| "Larger than Life" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Backstreet Boys | ||||
| from the album Millennium | ||||
| Released | September 3, 1999 | |||
| Format | CD | |||
| Recorded | November 6–9, 1998 Cheiron Studios (Stockholm, Sweden)[1][2] August 1999(remix) Cheiron Studios (Stockholm, Sweden) |
|||
| Genre | Pop, Pop rock | |||
| Length | Single Version 4:00 Album Version 3:59 Millennium Version 3:53 |
|||
| Label | Jive | |||
| Writer(s) | Max Martin, Kristian Lundin, Brian Littrell | |||
| Producer | Max Martin, Kristian Lundin, Brian Littrell (album version only) | |||
| Backstreet Boys singles chronology | ||||
|
||||
"Larger than Life" is a song by the Backstreet Boys, released as the second single from their 1999 album, Millennium. It was written by Max Martin, Kristian Lundin and Brian Littrell and is mainly a tribute to the group's fans. The song broke the record for longest running #1 on MTV's Total Request Live. The song reached #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #5 on the UK Singles Chart. Blender has it at #292 on its list for the 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born.[3] It is one of the most popular songs performed by the group.
Contents |
Larger Than Life was originally written and composed sometime in 1998 by group member, Brian Littrell. When the group traveled to Sweden in early November 1998 to record at Cheiron Studios, alterations and additions were later made to the lyrics by the producers Max Martin and Kristian Lundin. Larger Than Life was initially registered and copyrighted in December 1998 as an unfinished demo, not being released on Millennium preview snippets. Prior to February 1999, in order to traditionally follow up the template of releasing upbeat numbers as lead singles(i.e. We've Got Goin' On, Everybody), Larger Than Life was intended as the first single off the upcoming album. This was due to the group originally wanting to title the forthcoming album "Larger Than Life". This changed upon hearing the completed version of "I Want It That Way" in a meeting with Max Martin and Andreas Carlsson in February 1999. Thus, plans were canceled and Larger Than Life was later released as the second single.
The music video for "Larger than Life" was a big-budget production directed by Joseph Kahn from August 12–14, 1999[4] in Orlando, FL, who also directed the band's "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" video in June 1997, which bears a number of similarities to this video. It takes place in a futuristic space setting, and includes elaborate special effects and animation, as well as a break-down with a dance number. The video opens with a long pass of a spaceship over the top of the camera as a number of the band's past singles cycle through as if on a radio dial. A robot, whose face is portrayed by Antonio Fargas, who played the driver in the "Everybody" video, awakens the band members from their sleep in pods on the ship. Each of the band members is subsequently featured in their own separate vignettes (Nick with robots, Kevin as a space fighter, Howie is dancing with dancers, Brian fighting with a virus, and AJ retrieving boxes of information), while being featured together on a large stage doing a dance routine with backup dancers. A breakdown was added to the remix version of the song before the final choruses for the extended dance sequence which continues to the end of the song. The vignettes are intercut with the dance sequence following the breakdown. The video reportedly went over budget, which was the reason that Howie Dorough's vignette was not particularly elaborate. The video holds a Guinness World Record for the 12th most expensive music video with estimated production costs of over $2,100,000 USD. The single version differs from the album version with a more upbeat percussion track. and two versions: original and remix (with no guitar solo).
| Chart (1999) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | 3 |
| Austrian Singles Chart | 15 |
| Begium (Flanders) Singles Chart | 12 |
| Belgium (Walonia) Singles Chart | 12 |
| Canadian Singles Chart | 5 |
| Canadian RPM Singles Chart | 4 |
| Dutch Singles Chart | 6 |
| Finnish Singles Chart | 2 |
| French Singles Chart | 58 |
| German Singles Chart | 5 |
| Irish Singles Chart | 9 |
| Italian Singles Chart | 6 |
| New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart | 11 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart | 5 |
| Swedish Singles Chart | 4 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 10 |
| UK Singles Chart | 5 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 25 |
| U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream | 5 |
German hard rock band Jaded Heart covered "Larger than Life" for their 2002 album The Journey Will Never End. German speed metal band Paragon covered "Larger than Life" for their 2008 album Screenslaves. Egyptian rock band Karma covered "Larger than Life" for their 2009 album Actions In Previous Existence. DJ team CJ Crew recorded an uptempo eurodance remix of the song for the 2001 compilation Dancemania Speed 6.
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||