The Essential Britney Spears

Last updated
The Essential Britney Spears
The Essential Britney Spears.jpg
Greatest hits album by
ReleasedAugust 20, 2013 (2013-08-20)
Recorded1998–2012
Genre Pop
Length117:08
Label RCA
Producer
Britney Spears chronology
Playlist: The Very Best of Britney Spears
(2012)
The Essential Britney Spears
(2013)
Britney Jean
(2013)

The Essential Britney Spears is the fifth greatest hits album by American singer Britney Spears. [1] It was released on August 20, 2013, by RCA Records and Legacy Recordings, initially as a Walmart exclusive. [2] It was later released on digital platforms the following year. The compilation was produced by Jeffrey James and Darren Salmieri, and it was mastered by Seann Brennan at Battery Studios in New York.

Contents

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [3]

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic praised the length of the compilation, noting "Where other Britney compilations ran no longer than a single CD, this is a double-disc set with over 30 tracks -- more than enough space for all of her hit American singles", and noticed the absence of singles such as "Born to Make You Happy" or "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know". He also compared The Essential with its predecessor, indicating that "Skeptics might suspect shorter is better for Britney -- and those looking for a quick blast of hits will be well-served by Playlist and pointed the portrayal of Spears's career being reflected in the two discs of this compilation: "this double-disc set reveals that she had two strong, distinct phases to her career: the bubblegum pop ingénue of the new millennium, followed by the blackout club diva of ten years later." [3]

Commercial performance

The Essential Britney Spears debuted on the US Billboard 200 at number 185 on the week of March 11, 2017, four years after its original release. [4] It debuted at number 95 on the Billboard Canadian Albums Chart on April 25, 2020, and it peaked at number 37 on the week of October 16, 2021, spending a total of 27 weeks on the chart. [5]

Track listing

Disc 1
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."...Baby One More Time" Max Martin 3:31
2."Sometimes" (radio edit) Jörgen Elofsson 3:56
3."(You Drive Me) Crazy" (The Stop Remix!)Elofsson, Per Magnusson, David Kreuger, Martin3:17
4."From the Bottom of My Broken Heart" (radio edit) Eric Foster White 4:34
5."Oops!... I Did It Again"Martin, Rami Yacoub 3:31
6."Lucky"Martin, Yacoub, Alexander Kronlund 3:25
7."Stronger"Martin, Yacoub3:24
8."I'm a Slave 4 U" Chad Hugo, Pharrell Williams 3:24
9."I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman"Martin, Yacoub, Dido Armstrong 3:51
10."Overprotected" (The Darkchild Remix)Martin, Yacoub3:20
11."Boys" (The Co-Ed Remix)Hugo, Williams3:46
12."Me Against the Music" (video mix; featuring Madonna) Britney Spears, Madonna, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, Thabiso "Tab" Nikhereanye, Penelope Magnet, Terius Nash, Gary O'Bryan3:45
13."Toxic" Cathy Dennis, Christian Karlsson, Pontus Winnberg, Henrik Jonback 3:19
14."Everytime"Spears, Annet Artani 3:50
15."Outrageous" R. Kelly, Trickster, Magnet3:27
Total length:54:20
Disc 2 track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."My Prerogative" Bobby Brown, Aaron Hall, Teddy Riley 3:33
2."Do Somethin'"Karlsson, Winnberg, Jonback, Angela Hunte 3:23
3."Gimme More" Nate Hills, James Washington, Keri Hilson, Marcella Araica 4:11
4."Piece of Me"Karlsson, Winnberg, Klas Åhlund3:32
5."Radar"Ashton Cole, Jonback, Balewa Muhammad, Candice Nelson, Ezekiel "Zeke" Lewis, Patrick "J. Que" Smith3:49
6."Break the Ice"Hills, Washington, Hilson, Araica3:15
7."Hot as Ice" Faheem "T-Pain" Najm, Hills, Araica3:17
8."Womanizer" The Outsyders 3:44
9."Circus" Lukasz Gottwald, Claude Kelly, Benjamin Levin 3:11
10."If U Seek Amy"Martin, Shellback, Savan Kotecha, Kronlund3:36
11."Out from Under" Shelly Peiken, Arnthor Birgisson, Wayne Hector 3:54
12."3"Martin, Karl Schuster, Tiffany Amber 3:25
13."Hold It Against Me"Martin, Gottwald, Bonnie McKee 3:49
14."Till the World Ends"Martin, Gottwald, Kronlund, Kesha Sebert 3:58
15."I Wanna Go"Martin, Kotecha, Shellback3:30
16."Criminal"Martin, Shellback, Amber3:45
17."Scream & Shout" (radio edit; will.i.am featuring Britney Spears)Jean-Baptiste Kouame, Tulisa Kontostavlos, Jef Martens, William Adams 4:13
Total length:62:05

