Oops!... I Did It Again (album)


Oops!... I Did It Again is the second studio album by American singer Britney Spears. It was released on May 16, 2000 in the United States through Jive Records. The album is primarily a pop, dance-pop, and teen pop record, much in the vein of her debut studio album ...Baby One More Time. It also explores a more funkier and R&B sound, while Spears also covers the Rolling Stones' " Satisfaction" and the Jets' "You Got It All". Contributions to the album's production came from a wide range of producers, including Max Martin, Rami Yacoub, Per Magnusson, David Kreuger, Kristian Lundin, Jake Schulze, Darkchild, and Robert John "Mutt" Lange.
Upon its release, Oops!... I Did It Again received generally favorable reviews from music critics. It debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 1,319,000 copies, breaking the previous Nielsen SoundScan record for the highest debut-week album sales by a female artist. This record was broken fifteen years later following the release of the album 25 by Adele, which sold over 3.38 million copies in its first week of release. Oops!... I Did It Again also reached number one in fifteen other countries while peaking inside the top five in Australia, Finland, Japan, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. It was her second album to receive a diamond certification from the Recording Industry Association of America. Worldwide, the album has sold over 20 million copies making it Spears's second best-selling album after ...Baby One More Time.
Four singles were released from the album. Its title track became an international hit, reaching number one in fifteen countries and peaking at number nine on the US Billboard Hot 100. Its second single "Lucky" peaked at number one in Austria, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland, within the top ten in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania and the United Kingdom, and at number twenty-three on the US Billboard Hot 100. Its third single "Stronger" became a top-ten hit in Austria, Finland, Germany, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, peaking at number eleven on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming the highest-selling single of the album in the United States, receiving a gold certification in Australia, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden and the United States. Its final single, "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know", became a moderate hit on the charts, peaking at number one in Romania, and within the top ten in Austria, Poland and Switzerland, but failed to chart on the US Billboard Hot 100. To promote the album, Spears performed on several television shows and award ceremonies, including a controversial performance at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. She also was the host and musical guest for the first time on Saturday Night Live. Furthermore, Spears embarked on a concert tour, entitled the Oops!... I Did It Again Tour, starting on June 20, 2000 and ending at the Rock in Rio festival on January 18, 2001.

Recording and production

After vacationing for six days following the completion of the...Baby One More Time Tour in September 1999, Spears returned to New York City to begin recording songs for her next album; the majority of the recording took place in November. It featured contributions from Max Martin, Eric Foster White, Diane Warren, Robert Lange, Steve Lunt, and Babyface. The songs "Oops!... I Did It Again", "Walk On By", "What U See ", and "Don't Go Knockin' On My Door" were the first to be recorded at Martin's Cheiron Studios in the first week of November; followed by "Stronger" and "Lucky", which were finalized in January 2000. Spears recorded "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know" at Robert Lange's villa in Switzerland in December 1999; Lange produced the song. "Where Are You Now" was an outtake from ...Baby One More Time. "Girl in the Mirror" and "Can't Make You Love Me"'s instrumental track and melody were recorded in the fall of 1999 in Sweden, with Spears recording the vocals in mid-January at Parc Studios in Orlando, Florida. Spears returned to New York, linking up with producer Steve Lunt to record Diane Warren's "When Your Eyes Say It" at Battery Studios on Friday, January 28, 2000, which preceded her TRL appearance that day. "One Kiss from You" was also recorded at Battery Studios but was later finished at 3rd Floor in New York City. Spears also recorded the last track for the album "Dear Diary" which would later be completed at East Bay Recording in Tarrytown, New York and at Avatar Studios in New York City. Another song recorded during these sessions was "Heart". Her cover of " Satisfaction" was recorded with Rodney Jerkins at Pacifique Recording Studios in Hollywood, California during February 24–26, 2000 after attending the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards.
By January, the then-untitled album was halfway to completion; Spears had worked on it primarily in the United States and Sweden, and finalized material in New York City. She was heavily pressured after ...Baby One More Time's huge commercial success, stating: "It's kind of hard following ten million, I have to say. But after listening to the new material and recording it, I'm really confident with it." Upon the release of Oops!...I Did It Again, Spears said: "I mean, of course there's some pressure", and added: "But in my opinion, is a lot better than the first album. It's edgier – it has more of an attitude. It's more me, and I think teenagers will relate to it more." Geoff Mayfield, director of Billboard charts, added that the decision to release Oops!... I Did It Again less than a year and a half after Spears' debut amounts to "very smart timing. My philosophy is when you have a young fan base, get 'em while they're hot."

