Background: 1995-1997

In 1995, Chris Kirkpatrick

Chris Kirkpatrick

Christopher Alan "Chris" Kirkpatrick is an American singer, dancer, entertainer, and voice actor who is best known as a founding member of the pop group 'N Sync in which he sang counter tenor. He has provided the voice for many kids shows, including the voice of Chip Skylark on The Fairly Odd...

 met with Lou Pearlman

Lou Pearlman

Louis Jay "Lou" Pearlman is a former impresario of the successful 1990s boy bands such as The Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Take 5, O-Town and US5. In 2006, it was discovered that Pearlman had perpetrated one of the largest and longest-running Ponzi schemes in American history, leaving more than $300...

 to talk about forming a pop group. Pearlman said that he would finance the group if Kirkpatrick would find other young male singers to be with him in the band. This prompted Kirkpatrick to call Joey Fatone

Joey Fatone

Joseph Anthony "Joey" Fatone, Jr. is an American singer, dancer, actor and television personality. He is best known as a member of the boyband, 'N Sync, in which he sang baritone. In 2007, he came in second place on the ABC reality show Dancing with the Stars...

, a friend he had met while working at Universal Studios. Then, Fatone and Kirkpatrick approached Lou Pearlman for more suggestions. Pearlman looked through some tapes they had, and one of Justin Timberlake

Justin Timberlake

Justin Randall Timberlake is an American pop musician and actor. He achieved early fame when he appeared as a contestant on Star Search, and went on to star in the Disney Channel television series The New Mickey Mouse Club, where he met future bandmate JC Chasez...

 from the Mickey Mouse Club

Mickey Mouse Club

The Mickey Mouse Club is an American variety television show that began in 1955, produced by Walt Disney Productions and televised by the ABC, featuring a regular but ever-changing cast of teenage performers. The Mickey Mouse Club was created by Walt Disney...

 caught their eye. Timberlake soon joined the group and recommended his friend JC Chasez, who also was a cast member on the Mickey Mouse Club

Mickey Mouse Club

The Mickey Mouse Club is an American variety television show that began in 1955, produced by Walt Disney Productions and televised by the ABC, featuring a regular but ever-changing cast of teenage performers. The Mickey Mouse Club was created by Walt Disney...

. Soon, they decided to even out their sound by finding a bass singer. Initially, their fifth member was to be Jason Galasso. After several weeks of rehearsals, the group set up a showcase and began planning to officially sign with Pearlman's Trans Continental Label. However, at the last minute, Galasso dropped out. He was not fond of the group's musical direction, claiming that being a teen idol

Teen idol

A teen idol is a celebrity who is widely idolized by teenagers; he or she is often young but not necessarily teenaged. Often teen idols are actors or pop singers, but some sports figures have an appeal to teenagers. Some teen idols began their careers as child actors...

 was never a goal of his. In need of a bass, the group auditioned several people without success. Timberlake soon called his vocal coach, who suggested a 16-year-old from Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

 named Lance Bass

Lance Bass

James Lance Bass , best known as Lance Bass, is an American pop singer, dancer, actor, film and television producer, and author. He grew up in Mississippi and rose to fame as the bass singer for the American pop boy band 'N Sync. 'N Sync's success led Bass to work in film and television...

. Bass flew to Orlando to audition and was immediately accepted into the group. After being signed to BMG Ariola Munich, another of Pearlman's labels, the group were sent to Sweden to begin working on their debut album with the help of producers such as Denniz Pop

Denniz Pop

Dag Krister Volle , better known under the artistic name Denniz Pop , was a Swedish DJ, music producer and songwriter....

, Max Martin

Max Martin

Martin Karl Sandberg, known professionally as Max Martin, is a Swedish music producer and songwriter. Raised in Stenhamra, a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden, he broke through as a producer and songwriter in the mid to late 1990s after crafting a string of hits for pop artists like the Backstreet Boys,...

 and Andreas Carlsson

Andreas Carlsson

Andreas Carlsson is a Swedish music producer, composer, and pop songwriter.-Biography:Carlsson was part of the Cheiron Studios team until the studio was closed down in 2001....

. The album's official lead single

Lead single

A lead single is usually the first single released by a musician or a band before the release of its home album.During the era of the grammophone record, all music arrived in the marketplace as what is now termed a single, one potential hit song backed by an additional song of generally less...

