Rolling Stone names Britney’s “Baby One More Time” as the greatest debut single of all time

Meh. I'd rather go for Siouxsie & The Banshees' Hong Kong Garden.

What the hell criteria did they use?

Or did Britney's people pay somebody at Rolling Stone to get her the #1 spot?

R2 must not remember how huge that song was and it’s impact on pop music

No "Human Behaviour" by Björk?

Awful, irritating song -- it was everywhere when I was in high school.

That song was definitely huge. I remember, I was in elementary school at the time and was like who is that girl?

I've been a fan ever since.

For shame. Britney is the most plastic pop princess ever. She's only a few steps away from a singing Barbie doll.

It's an awful choice because the song represents nothing of the artist herself. She just sang what they put in front of her. "I'm a fun loving whore, y'all!" That's all the song says.

Britney's Blackout album is the only album that comes close to being an artist's statement.

Rolling Stone-

One of those pop manifestos that announces a new sound, a new era, a new century. But most of all, a new star. Planet Earth, meet Britney Jean Spears, the 17-year-old pride of Kentwood, Louisiana. “…Baby One More Time” is an apocalyptic thunder-clap of a song, with Max Martin’s mega-boom production: The only detail he screwed up was the incredibly annoying ellipsis in the title. As Britney told Rolling Stone in 2000, she stayed up late the night before listening to Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love” (“What a sexy song”) to get the growl she wanted. “I wanted my voice to be kind of rusty.”

In the great tradition of debut singles, it was a divisive statement that drew a line between past and future. “So much attitude in that song,” Spears said. “I was so happy because there’s a lot of good songs out there, but it’s rare when you can take a song and really put your name all over it and put your personality into it.” With “…Baby One More Time,” this girl changed the sound of pop forever: It’s Britney, bitch. Nothing was ever the same. R.S.

IMO one glaring omission is the greatest party band of the world's debut.

R8 it’s about debut SINGLES. Not debut ALBUMS, or, what you’re naming is her 5th studio album.

PS Blackout is her only album inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame. It’s gotten it’s acknowledgement.

What about Vision Of Love?

I would have included “Psycho Killer” by Talking Heads.

R10 it wasn’t omitted. It is #15

We are insuted!

insulted - sorry

Britney at number one tells you all you need to know. But let's indulge this for a moment.

No Love to Love You Baby by Miss Summer?

This Will Be by Natalie Cole?

Vision of Love by Mariah Carey?

Reach Out and Touch by Diana Ross?

That's the way I Always Heard it should be by Carly Simon?

Fallin by Alciia Keys is a note for note ripoff of James Brown's Its a Man's World. And I say this as a fan of hers. That song is overrated.

Everybody is not even the best song off of Madonna. Far inferior to Holiday or Borderline.

For some reason you all don’t seem to know what a Debut Single is.

Your FIRST single released ever. Not your third off of your debut album. The FIRST.

I’d put Planet Earth by Duran Duran a lot higher than #87.

It was the one-two punch of the song and the video. It was a pop culture meteor.

There’s no iconography surrounding any of the older songs mentioned.

But when you hear those three opening piano notes, you can probably see Britney, the school girl uniform, the fuzzy pink hair scrunchies.

I remember in the mid 00s BOMT was named the most influential pop song ever, and they mentioned those three piano notes, and how when you hear them you automatically know what song it is and picture Britney in the video. It’s that iconic

"I Want You Back" should be #1 because it was the one I immediately felt the urge to listen to when I read this list.

No43? KISS MY FRONT BUM!

‘I Want You Back’ just makes me sad about what was to come.

[quote]It was the one-two punch of the song and the video. It was a pop culture meteor.

To whom? Most people in their twenties and older thought she a corporate pushed puppet with marginal talent from the get go.

Time, unfortunately, proved that right.

R26 that is why BOMT sold 25 million copies...

I was sixteen when BOMT came out and it was quickly derided as pop cheese, stuff for 11 and 12 year old girls like N Sync and Backstreet Boys.

BOMT is a terrific pop song. Too many snobs here

R28 no. It wasn’t. It changed pop and every female artist changed their sound at the time to sound like Britney

It's funny how people don't get that just because you don't like a song, it doesn't mean it didn't have an impact on the music business or culture. There are many songs on that RS list that I don't like but I can also acknowledge that they also had a big impact.

R28, agreed. I was fifteen at the time and thought, what is this crap? Yes, it did have an impact, but along with NSync, it was a negative one.

If you don't believe Britney wasn't ridiculed when BOMT came out, watch this MadTV parody from 1999.

Britney was seen as a joke until she started getting some longevity in the business, maybe by 2001-02. It was really only her 2007 meltdown that made her iconic, because it gave all the music she had made prior to it pathos.

MadTV made fun of everyone lmao

She was such a joke that 25 million people bought her debut album.

And then 20 million people bought her sophomore album.

And then 16 million people bought her third album.

But a joke with numerous Grammy nominations and won every other award in the industry.

Can someone post the entire list? I hate RS and the click-thru by 10 format.

R35 Milli Vanilli won a Grammy, so, well...

And then it was revoked r37.

And they won before people knew that wasn’t them singing. Prior they were huge!

Much deserved. I cant think of another song that took the world by storm in such a massive way.

How much would it have sold if they had opted for the original video treatment? A cartoon Britney revolving on a spinning record. A large part of the reason the song is iconic is its video.

R38 Kinda dims the prestige factor of the Grammys, though, doesn't it?

Britney came up with the school girl theme. And they had her covered up and she requested a short skirt and showed her belly on her own.

[quote]And they won before people knew that wasn’t them singing.

Oh, the irony!

Britney’s singing is her. Or at least back then.

Yup, I can see that. She pretty much changed the face of music from the grungy 90s to the more bubblegum 2000s.

My neighbor used to play the song Sometimes on repeat for weeks on end. Fuck I hated that album.

R45 sounds like my house. I would play that album non stop. My sister would Christina Aguilera’s, which came out 7 months later after it was rushed so she could compete with Britney

Love this song

That awful looking Xtina hasn't had a number one hit in 20 years. Did Genie in my Pusdy make the top 100?

I love those moments Britney would be a shady bitch to the media