Music and lyrics

"Oops!... I Did It Again" was considered as a sequel to Spears' debut album, "...Baby One More Time", percolating with a carefully measured blend of familiar pop, funk, R&B and power balladry. Spears said during an interview that the album has a more mature, R&B-flavored pop sound. "It's not something I changed purposefully", Spears said of the album's sound and added: "It's just something that kind of changed on itself with me being older. My voice has changed a little bit and I'm more confident, and I think that comes across on the material." One of its producers, Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins talked about working with Spears on a Rolling Stones cover, stating: "It's going to shock everybody", adding: "It has flavors of the original, but it's a straight 2000 version — new to the ear. Which I think is cool, because people who appreciate that song are going to love it. And I made it so new and young that the young kids that love Britney are going to love it. It's going to grab both a mature and young audience." Spears worked with Robert "Mutt" Lange on "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know", telling MTV News: "When you hear the song, it's so pure and delicate. It's just one of those songs that pull you in", and added: "I think they wrote it 'specially for me, because the lyrics of the song, if you really listen … they're more of what I can relate to, 'cause they're kind of young lyrics, I think. I don't think Shania would probably sing some of the words that I'm saying."
The title track and opening song, "Oops!... I Did It Again", was compared to her debut single, "...Baby One More Time", featuring a slap-and-pop bassline, synthesizer chord stabs and a mechanized beat. Lyrically, the song sees Spears warning to an overeager prospective lover: "Oops, you think I'm in love/That I'm sent from above — I'm not that innocent." The song also breaks down for a spoken-word interlude, involving a line from the film Titanic. The second track "Stronger" is a synthpop and R&B-infused track, which is lyrically a declaration of independence, where Spears leaves a partner who treats her like property. The line "my loneliness ain't killing me no more" makes reference to the verse "my loneliness is killing me" from her song "...Baby One More Time". Another R&B-infused track, which also adds a bit more funk to the mix, "Don't Go Knocking on My Door" finds Spears confidently forging ahead after a breakup. The fourth track, a cover of the Rolling Stones' " Satisfaction", begins with mushy guitar plucking and breathy coos, until a dry, crackling lockstep is thrown down, turning the song into an urban stomp. The dance-pop version also jettisons the song's final verse and adds some new lyrics. " was my idea ", Spears said. "I was just like, 'I like this song,' and I think it will be a really cool combination working with Rodney and doing a really funky song like that." The fifth track, "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know", was co-written by country-pop singer-songwriter Shania Twain and her then-husband, producer Robert "Mutt" Lange, who also produced the track. The ballad, which boasts a slinky keyboard riff and Lange's characteristically lavish production, finds Spears allowing a bit of country twang into her vocals as she begs a lover to reveal his feelings: "My friends say you're into me... but I need to hear it straight from you", she sings.
The sixth track "What U See " demands respect by rebuking a jealous partner, while the seventh track, "Lucky", is a heart-rending tale of a Hollywood starlet's loneliness, proving that fame can be empty. "If there's nothing missing in my life/Then why do these tears come at night?", she asks. "School crush" is the theme of "One Kiss from You", a track that has a reggae-style beat and lyrics about the feelings of falling in love, and the quickness of it, with Spears cooing that after only one kiss she sees her entire future with her lover. The ballad "Where Are You Now" talks about wanting to know where a previous love is, and what that person is up to, so that she can finally let them go and find closure. Lines on "Can't Make You Love Me", a Europop song, state that fancy cars and money pale in comparison to true love, with Spears singing: "I'm just a girl with a crush on you." The mid-tempo, synth-backed "When Your Eyes Say It", written by songwriter Diane Warren, combines a string section with a loping hip hop beat, while Spears makes her own songwriting debut on the modest, keyboard-driven ballad "Dear Diary", which she said is autobiographical. On the track, she sings of wanting to become "so much more than friends" with a boy.

