2. I’m A Slave 4 U (2001)
USA BILLBOARD HOT 100: #27
UK SINGLES CHARTS: #4
From the Album: Britney
Why its Great: There comes a time in every female pop stars career when that “sweet wholesome” image has to be jettisoned for there to be any long-term career prospects. I do not state that as something that I think is “right” but there was a time when it was a promotional rite of passage. Britney had half attempted this with the opening single from her second album (both entitled Ooops I Did It Again) but she really went for it with this, the opening single from her third album. Eager not to re-tread old ground, producers du jour Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams (The Neptunes) served up this slice of funky pop for her.
The chart positions suggest it wasn’t an unqualified success (though there are rumours that after her previous tour promoters were outbid for her next tour, they put pressure on radio stations to boycott this single, thus affecting the songs success in the US) but by the time Britney draped herself in a white python, flanked by a tiger and surrounded by dancers in zebra and tiger outfits at the VMA’s this song’s place in her history was secured.
Janet Jackson had recorded a demo of this prior to Britney being given it but it’s almost impossible to imagine anyone else but her doing this song now. And quite away from the song itself in isolation, Britney had shown the way for the likes of Christina Aguilera and Jessica Simpson (and even much later on the likes of Miley Cyrus) of the way to break free from the bubblegum pop princess role to that of all conquering pop culture megastar.
Alternative Album Cut: Anticipating – a hit single in France but not released anywhere else this perhaps was the one song on the album that straddled the line between pre-Slave 4 U Britney and post-Slave 4 U Britney. A cool, swing/R’n’B groove that screams of summer (and no doubt would have been a huge hit for someone like J-Lo).