Keep On Movin' topping the rankings on a regular basis. However, at the height of their fame, the band admitted success began to get to them, which led to a public bar brawl between members Ritchie Neville and Jay Brown.
However, despite hoping the fight would stoke the wrath of bosses, the band revealed Simon Cowell could not have been more pleased. "His exact words were, ‘Well f***ing done, you can’t f***ing buy publicity like that. This is amazing,’" Ritchie recalled.
But things would soon take a toll on the band, with things reaching a head when Scott Robinson - who had been struggling with the time away from his loved ones - pinned a music exec up against the wall. Then-unknown music mogul Simon was said to be trying to break the pair up, while Scott's emotions ran high.
"We almost ended up in a fist fight," Simon, now aged 65, said. "I was that close to punching him in the face."
5ive would eventually split in 2001 after the pressures of fame became too much for its members. Reflecting on his time in the band, Ritchie admitted: "You were 100% a commodity and a product; that’s how you felt, almost like a plastic doll."
Boybands Forever kicks off on BBC Two at 9.15pm on Saturday, November 16.
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