Friday 5 December 2014

Backstreet Boys 'As Long As You Love Me'

Chart Peak:
YouTube
'As Long As You Love Me' is the American combo's 6th big British hit since August last year... It was a Top 3 smash in October '97.
Fascinating fact I've just read on Wikipedia: apparently the number of female models used in the video for this song was deliberately different from the number of Backstreet Boys so that nobody would think they were "paired up". Presumably this was intended to give the illusion of availability to female fans although as it turns out one of the models did subsequently marry Brian Littrell (he's the one who looks like a rebellious character from Grange Hill). Fascinating insight into boyband marketing there anyway.

In the past couple of days I've surprised myself by being quite positive about some boyband singles. Tjat stops here because, even though it's Friday, I can't muster anything good to say about this rather slushy effort with its mid-tempo beat and flamenco guitars, adorned as if it's scared to actually be anything. Backstreet have always been one of the least appealing boybands because they always seemed to lack any sense of fun. There's a classic mixed metaphor in the lyric "People say [...] I am blind, risking it all on a glance", but that's the only thing classic about it. If anything I might even prefer the Justin Bieber song of the same title. Sadly, Boyzone were listening to this and topped the chart with a very similar template the following year.

Also appearing on: Now 35, 36, 37, 39, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 49, 51
Available on: The Essential Backstreet Boys

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