The Backstreet Boys have finally confirmed what their 1999 hit “I Want It That Way” was all about!

Anyone who was around to witness the greatness of the 90s’ would know the stars The Backstreet Boys were back then! In 1999, the boy-band sold around 9.5 millions copies of their album “Millennium”, making it the best selling album for that year. The biggest hit on that album undoubtedly has to be “I Want It That Way”. The chart topper was famously known for having lyrics which made no sense whatsoever! The lyrics were of a highly contradictory nature. Listeners were never able to figure out if Β it was a love song or a breakup song or something else that was totally non-classifiable!

Credits: msecnd.com

So it turns out the Swedish writer behind the hit, Max Martin, wasn’t too good with English!Β So he failed to recognise how vague the lines were.Β The Backstreet Boys were releasing the album with JIVE and so the label having a problem with the nonsense lyrics could have derailed the single. They then proceeded to record another version of the song and after listening to the new version a group vote took place and they voted to go with the older version itself!Β 

This was the re-recorded version-

β€œSometimes you overthink things,” he said. β€œI think the newer version or the second version that we did that was more of a literal context… it was the rhyming scheme that didn’t feel right. Yeah, it just didn’t feel as good, so sometimes you just got to go with what feels right.”– said Kevin Richardson from the boy band.

The song went on to become one of the biggest hits of all time and people still know the lines to it! This just goes on to show that everyone has their own way of interpreting the lyrics of a song. Just because the artist had a particular way of reading what the song was about, doesn’t mean that everyone would look at it the same way !

One of the biggest mysteries of the 90’s, SOLVED! Β