Genie in a Bottle

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“Genie in a Bottle”
“Genie in a Bottle” cover
American cover
Single by Christina Aguilera
from the album Christina Aguilera
Released June 22, 1999 (U.S.)
Format CD single
Recorded 1998–1999
Genre Dance pop, teen pop, bubblegum pop
Length 3:39
Label RCA
Writer(s) David Frank, Steve Kipner, Pamela Sheyne
Producer David Frank, Steve Kipner
Certification Platinum (RIAA, ARIA)
Silver (BPI)
Christina Aguilera singles chronology
"Reflection"
(1999)
"Genie in a Bottle"
(1999)
"What a Girl Wants"
(1999)

"Genie in a Bottle" is the first single and signature song from Christina Aguilera's debut album, Christina Aguilera. As her first major single, the song is generally considered her debut single (although technically she had released two songs prior to this). Released in mid-1999, the single peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks, becoming Aguilera's first number-one single. The single also peaked at number one in the UK, also becoming her first number one single in that country. The single is generally considered to be one of her signature songs. The single earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 2000; it also helped her win the Best New Artist Grammy that same year. "Genie in a Bottle" hit #1 in 18 countries around the world. VH1 ranked it #37 on their show of 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s.

Contents

[edit] Song information

"Genie in a Bottle" was written by New Zealander, David Frank, Steve Kipner, and Pamela Sheyne and was produced by Frank and Kipner. The song's songwriting aspect has raised a minor scandal as apparently Aguilera co-wrote the song's B-section. Unfortunately, at the time Aguilera was unfamiliar with the legal aspect of songwriting, and did not submit a songwriting claim.

In her sexually driven debut single, Aguilera begins the song as a sexually repressed young woman stating that she feels like she's been "locked up tight for a century of lonely nights", and that she is waiting for someone to release her. She then sees a young man who sexually arouses her, making her exclaim, "My body's saying let's go". However, even though her hormones are "racing at the speed of light", she realizes "my heart is saying no". Nevertheless, Aguilera offers herself to the man by stating, "If you wanna be with me, baby there's a price to pay, I'm a genie in a bottle, You gotta rub me the right way".

The song's lyrics caused minor controversy at the time, as it was felt by some that Aguilera was too young to be singing such relatively suggestive lyrics, particularly as her music was marketed to young girls. The song was censored in some markets with tamer lyrics, in which Aguilera sings "you gotta treat me the right way" (instead of "you gotta rub me the right way"). The censored version was played in preteen-oriented markets such as Radio Disney.

The song has been covered by Sara Bareilles, The Dan Band, Speedway, Thrice, Ten Masked Men and Evil Adam and has made an appearance on Konami's Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2.

Parodist 'Hawaiian Ryan' also recorded a spoof of the song, called "Weenie In A Bottle", one of the tracks from his Saving Ryan's Privates album. This parody is often incorrectly attributed to "Weird Al" Yankovic.

According to Christina's early songwriters who appeared on the documentary series Driven, Christina was not convinced that the track would highlight her voice. Her songwriter claimed that there was a "battle" between Christina and her producers because Christina wanted to display the power and audacity in her voice, whereas her producers would hold her back. In order to enable Christina's voice to be the central focus, she performed acoustic sets and appeared on television shows accompanied only by a piano.

In Aguilera's 2006 album, Back to Basics, a track dedicated to her fans titled "Thank You (Dedication to Fans...)" used samples of Genie in a Bottle. Extracts used such as "I feel like I been locked up", "My body's saying let's go", "oh, oh, oh", "Come on, Come on" and "Baby, Baby, Baby". Aguilera refers to the lock up mentioned in the beginning of the song to her being a prisoner of her dreams.