Release and promotion

In late 1999, Spears promoted her upcoming album in Europe with live performances of her past songs. She appeared on Smash Hits in the United Kingdom. In Italy, she did a short interview on the television show TRL Italy in early 2000. and gave a surprise performance in Paris in May 2000. In Australia, Spears appeared on The House of Hits and Russell Gilbert Live on May 13. In Spain, she gave an interview with El Rayo on September 8 and October 24. Spears performed at large venues in the United Kingdom, including Birmingham, the Wembley Arena in London, and the Manchester Evening News Arena. She was accompanied by NSYNC, who toured with her during a short United Kingdom outing in October 2000.
Oops!... I Did It Again was first released in Japan on May 3, 2000, and was later released in the United States on May 15. In the United States, Spears appeared on Saturday Night Live on May 13, The Rosie O'Donnell Show on May 15, and Teen People's 25 Under 25 on May 26. On May 10, she was interviewed on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. On May 13, Spears was both the host and musical guest on NBC's Saturday Night Live. She also performed on NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on May 23. Spears' held her post-TRL listening party, "Britney's First Listen", on May 16, and was toast the arrival of her album on next Tuesday's installment of TRL that started at 3:30 p.m.. On May 14, she was at Times Square studios for two hours of "Britney Live" that started at noon. Spears performed "Oops!... I Did It Again" on MTV's All Access: Backstage with Britney that was broadcast on July 19, 2000. On September 7, at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards in New York City at the Radio City Music Hall, Spears gave a memorable live performance. which included a cover of the Rolling Stones's hit single " Satisfaction" and her own hit "Oops!... I Did It Again", released earlier that year. While she began her segment in a black suit, she shocked the audience and the media while, at only the age of eighteen, ripped it off to display a revealing, flesh-colored stage outfit with hundreds of strategically placed Swarovski crystals.
One month before the release of the album, Spears headed to Hawaii on Easter Sunday so she could tape a Fox television special titled Britney Spears in Hawaii. The free concert started at 6:00 p.m. on the beach in front of the Hilton Hawaiian Village lagoon in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Fox concert event was intended to serve as a preview of Spears' Oops!... I Did It Again album that features her twelve new songs. Spears had on a month-long international promotional tour in support of Oops!... I Did It Again, and on May 2, she had a press event at Kokusai Forum Hall in Tokyo, and made stops in both London and Hawaii. Spears was also among the scheduled performers on the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards, which aired on CBS at 8 p.m.. She was also expected to appear on a Grammy-day TRL.
The album's supporting tour, the Oops!... I Did It Again Tour, visited North America, Europe, and Brazil as part of Rock in Rio. On the Crazy 2K Tour, Spears introduced the songs "Oops!... I Did It Again" and "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know". On June 24, 2000, Spears was featured in a print and television advertising campaign for Clairol's Herbal Essences shampoo line. In a special coup for Clairol, Spears recorded her own song for the brand called "I've Got the Urge to Herbal" that was featured in 60-second radio spots and was part of a pre-concert video presentation for Spears's fifty-city summer concert tour, in which Herbal Essences was the tour sponsor.

