75. 3 (2009)

(Martin, Shellback, Amber)

Album: 3 – Single / The Singles Collection

Britney’s voice hits like an aural laser in the chorus of this electropop hit from 2009. As a victory lap following the successful resurgence and rebranding during the Circus era, Spears released her second greatest hits compilation in five years with a brand-new single recorded during the European leg of The Circus Starring Britney Spears tour. Lest we thought the Max Martin/Britney Spears reunion for 2008’s “If U Seek Amy” was a one-off event, Martin was tapped again to write a Britney banger. And succeed he did. Unlike the double-entendre filled “If U Seek Amy,” Spears could not be more direct in “3.” She wants a threesome, and she wants to know: “Are you in?” The chorus can get a bit monotonous, but the uptempo beat captures the high energy. The slowed middle eight builds into the song’s denouement: “If you don’t like the company/let’s just do it you and me/or three/or four/on the floor.” Gasp! Invoking the famous folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary in a song about threesomes also puts them in a racier context than they had probably ever found themselves in before. In the song’s video, shot mostly in front of a white screen, Spears struts and slithers alongside some hunky dancers and flaunts her latest line of perfume. Serving as the lead track on The Singles Collection, it is a solid opener, though there are other more impressive songs on the album.