“I Want It That Way” was fixed?

I bet you didn’t know that the Backstreet Boys had an alternate version to “I Want It That Way”? Yeah, neither did I. So, according to some research, the original lyrics were penned by Max Martin, a Swedish songwriter, whose English was at native level (understandable). He had worked in Stockholm with songwriter Andreas Carlsson and when it came to creating the second verse, they didn’t know what to do, so they decided to just flip the “Am I your fire?” perspective and finished the song. 

Once it his the record label, the executives weren’t really fans of the lyrics, so Max and Andreas collaborated with South African Producer Robert ‘Mutt’ Lange to fix up the lyrics to sound more grammatically correct, and the group re-recorded the song. It was then released as well, but people had already heard the original version and took a liking to it, even though the boys and record execs were like “naaahhhh”. 

Now, if you are unsure whether you like the ‘gibberish’ version or the reworked version, take a listen to the rework:

Personally, the earworm is the best version. This reworked version, though not bad, just doesn’t feel right to listen to. It just makes me question the work of lyricism or not… What to do, what to do? Oh well, I’ll stick to “TELL ME WHY!!!!!!!!!!”