Singles

"Oops!... I Did It Again" was released as the lead single from the album and achieved worldwide popularity. It became Spears's third top-ten hit single on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number nine; however, in comparison to the huge success of her debut single "...Baby One More Time", Jive Records considered "Oops!... I Did It Again" a minor disappointment. The song peaked at number one on the US Mainstream Top 40, holding the record for the most radio additions in one day. "Oops!... I Did It Again" peaked atop the charts in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. An accompanying music video for "Oops!... I Did It Again" saw Spears on Mars in now-iconic red shiny catsuit, while she is visited by an American astronaut who hands her the fictional Heart of the Ocean jewel which Rose threw into the sea at the end of Titanic.
The album's second single "Lucky" was released on August 8, 2000 and received positive response from the music critics, who considered one of her best offerings from the album. Commercially, "Lucky" topped the charts in Austria, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland, while reaching number five on the UK Singles Chart. In the United States, "Lucky" only managed to peak at number twenty-three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and at number nine on the Mainstream Top 40. The "glittery" music video sees Spears as the narrator and an actress named Lucky, who is a melancholy movie star and shows her conflicted relationship to fame.
The third single "Stronger" was released on November 13, 2000 and became the album's second highest-charting single in the United States, peaking at number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Hot Single Sales. It reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart. Its music video sees Spears catching her boyfriend cheating on her at a futuristic turntable nightclub, driving off, getting in a wreck and singing in the rain, while the chair sequence in the video was inspired by Janet Jackson's video for "The Pleasure Principle".
The fourth and final single "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know" was released on March 5, 2001 and is one of Spears' favorite tracks of her career. In the United States, the song performed well below expectations, failing to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 nor the Mainstream Top 40. However, the song attained success in Europe, topping the Romanian Top 100 and peaking inside the top ten in Austria, Poland and Switzerland, while just missing the top ten in Germany, Ireland, Sweden and the United Kingdom, peaking at number twelve in all of them. The music video was considered too racy at the time, portraying Spears in love scenes with her fictional boyfriend, played by French model Brice Durand.
"You Got It All" received a promotional release in France in May 2000. "When Your Eyes Say It" was planned to be the fourth single, however, "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know", was eventually chosen instead. A music video for the song was rumored to have been filmed in January 2001 by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The video was never released; however, a promotional CD single for the song was released in the United Kingdom in January 2001.

Critical reception

Oops!... I Did It Again received favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Oops!... I Did It Again received an average score of 72, based on 12 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Giving the album four out of five stars, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic noted that the album "has the same combination of sweetly sentimental ballads and endearingly gaudy dance-pop that made 'One More Time'," but remarked that, "Fortunately, she and her production team not only have a stronger overall set of songs this time, but they also occasionally get carried away with the same bewildering magpie aesthetic, giv the album character apart from the well-crafted dance-pop and ballads that serve as its heart. In the end, it's what makes this an entertaining, satisfying listen." Billboard magazine wrote that "'Oops!...' indicates that she's developing a soulful edge and emotional depth that can't be conjured with a glass-shattering note," praising the album for consistently cast Spears as a young woman coming to terms with her inner power—and that's a darn good message to offer an impressionable audience." Entertainment Weekly's David Browne gave the album a B-rating, writing that the album "reminds us once again that the best new pop can be a blast of cool air in a stifling room."
Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone gave the album a three-and-a-half out of five stars rating, calling the album "fantastic pop cheese, with much better song-factory hooks than 'N Sync or BSB get", also noting that "the great thing about Oops!, under the cheese surface, is complex, fierce and downright scary, making her a true child of rock & roll tradition." A writer of NME reported that "she's modern-day pop perfection realised in a nearly, human form", commenting that "she's done it again." Lennat Mak of MTV Asia named it "a brilliant second album", writing that Spears "is armed with a more mature and seasoned pop star look, stronger and poppier songs, and of course, extensive media exposure." Andy Battaglia of Salon called the album "a masterpiece of sorts not for its message but for the way it applies the conventions of the pop-musical medium." Website The A.V. Club was more mixed, calling it "a joyless bit of redundant, obvious, competent cheese, recycling itself at every turn and soliciting songwriting from such soulless hacks as Diane Warren and assorted Swedes."
The albums has listed as the 64th best female album on Billboard 200.

