(White)
Album: From the Bottom of My Broken Heart – Single / …Baby One More Time
American and international promotion campaigns of Spears’s debut album diverged for her fourth single. Whereas “Born to Make You Happy” hit the European airwaves in late ’99, the United States and Australia got this Toni Braxton inspired pop ballad. Fun fact: clocking in at 5:11, this is the longest non-remixed Britney track to ever be included on her albums! While not being privy to internal conversations at the time within the Spears camp at Jive, I suspect this track was favored over “Born to Make You Happy” to showcase one of her strongest vocal takes on the album leading into Grammy season. American audiences were also very familiar with this style of guitar-led ballad with over-the-top poetic lyrics. A competent single, this song nonetheless blends in a bit too much with offerings with some of her contemporaries at the time. Britney is best at her most groundbreaking, and “From the Bottom of My Broken Heart” is good, but it’s not that.
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