"I Want it That Way" Backstreet Boys
Woke Up with it in My Head Song for Thursday, November 19, 2020: “I Want it That Way” by Backstreet Boys
I was working at Z100 in Portland in 1999 when “I Want it That Way” was released. We got a copy a couple of days before, and I played it on the air. It wasn’t the version that became popular though. I think we played the alternate version over the weekend. The next week, we were playing the version that became popular.
Lyrically, the two versions are nothing alike. They seem to tell two different stories.
Musically, similar but the beat is a little different. And there’s an annoying snare drum.
I always wondered why we played one version for a few days and then it changed to the other. Apparently, the band liked the second version better.
Below is the alternate version I played for a couple days.