Millennium is the third album (second in the United States) by the Backstreet Boys. It was a highly anticipated follow-up to both their U.S. debut album and their second internationally released album. It was their first album to be released in both the U.S. and internationally in the same form simultaneously.
In the United States, it holds the record for most shipments in one year, with 11 million in 1999. It was nominated for five Grammy Awards and spawned four Top 40 singles, including "I Want It That Way." Three of the singles, "I Want It That Way," "Larger than Life," and "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely," became some of their most successful and remembered hits of all time, with "I Want It That Way" becoming their biggest hit to date. Millennium has since become one of the best-selling albums of all time, selling over 30 million copies worldwide.
Production
After the massive success of both Backstreet's Back, and their U.S. debut album, a follow-up album was guaranteed to be made, and sure enough, sometime in 1998, it was confirmed the group would be working on a follow-up. However, the group would be dealt an enormous blow very early in production when Denniz PoP, who worked on many of their biggest songs on the last two albums, died of stomach cancer in August 1998. In an interview with Billboard, Rami Yacoub said that by the time Denniz died, the Cherion team was finishing production on presumably the writing of songs for the album, meaning he could have possibly worked on Millennium in some form. Still, no songs written or produced by Denniz appear on the final album. With Denniz gone, Yacoub became much more involved with the production.[1] Disco group The Bee Gees wrote a song for the album, something that was brought up in many news articles from the period, but this song was cut, and it is unknown what it was titled. [2] Dianne Warren, Teddy Riley, and Jermaine Dupri also wrote songs for the album, but they too were cut. [3] "That's What She Said," a song from Backstreet's Back left off the U.S. album, was also said to be included on the album, presumably only on the U.S. edition, but it too was cut.[4] The Boys wanted to be more involved with the production of the album, specifically wanting to write songs for it.[5] Previously, Brian had written "That's What She Said" on Backstreet's Back, but the rest of the group had yet to write any songs themselves.
Brian, A.J. and Kevin (offscreen) working in the studio on Spanish Eyes.
The Boys began recording for the album in early October 1998 and had five tracks finished by mid-October. At this point, the album's title was already set to include the word "Millennium," with one potential name being "Backstreet Millennium." Heaven In Your Eyes (which would become I Need You Tonight), a song being performed on tour, was also confirmed to be on the album. They hoped to release the album in March or April of 1999, with the first single coming out in January.[6] Jive Records disliked how one of the lead tracks, I Want It That Way, (which would end up becoming the lead single) didn't make sense lyrically, and got Robert John Lange to write alternate lyrics which the Boys recorded. However, the group preferred the original version and fought to keep it on the album. Jive relented, and the alternate version would not be released on the album. [7] This alternate version would find its' way online by at least April 4, 1999, when fansite Backstreet.net included it on their site, [8] (of which the actual link was not archived online), possibly sourced from an early demo cassette some radio stations had in March.[9] Europeans fans would receive a small preview of what was to come on the compilation CD A Night Out With The Backstreet Boys when it was released in late 1998, with snippets of three tracks being included. [10] A shortened version of this preview would be brought to the United States as a hidden track on the All I Have To Give single. Early printings of Britney Spears' debut album ...Baby One More Time, released in January 1999, also included tracks from the new album.[11] Finally, in February 1999, it was announced the album would be titled Millennium, and it would be released on May 18, 1999. At this point, That's What She Said was still set to be included, suggesting it was a late cut. [4] I Want It That Way was released as a single on April 12, to significant fanfare. On May 18, 1999, the day of the album's release, the Backstreet Boys made a heavily publicized appearance on MTV's Total Request Live.
Singles
Four singles were released from the album.
"I Want It That Way" is the lead single from the album. It was released on April 12, 1999. It is one of the Backstreet Boys' most commercially successful songs and is often regarded as the group's signature song.
"Larger Than Life" is the second single from the album. It was released on September 3, 1999.
"Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely" was released as the third single. It was released on November 26, 1999. It peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100.
"The One" is the fourth and final single from the album. It was released on May 16, 2000.
Tour
The album was supported by the Into the Millennium Tour, which started on June 2, 1999, and ended on March 15, 2000, with 123 shows in 84 cities spanning three legs. The first leg of the North American tour initially sold 53 dates (40 announced and 13 added) due to demand in 39 cities, scheduled to run from September 14–December 2, 1999. The concert at Georgia Dome, Atlanta, was the 5th most attended concert in American history and the most attended show by a pop artist.
Critical reception
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave the album four stars out of 5, writing, "Millennium has no pretense of being anything other than an album for the moment, delivering more of everything that made Backstreet's Back a blockbuster."
Millennium was honored with five 1999 Grammy Award nominations, including "Album of the Year." Also, "I Want It That Way" was rated number three on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the '90s.
Commercial performance
Millennium entered the Billboard 200 at number one, remaining for ten non-consecutive weeks. It sold 1,134,000 copies in its first week of release, shattering the previous Nielsen SoundScan record held by Garth Brooks for single-week record sales. This record was subsequently overtaken in 2000 by NSYNC with No Strings Attached. Millennium sold nearly 500,000 copies in the U.S. on its first day alone, setting a record for first-day sales. Millennium became the best-selling album of 1999, selling 9,445,732 albums. Millennium remained on the Billboard chart for 93 weeks, selling over 13 million copies in the United States and being certified 13 times platinum. As of October 2014, the album stands as the fifth best-selling album in the United States of the SoundScan era, with 12,250,000 units sold. In 2003 it was also reported as the fourth biggest seller for Music Club sales in the U.S. over the past 14 years, with sales of 1.59 million. In Canada, the album is the seventh biggest-selling album since 1995 in the Canadian Soundscan sales era up to December 2007. In Japan, it sold 1 million copies, according to Billboard magazine.
Tracks
Larger Than Life
I Want It That Way
Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely
It's Gotta Be You
I Need You Tonight
Don't Want You Back
Don't Wanna Lose You Now
The One
Back To Your Heart
Spanish Eyes
No One Else Comes Close
The Perfect Fan
Bonus Tracks
I'll Be There For You
You Wrote The Book On Love
If You Knew What I Knew
My Heart Stays With You
Trivia
It was their first album to be released in the U.S. and internationally in the same form simultaneously.
Millennium has since become one of the best-selling albums of all time, selling 40 million copies worldwide.
The album is dedicated to Denniz PoP, who died during production.
The linear notes contain a secret message from Nick, 5483-5433-86-843-3855378-367-843-388873-47-722723. The message is decoded by looking at the letters on a phone keypad and replacing the number with the letter. When translated, it read, "Live life to the fullest, for the future is scarce."