, "I Want You Back", was released in Germany on October 7, 1996, and entered the top 10 in Germany on November 18, 1996. The group's second single, "Tearin' Up My Heart", was released in Germany on February 10, 1997, also peaking within the top 10. A third single, "Here We Go", was released in Germany on May 5, 1997, just three weeks prior to the release of the album, to similar success. Their self-titled debut album

*NSYNC (album)

-Background: 1995-1997:In 1995, Chris Kirkpatrick met with Lou Pearlman to talk about forming a pop group. Pearlman said that he would finance the group if Kirkpatrick would find other young male singers to be with him in the band. This prompted Kirkpatrick to call Joey Fatone, a friend he had met...

 was then released by BMG Ariola Munich on May 26, 1997, in Germany, peaked at number one in the week of release. The group soon became an overnight success throughout much of Europe. The album also charted successfully in both Switzerland and Austria eventually selling 820,000 units in GSA (Germany, Switzerland, Austria) region and Eastern Europe. Two further singles, "For The Girl Who Has Everything" and "Together Again", were subsequently released on August 18 and November 3, 1997 respectively, achieving success in Germany and other European territories.

Background: 1998-1999

Following their success of their debut album in several European territories, the band captured the attention of Vincent DeGiorgio, an A&R rep for RCA Records

RCA Records

RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...

. After watching the group perform a rendition of their single "Together Again" in Budapest in November 1997, he offered them a record deal with RCA

RCA

RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...

, which the group immediately agreed to. In January 1998, their first German single, "I Want You Back", was released in both the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, becoming their first single in both territories, achieving success on both the UK Singles Chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

 and the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

. Around this time, RCA Records

RCA Records

RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...

 announced that they wished to release the group's debut album, which was previously only released in Germany, in both the UK and US, however, wanted to make adjustments to suit both markets. This resulted in the tracks "Riddle", "Best of My Life", "More Than a Feeling", "Together Again" and "Forever Young" being cut altogether, and new mixes of "I Want You Back", "Tearin' Up My Heart" and "For The Girl Who Has Everything" being recorded. The new version of the album also included four new tracks: "I Just Wanna Be With You", "God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You", "Everything I Own", "Thinking Of You (I Drive Myself Crazy)". This version of the album was subsequently released in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 on March 24, 1998. On June 30, 1998, the group's second German single, "Tearin' Up My Heart", was released in both the UK & US, once again achieveing success on both charts. Further edits were made for the British version of the album, including remixes of "Thinking Of You (I Drive Myself Crazy)", "God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You" and "For The Girl Who Has Everything", plus an all-new track, "U Drive Me Crazy", written exclusively for the British market. This version of the album was released in the UK on July 5, 1998. At first, sales of the album were mediocre in both British and American territories, until the band's worldwide broadcast Disney Summer Concert in 1998. After the concert was aired, sales of the album began to sky rocket. It reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 and shipped over 10 million copies in the United States alone, making it certified 10x Platinum and earning the group a RIAA diamond award. On February 9, 1999, a third single from the new version of the album, "God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You", was released exclusively in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, peaking at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

.

Track listing

Personnel

• Alan Armitage – Assistant Engineer, Mixing Assistant
• Adam Barber – Engineer, Mixing Assistant
• Tony Battaglia – Guitar
• Kim Biggs – Artwork
• Gary Carolla – Producer, Mixing
• Elizabeth Chang – Violin
• Roger Che – Mixing Assistant
• Full Force – Arranger, Group, Producer, Engineer, Performer, Vocal Arrangement
• Al Hemberger – Engineer
• Kristian Lundin – Producer
• Sheryl Lutz-Brown – Design
• Max Martin – Producer
• Mark Matteo – Guitar
• Daniel Miller – Cello
• Maxine Neuman – Cello
• Lou Pearlman – Executive Director
• Denniz Pop – Producer
• Veit Renn – Guitar, Producer
• Evan Rogers – Producer
• Bob Rose – Mixing
• Jolyon Skinner – Guitar (Bass)
• Justin Star – Mixing Assistant
• Carl Sturken – Guitar (Acoustic), Producer
• Michael Tucker – Engineer, Mixing Assistant
• Johnny Wright – Executive Producer
• Alexander Yudkovsky – Violin

Release history

Country	Date
Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...	March 26, 1997
United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	March 24, 1998
United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...	July 5, 1998
Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...	April 13, 1999

Sales and certifications

Country	Certification	Sales or shipments
USA	10x Platinum	10,000,000+
Canada	4x Platinum	400,000+
Germany	Gold	250,000+
Switzerland	Gold	15,000+
Austria	Gold	10,000+
Poland	Gold	20,000+

End of decade charts

Chart (1990–1999)	Position
U.S. Billboard 200	17

Charts

Chart (1997/98)	Peak Position
Austrian Albums Chart	2
Canadian Albums Chart Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS...	4
Dutch Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top...	59
German Albums Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie...	1
New Zealand RIANZ Albums Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand...	34
Norwegian Albums Chart VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by...	40
Swedish Albums Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association ....	56
Swiss Albums Chart	5
UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...	30
U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	2