“Hit it, guys!” With those words, a 17-year-old Britney Spears sent Backstreet Boys fans into a frenzy with hidden tracks on her 1999 debut, …Baby One More Time, which previewed the boy band’s upcoming full-length, Millennium. “I’ve got something very special, just for you,” said Spears in the teaser, which played after her final track. “I’m going to give you a private preview of new music from labelmates of mine.”
It was a strategic move by Jive Records amid the hungry anticipation for the Backstreet Boys’ third record, spurred by their hysteria-inducing popularity in Europe that had trickled into the United States. With no social media to leak the tracks, eager fans rushed to purchase a copy of Spears’ album. (A preview of new Backstreet Boys material also appeared on the group’s 1998 live album, A Night Out With the Backstreet Boys.) “Britney exploded as a result of doing that,” says songwriter Andrew Fromm, whose ballad “I Need You Tonight” was one of the tracks teased on her album and included on, he estimates, the first 200,000 copies of …Baby One More Time. “It really pushed Britney’s career. Backstreet fans were dying to hear new songs.”