Justin Timberlake just released his sophomore effort The 20/20 Experience after a seven-year hiatus, and his new contribution to the world of music has been well-received.
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But remember before he was solo? Remember N’SYNC: With not only JT, but JC Chasez, Chris Kirkpatrick, Joey Fatone, and Lance Bass?
Well, come Sunday, March 24th, it’s the 15th anniversary of N’SYNC’s debut self-titled album, which spawned the catchiest hits like “Tearing Up My Heart,” “I Want You Back,” and “Drive Myself Crazy.”
And although fans of the boy band are no longer pre-teens and teens who knew every word to pretty much every song, their now grown-up selves would still be able to recite lyrics from the group’s debut like it dropped yesterday.
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Believe me, we at GlobalGrind know!
But lyrics are one thing, and knowing facts about the album are another. That is why GlobalGrind decided to compile a list of 15 things you didn’t know about the N’SYNC album, in honor of their 15th anniversary.
“Here We Go!”
1. After being signed to Lou Pearlman’s BMG Ariola Munich, N’SYNC were sent to Sweden to begin working on their debut album.
2. Even though N’SYNC’s debut album was released on March 24, 1998 in the U.S., it came out a year prior in Germany on May 26th in 1997.
3. The debut album’s lead single “I Want You Back” was released in Germany a year before the album was dropped there, on October 7, 1996.
4. Because of the success of their debut album overseas, N’SYNC got a record deal with RCA.
5. In January 1998, their lead single, “I Want You Back,” was released in both the U.K. and the U.S., making it the first N’SYNC song in both places.
6. N’SYNC’s debut album was originally only released in Germany. But when RCA records decided to drop the album in both the U.S. and the U.K., they made changes for the respective markets.
7. To differentiate from the German version, album tracks “Riddle,” “Best of My Life,” “More Than a Feeling,” “Together Again,” and “Forever Young” were omitted, and new mixes of “I Want You Back,” “Tearin’ Up My Heart,” and “For The Girl Who Has Everything” were recorded. The U.S. version of the album included four new tracks: “I Just Wanna Be With You,” “God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You,” “Everything I Own,” and “Thinking Of You (I Drive Myself Crazy).”
8. The U.K. version of the album featured 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,” and an exclusive U.K. track called, “U Drive Me Crazy.”
9. Aside from Germany, the U.K., and the U.S., it was also released in Canada on April 13, 1999.
10. Album sales in the U.S. and U.K. were lackluster at first. But on the heels of a worldwide broadcast Disney summer concert called, NSYNC: Live In Concert on July 18, 1998, they increased considerably.
11. It went “Gold” in Austria, Germany, Poland, and Switzerland, whereas in Canada it went “4x Platinum,” and “Diamond” in the U.S., selling over 10,000,000 copies.
12. N’SYNC got their first top 10 on the Hot 100 with the album’s third single, “God Must Have Spent A Little More Time on You,” which peaked at No. 8. Country act Alabama also recorded a rendition of the song.
13. N’SYNC’s debut album is their only album where they drove themselves crazy and their heart was tearing up.
14. According to VH1, “Tearing Up my Heart” is one of “100 Greatest Songs of the 90s.”
15. N’SYNC, self-titled after the group of course, is said to be derived from the last letters of each member: JustiN, ChriS, JoeY, JasoN, and JC. Jason dropped out before the guys hit it big, and Lance became the new fifth member.
