I Want It That Way

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"I Want It That Way"

Single by Backstreet Boys
from the album Millennium
Released	1999
Format	CD, 7", 12", cassette
Recorded	1999
Genre	Pop/Ballad
Length	3:30
Label	Jive
Writer(s)	Max Martin Kristian Lundin Jay Orpin
Producer(s)	Max Martin Kristian Lundin Jay Orpin
Chart positions
#1 (UK, Canada, Portugal, Sweden, Ireland, Taiwan, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Greece, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Switzerland, Italy,Indonesia, Denmark, Chile, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Latvia) #2 (Australia) #6 (U.S.) #20 (France)
Backstreet Boys singles chronology
"All I Have To Give" (1998)	"I Want It That Way" (1999)	"Larger Then Life" (1999)

"I Want It That Way" was the most successful single from the Backstreet Boys' 1999 album, Millennium. It was written by Max Martin and Andreas Carlsson. The song is considered the band's biggest hit to date and their signature song, and was one of the biggest hits of 1999. The song was highly played on the radio, and the video, directed by Wayne Isham, was well played on television. It was later released on the Backstreet Boys' greatest hits album, The Hits: Chapter One, in 2001.

[edit] Popular success

The single broke the record for most radio station adds in its first week with 165. It reached the #1 spot on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts, where it stayed for 14 weeks. On the Billboard Top 40 Mainstream chart, it set a record for most weeks at #1. The single, however, failed to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #6. The song was honored with three Grammy nominations, including one for "Record Of The Year".

This being the bands first and so far only number 1; it is so far the biggest song of their music career.

The song hit big in the UK, debuting at #1 on the singles chart. The song eventually set a record for the most weeks on the chart since the chart was conceived in the 1980's. "I Want It That Way" made chart history in the Netherlands being the first single ever to debut at #1 in the Top 40, without being in the "Tip Parade" first. The song also entered the charts at #1 in Italy, Spain, Canada, Austria, Switzerland and Germany and went on to reach the #1 spot in over 25 nations making it the most successful boyband song of all time.

The song was voted #10 in the MTV/Rolling Stone list of the "100 Greatest Pop Songs Of All Time" in 2000. It was ranked #16 on Blender Magazine's 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born list and #61 on Vh1 100 Greatest Songs Of The Past 25 Years. The song is considered to be the most successful boyband song ever.

[edit] Video

The video features the boys in an airport getting ready to board a flight. During the video the boys can be seen wearing Black and then White in the chorus. Within the chorus they start dancing steadily. The video ends with them getting on the flight whilst saying goodbye to their screaming fans.

BSB in their Video.

[edit] Parodies

Howard Stern had a parody on his show called "The Gay Way", which was sung by his band The Losers.
Weird Al Yankovic made a parody called "eBay".
A parody called "Which Backstreet Boy is Gay" became an Internet phenomenon and also became misattributed to "Weird Al" Yankovic.
I Want A Fat Babe is a ShockWave video featuring the Backstreet Boys (referred to in the parody as the SnackTreat Boys) discovering and praising an obese woman in song and dance.
I Want It That Way is a humorous video of two Beijing college students lip-synching and imitating the style of the Backstreet Boys.
The above mentioned lip-synching students are parodied in the first episode of the first season of TV series Heroes.
blink-182 sent the video up in the video for their song All The Small Things.
Mr. Meaty characters Josh and Parker lip-synched this song in a commercial on Nickelodeon.
ApologetiX wrote a parody called "I Want in That Place" on their 2000 "Spoofernatural" album.