Accolades

Commercial performance

In the United States, Oops!... I Did It Again reportedly sold 500,000 copies in its first day of release. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 1,319,193 copies. With its success, Spears held the record for the highest first-week sales by a female artist. This record was held for 15 years, only to be surpassed in November 2015 by the album 25 by Adele, which sold over 3.38 million albums in the United States in its first week. The album fell to number two in its second week, with additional sales of 612,000 copies. It held this position for fifteen consecutive weeks. By its fifth week of availability, Oops!... I Did It Again had sold over three million copies and had passed five million copies by August. On its seventeenth week on the chart, it was certified septuple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of seven million units. The album spent eighty-four weeks on the Billboard 200, thirty-one weeks on the Canadian Albums Chart, and two weeks on the US Catalog Albums. Oops!... I Did It Again debuted at number eighty-two on the European Top 100 Albums, and quickly peaked at number one; it sold over four million copies within the continent, being certified four-times Platinum by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Oops!... I Did It Again reached number two on the UK Albums Chart, selling 88,000 copies in the first week of release; it remained in the top five for four weeks. The album debuted at number one in Canada, selling 95,275 copies in its first week.
It topped the French Albums Chart and the German Offizielle Top 100, also being certified triple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry, double gold by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique and triple platinum by Bundesverband Musikindustrie, denoting shipments to retailers of 900,000 units, 200,000 copies sold and 900,000 units shipped, respectively. Additionally, the album debuted at number two on the Australian Albums Chart, and spent ten weeks in the top twenty; it became the fourteenth highest-selling of 2000 in the country and was certified double platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association the following year after shipping 140,000 copies to retailers. Oops!... I Did It Again opened at number three on the New Zealand Albums Chart and was certified gold after just one week on the chart. The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand ultimately certified it double platinum. Oops!... I Did It Again became the third best-selling album of 2000 in the United States, selling 7,893,544 albums according to Nielsen SoundScan and fourth best-selling album according to Billboard Year-End of 2000. On January 24, 2005, the album was certified decuple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Also, the album landed at number twenty-seven on BMG Music Club all-time best-sellers list with 1.21 million units, behind Shania Twain's The Woman in Me and Nirvana's Nevermind. As of July 2009, the album has sold 9,184,000 copies in the United States, excluded copies sold through clubs, such as the BMG Music Service.
Worldwide, Oops!... I Did It Again sold 2.5 million copies in its first week and sold 9 million copies by the end of the year. It was the best-selling female album and 3rd best selling album of 2000. The album has sold over 28 million copies worldwide.

Controversy

Musicians Michael Cottril and Lawrence Wnukowski filed a copyright case against Spears, Zomba Recording Corporation, Jive Records, Wright Entertainment Group and BMG Music Publishing, claiming Spears' "What U See " and "Can't Make You Love Me" are "virtually identical" to one of their songs. Cottrill and Wnukowski claimed that they authored, recorded and copyrighted a song called "What You See Is What You Get" in 1999 to one of Spears' representatives for consideration on a future album, though it was rejected. The case was later dismissed after it was ruled that they lacked sufficient evidence and that there "weren't enough similarities between the two songs to prove copyright infringement."

Track listing

Notes
Credits adapted from AllMusic.

Weekly charts

Chart Peak
position
scope="row"-
Austrian Albums 1
Belgian Albums 1
Belgian Albums 1
Canadian Albums 1
Danish Albums 1
Dutch Albums 1
European Top 100 Albums 1
scope="row"-
scope="row"-
scope="row"-
Hungarian Albums 1
Irish Albums 3
scope="row"-
Japanese Albums 4
New Zealand Albums 2
Norwegian Albums 1
Portuguese Albums 1
Polish Albums 10
Scottish Albums 1
Spanish Albums 1
Swedish Albums 1
Swiss Albums 1
scope="row"-
scope="row"-

Year-end charts

Chart Position
Austrian Albums 68
Belgian Albums 75
Belgian Albums 89
European Top 100 Albums 60
French Albums 129
German Albums 69
Swiss Albums 50
US Billboard 20028

Decade-end charts

Certifications and sales

Certification Table SummaryCertification Table Entry|region=Europe|type=album|artist=Britney Spears|title=Oops!...I Did It Again|award=Platinum|number=4|certyear=2001Certification Table Entry|nocert=true|region=Worldwide|salesamount=20,000,000|salesref=Certification Table Bottom

Release history