User:Krystaleen/Portal:Backstreet Boys/Selected article/3

"I Want It That Way" is a song by the Backstreet Boys, and their first single from their 1999 album Millennium. The song is still routinely played on both radio and video and the single has been highly critically acclaimed, winning and being nominated for various awards including, three Grammy nominations, MTV awards and Billboard Awards, as well as many others. It reached number 1 in over 25 countries and became the most successful single from a 'boy band'.

The acoustic-guitar arpeggio riff, which forms the song's intro and reiterates throughout the verses, was written at the very end of the recording sessions. The song is written in the key of F and their vocals span from E4 to B5.

The song was originally not intended to be the first single, as Larger Than Life held that position. This was changed due to the group's desire to move in a more mature direction, by utilizing a mid-tempo track as the lead single. Zomba Recording executives had to be convinced to approve the song as the first single, due to them citing that the group could "alienate fans" with a mid-tempo song that had vague lyrical meaning. The group later recorded an alternate version with new lyrics that made more sense than the original, but later went back to the original lyrics.

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