It’d sound loopy, however *NSYNC was in peril of going “Bye Bye Bye” earlier than the boy band’s signature music was launched 25 years in the past on Jan. 17, 2000.
After scoring hits akin to “I Want You Back” and “Tearin’ Up My Heart” on their self-titled debut album — launched in 1997 in Germany and 1998 within the US — the group was locked in a extremely publicized authorized battle with former supervisor Lou Pearlman and former label RCA Data. After suing Pearlman for fraud and misrepresentation, they had been countersued with the specter of not with the ability to file or carry out underneath the identify *NSYNC.
However after dealing with an unsure future, the quintet of Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone, Lance Bass and Chris Kirkpatrick settled out of courtroom and stated goodbye to all that drama with “Bye Bye Bye,” the smash single that discovered them embarking on a brand new chapter with a brand new label, Jive Data, and a brand new angle.
The primary single from *NSYNC’s blockbuster album “No Strings Attached” was a tie-cutting assertion that took them to the stratospheric heights on the daybreak of the brand new millennium.
“I guess it was the right timing — let’s be real,” Fatone, 47, completely advised The Publish. “It occurred [right after] the lawsuit. All eyes had been on us. What was happening? Are they gonna put a brand new album out?
“It’s a message more about a girl and a guy and their relationship, not so much about the business itself. But it kind of worked that way.”
Certainly, for *NSYNC, the breakup music was a defiant declaration of independence.
“It was the emancipation of a boy band that had legions of fans on a global basis,” stated Barry Weiss, former president of Jive Data. “It was a perfect epithet to the first stage of their career and represented their emancipation, where they took matters into their own hands.”
And as *NSYNC gave “Bye Bye Bye” an entire new that means, they capitalized on the entire controversy.
“The whole court case and the whole dispute … played out in the court of public opinion,” stated Weiss. “So it also gave tremendous momentum to the song when it came out. The record sort of encapsulated everything that was going on with the group and their struggles against Lou Pearlman and the big bad wolf of the record company, and it all just played into the public sympathy and led to a huge explosion of the song on impact.”
Though it couldn’t have performed out any higher for *NSYNC, the superbly timed tune wasn’t designed to be a shrewd energy transfer.
“When we cut that record, we had no knowledge of what was going to go down with the lawsuit with Lou, and so it wasn’t like a preconceived situation that, ‘Oh, this is the song,’ ” stated Johnny Wright, *NSYNC’s former supervisor who now manages Timberlake. “It just happened to play into that.”
However whereas it appears as if “Bye Bye Bye” was all the time meant to be for *NSYNC, the music was first given to a different boy band: 5, a British quintet managed by Simon Cowell.
“This boy band was kind of more on the rap side, and the lead singer of the band was trying to sing, ‘Bye, bye, bye’ and he was like, ‘This song is ridiculous,’” stated Andreas Carlsson, who co-wrote the tune with its producers Kristian Lundin and Jake Schulze. “Midway via the music, it’s like, ‘I can’t sing this crap with a British accent!’
“So they left and didn’t want to do the song. So we were sitting on the song. And thankfully we were able to give it then to *NSYNC. It was serendipity.”
Sarcastically, Fatone stated, “We actually got handed ‘Slam Dunk (Da Funk) by Five one time, and we turned that down.”
The music all started with the title. “When ‘Bye Bye Bye’ came up, it was just like filling in the blanks,” stated Carlsson, whose lyrics had been impressed by his personal breakup. “It was ‘bye bye bye’ to my ex-girlfriend.”
Musically, the Swedish tunesmiths — who had beforehand labored with the Backstreet Boys — had been influenced by ’90s R&B and hip-hop.
“It was like, ‘Hey, if Destiny Child can do ‘Bills, Bills, Bills,’ we can do ‘Bye Bye Bye,’ ” stated Carlsson, who would additionally go on to co-write “It’s Gonna Be Me,” the second single from “No Strings Attached.”
“We thought we had swag.”
And *NSYNC was prepared to maneuver in a extra R&B/hip-hop path.
“That’s kind of what we listened to, and that’s really what Justin’s vocals are like,” stated Fatone.
“They were all into basketball and sneakers,” added Wright. “They were into things that warranted that music to represent who they really were.”
Recording the music at Westlake Studios in Los Angeles, Fatone stated that he and his bandmates had been immediately optimistic about it.
“We’re all excited about it,” he stated. “And, you know, you always think, ‘OK, hopefully it has potential. Hopefully it moves you or makes you want to bop your head.’ ”
Jive Data was instantly hooked by “Bye Bye Bye.” “Johnny Wright had sent it to us while we were in discussions with them, and we thought that this was like an instant, one-listen hit,” stated Weiss. “We were just like, ‘This is a f—king smash.’ ”
Primarily based on “Bye Bye Bye,” Jive Report pursued *NSYNC — although the label was already residence to a different main boy band within the Backstreet Boys. “The Backstreet Boys were really pissed off,” stated Weiss. “NSYNC didn’t really give a s—t.”
And amid the authorized battles, “Bye Bye Bye” received its stay premiere earlier than they had been even allowed to launch the music.
“When the Radio Music Awards came up,” stated Wright, “we were like, ‘Hey, we’re going to go play that show and we’re going to perform this record so that no matter if we lose the [battle], and someone else gets the record, it’s going to be out there that we cut this and we put this record into the public first.’ ”
“Bye Bye Bye” would go on to launch record-setting gross sales of “No Strings Attached” after the album’s launch on March 21, 2000 and even earned a Report of the 12 months Grammy nomination in 2001. And 24 years later, the music was embraced by an entire new era when it was featured within the opening sequence of 2024 blockbuster “Deadpool and Wolverine,” with Ryan Reynolds’ character doing the enduring choreography from the video.
“Which is even crazier with the whole trending of now people going, ‘Oh look, it’s the Deadpool dance,’ ” stated Fatone. “You’re like, ‘No, it’s not a Deadpool dance. It’s truly ‘Bye Bye Bye.’ “
For Fatone — who joins the forged of the Broadway musical “& Juliet” on Tuesday for 9 weeks — the music nonetheless makes him wish to bust the strikes 1 / 4 century later.
“It brings me back to a time when we were learning how to be adults,’ ” he stated. “It was ‘bye bye bye’ to childhood.”