[edit] Remixes and other versions

  • Genie In A Bottle [Album Version] 3:38
  • Genie In A Bottle [Eddie Arroyo Dub Mix] 6:28
  • Genie In A Bottle [Eddie Arroyo Rhythm Mix] 4:26
  • Genie In A Bottle [Flvio Vs. Mad Boris Mix] 6:27
  • Genie In A Bottle [Lenny B's Club Mix Edit] 4:26
  • Genie In A Bottle [Remix] 5:49
  • Genie In A Bottle [UK Dance Remix] 3:39
  • In 2001, Roy Kerr, a UK DJ known as The Freelance Hellraiser, created a bootleg remix of Genie in a Bottle and the instrumental track of The Strokes' Hard to Explain, called A Stroke of Genie-us.[1] The remix was played on the UK radio station Xfm, and received favorable reviews.[2] This song is one of the earliest examples of the mashup genre[3]

[edit] Genio Atrapado remixes and other versions

  • Genio Atrapado [Album Version] 3:37
  • Genio Atrapado [Pablo Flores Miami Mix] 10:20
  • Genio Atrapado [Pablo Flores Miami Mix Edit] 4:37
  • Genio Atrapado [Pablo Flores Dub] 8:03

[edit] Alternate covers

UK CD 1 UK CD 2 International Double A-side

[edit] Chart success

"Genie In a Bottle" quickly debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1999, and sky rocketed up the charts due to strong airplay and strong sales of the CD single. In its 5th week, it reached #1 on the Hot 100 and stayed there for five consecutive weeks. At that point, it had the longest stay at #1 for the entire year, tying Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca"and Jennifer Lopez's "If You Had My Love." All 3 songs were eventually overtaken by Santana whose single "Smooth" ended up topping the Hot 100 for 10 weeks later in 1999. The success of "Genie In a Bottle" marked the second time that year that a new female artist reached #1 with her debut single (and later on in the summer reaching #1 with her debut album as well), the first being Britney Spears who earlier in the year enjoyed success with "...Baby One More Time", this achievement for both females caused a lot of rivalry and comparisons between the two in the media. "Genie In a Bottle" was an amazing success around the world and sold over 7,803,000 million copies worldwide.[4]

In addition to this, the song was also huge across the board, topping the Top 40 Mainstream, Top 40 Tracks and Rhythmic Top 40 charts. Strong sales assured the single a platinum certification. The song even managed to crossover to the relatively conservative Adult Top 40, and the Spanish version of the song, "Genio Atrapado" (English: "Trapped Genie"), was a modest hit on the Latin chart.

Internationally, the same chart dominance was seen, as the track went to number one in both the UK and Canada for multiple weeks. In other Euro countries it went top 3 wherever it charted and stayed inside the top 10 for countless weeks making it the 4th best selling single of Europe in 1999. The song went to #1 in 18 countries around the world including the world chart.

[edit] Charts

Chart (1999) Peak
position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart 2
Ö3 Austria Top 40 1
Belgian Ultratop 50 1
Brazilian Singles Chart 1
Canadian Singles Chart 1
Dutch Top 40 2
Finnish Singles Chart 6
French Singles Chart 3
German Singles Chart 1
Italian Singles Chart 1
Irish Singles Chart 2
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart 2
Norwegian VG-lista 1
Swedish Singles Chart 5
Swiss Singles Chart 2
UK Singles Chart 1
Euro 200 Singles & Tracks 1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1
U.S. Billboard Hot Latin Tracks1 13
U.S. Billboard Latin Pop Airplay1 13[5]
U.S. Billboard Latin Tropical/Salsa Airplay 1 7[6]
United World Chart[7] 1
  • 1 "Genio Atrapado".

[edit] References


Preceded by
"Wild Wild West" by Will Smith featuring Dru Hill and Kool Moe Dee
Billboard Hot 100 number one single
July 31, 1999- August 28, 1999
Succeeded by
"Bailamos" by Enrique Iglesias
Preceded by
"Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65
UK Singles Chart number one single
October 10, 1999 - October 23, 1999
Succeeded by
"Flying Without Wings" by Westlife
Preceded by
"Mambo No. 5" by Lou Bega
United World Chart number one single
October 23, 1999December 4, 1999
Succeeded by
"(You Drive Me) Crazy" by Britney Spears