Millennium (Backstreet Boys album)

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Millennium is an album by American pop music group Backstreet Boys. It broke numerous records, and is their biggest success to date. It was a highly anticipated follow-up to both their United States debut album, and their international second CD. It was the their first record to be released in both the U.S. and internationally in the same form, at the same time. It was nominated for five Grammy Awards and spawned four Top 40 singles, including world-wide smash "I Want It That Way." Millennium set a record for most albums sold in its debut week. It also set the record for most albums sold internationally in one week with 5 million, and was certified gold or platinum in 45 countries.

Album success

Preceded by the worldwide hit single "I Want It That Way", anticipation for Millennium was high. On May 18, 1999, the day of the album's release, the Backstreet Boys made a heavily-publicized appearance on MTV's Total Request Live. Over 5,000 fans showed to catch a glimpse of the group, prompting police to shut down Times Square, where TRL is taped.

Millennium entered the Billboard 200 at #1, where it remained for 10 non-consecutive weeks. It sold 1,134,000 copies in its first week of release, shattering the previous Nielsen SoundScan record held by Garth Brooks for single-week record sales. Millennium sold nearly 500,000 copies in the U.S. on its first day alone, setting a record for first-day sales. This record was subsequently overtaken in 2000 by Britney Spears, and then again by 'N Sync with No Strings Attached.

Millennium became the best-selling album of 1999, selling 9,445,732 albums. Millennium remained on the Billboard chart for 93 weeks, eventually selling over 12 million copies in the United States and being certified 13 times platinum . As of the end of December 2007, the album stands as the fourth best selling album in the US of the SoundScan era. In 2003 it was also reported as being the fourth biggest seller for Music Club sales in the US over the past 14 years with sales of 1.59 million. . In Canada, the album is seventh biggest selling album since 1995 in the Canadian Soundscan sales era up to end of December 2007.

Millennium dominated the worldwide charts, landing the #1 spot in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and Thailand.

Millennium is certified thirteen times platinum in the U.S. and spent 93 weeks on Billboard's "Top 200 albums" chart. Millennium was honored with five 1999 Grammy Award nominations including "Album of the Year." Also "I Want It That Way" was rated #3 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90's.

Track listing

1. "Larger Than Life" (Max Martin, Kristian Lundin, Brian Littrell) – 3:52
2. "I Want It That Way" (Max Martin, Andreas Carlsson) – 3:33
3. "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely" (Max Martin, Herbert Crichlow) – 3:54
4. "It's Gotta Be You" (Max Martin, Robert John "Mutt" Lange) – 2:56
5. "I Need You Tonight" (Fromm) – 4:23
6. "Don't Want You Back" (Max Martin) – 3:25
7. "Don't Wanna Lose You Now" (Max Martin) – 3:54
8. "The One" (Max Martin, Brian Littrell) – 3:46
9. "Back to Your Heart" (Baker, Blume, Richardson) – 4:21
10. "Spanish Eyes" (Fromm, Linzer) – 3:53
11. "No One Else Comes Close" (Baker, Perry, Thomas) – 3:42
12. "The Perfect Fan" (Littrell, Smith) – 4:13

Other editions

The Asian edition of Millennium contained the bonus track "I'll Be There for You" at the end of the album. The Australian edition added that song as well as "You Wrote the Book on Love", as did the Japanese edition which also included a special Japanese cover booklet. In Hong Kong, several limited editions were released in packages with other items. One included a Backstreet Boys mouse-pad, and another came in a plastic "CD Player" package with some collector cards. Another Asian limited edition (with the Asian bonus track) was released containing a bonus CD that contained four remixes each of "Larger Than Life" and "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely". Yet another edition, "The Multi-Platinum Edition" was released later (with the Asian bonus track) and contained a VCD of the band's music videos from the album.

Miscellaneous

• '"Larger than Life" was played in Napoleon Dynamite and Joe Somebody.
• "I Want It That Way", "Larger Than Life" and "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely" all reached the No. 1 spot in Canada.

Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1999	The Billboard 200	1
1999	Swedish Album Charts	1

Singles

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1999	"I Want It That Way"	The Billboard Hot 100	6
1999	"I Want It That Way"	Adult Contemporary	1
1999	"I Want It That Way"	UK Singles Chart	1
1999	"Larger Than Life"	The Billboard Hot 100	25
1999	"Larger Than Life"	UK Singles Chart	5
2000	"Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely"	The Billboard Hot 100	6
2000	"Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely"	UK Singles Chart	3
2000	"The One"	The Billboard Hot 100	30
2000	"The One"	UK Singles Chart	8