I remember where I was the first time I heard it. My mom used to make me pick up ALL of my little sister’s friends and take them to school when I turned 16 and got my drivers license. I used to tell her she should have painted the damn car yellow. I digress. My little sister’s best friend, named Brittney, popped this into the CD player one morning and it was love at first listen. But what the hell did she mean “Hit me baby one more time?”

The lyrics of Britney‘s “Baby One More Time” are explained in John Seabrook’s new pop music history book, The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory. Turns out the Swedish songwriting duo behind several of Britney’s early songs, Max Martin and Rami Yacoub, were just a little confused on American slang. You see, they thought “hit me” was like saying “hit me up” as in “hit me up on the telephone.” So Britney was just innocently asking a boy to give her a call. And all you perverts thought she was into “S&M”…

Jive, Britney’s record label feared the song title “Hit Me Baby One More Time” would send the wrong message and advocate domestic violence, so they opted to drop the “Hit Me” and it became “Baby One More Time.”

ALSO: Many people don’t know that our documentary I Am Britney Jean isn’t WOW’s only connection to the pop queen. Nigel Dick, who directed the WOW show Pam: Girl on the Loose directed Britney’s videos “Baby One More Time,” “Sometimes,” “Drive Me Crazy,” and “Oops…I Did It Again!”

(via Pop Dust)