Charts

Chart performance for The Essential Britney Spears
Chart (2017–2023)Peak
position
Canadian Albums (Billboard) [5] 37
Greek Albums (IFPI) [6] 30
South Korean Albums (Gaon) [7] 90
South Korean International Albums (Gaon) [8] 6
US Billboard 200 [4] 185

Release history

Release history and formats for The Essntial Britney Spears
CountryDateFormatLabel
United States [9] [10] August 20, 2013
CD
VariousJuly 29, 2014Digital download

Related Research Articles

<i>...Baby One More Time</i> (album) 1999 studio album by Britney Spears

...Baby One More Time is the debut studio album by American singer Britney Spears. It was released on January 12, 1999, by Jive Records. Spears had been a child performer on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club from 1993 to 1994, and was looking to expand her career as a teen singer. After being turned away by several record companies, Spears signed with Jive for a multi-album deal in 1997. She travelled to Sweden to collaborate with producers Max Martin and Rami Yacoub, who had been writing songs with producer Denniz Pop and others, for ...Baby One More Time. Their collaboration created a pop, bubblegum pop, dance-pop, and teen pop record, with Spears later saying that she felt excited when she heard it and knew it was going to be a hit record. The album was completed in June 1998.

<i>Britney</i> (album) 2001 studio album by Britney Spears

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<i>Greatest Hits: My Prerogative</i> 2004 greatest hits album by Britney Spears

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">I'm a Slave 4 U</span> 2001 single by Britney Spears

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">...Baby One More Time (song)</span> 1998 single by Britney Spears

"...Baby One More Time" is the debut single by American singer Britney Spears from her debut studio album of the same title (1999). It was written by Max Martin and produced by Martin and Rami. Released on September 29, 1998, by Jive Records, the song became a worldwide hit, topping the charts in at least 23 countries, including the United Kingdom, where it earned triple-platinum certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and was the country's best-selling single of 1999. The song is one of the best-selling singles of all time, with over 10 million copies sold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">(You Drive Me) Crazy</span> 1999 single by Britney Spears

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">My Prerogative</span> 1988 single by Bobby Brown

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Oops!... I Did It Again is the second studio album by American singer Britney Spears released on May 3, 2000, by Jive Records. Following the enormous commercial success of her debut studio album ...Baby One More Time (1999) and the completion of its accompanying concert tour of the same title, Spears began recording material for her second studio album in September 1999. Pressured to duplicate the success of ...Baby One More Time, she collaborated with a wide range of producers, including Max Martin, Rami Yacoub, Per Magnusson, David Kreuger, Kristian Lundin, Jake Schulze, Darkchild, and Robert John "Mutt" Lange for Oops!... I Did It Again. The final result was a pop, dance-pop and teen pop record exceedingly in the vein of ...Baby One More Time, but incorporating funk and R&B. The production, sonic quality, and Spears' vocal performance received critical acclaim upon the album's release.

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<i>Playlist: The Very Best of Britney Spears</i> 2012 greatest hits album by Britney Spears

Playlist: The Very Best of Britney Spears is the fourth greatest hits album by American artist Britney Spears. It was released on November 6, 2012. The album contains a selection of remastered recordings, and is part of a series of similar Playlist albums issued by Legacy Recordings.

<i>Playlist: The Very Best of Alan Jackson</i> 2012 compilation album by Alan Jackson

Playlist: The Very Best of Alan Jackson is the eighth greatest hits compilation album by American country music artist Alan Jackson. It is part of a series of similar Playlist albums issued by Legacy Recordings. The album features thirteen of Jackson's singles spanning from "Here in the Real World" in 1990 to "Monday Morning Church" from What I Do in 2004. Also included is "Never Loved Before", a duet with Martina McBride from Jackson's 2008 album Good Time.

References

  1. Jacobs, Matthew (August 2, 2013). "'The Essential Britney Spears' Marks Another Greatest-Hits Album For The Singer, Will Arrive Before New Studio Project". The Huffington Post . Retrieved August 5, 2013.
  2. "A New Album! Sort Of..." HuffPost. 2013-08-02. Retrieved 2023-11-18.
  3. 1 2 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Britney Spears - Playlist: The Very Best of Britney Spears Album Reviews, Songs & More". AllMusic . Retrieved 2023-11-18.
  4. 1 2 "Britney Spears Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
  5. 1 2 "Britney Spears Chart History (Canadian Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
  6. "Official IFPI Charts – Top-75 Albums Sales Chart (Week: 35 (31-35)/2023)". IFPI Greece. Archived from the original on September 6, 2023. Retrieved November 24, 2023.
  7. "2017년 23주차 Album Chart" (in Korean). Gaon Music Chart. Archived from the original on June 18, 2017. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  8. "2017년 23주차 Album Chart" (in Korean). Gaon Music Chart. Archived from the original on June 18, 2017. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  9. http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Britney-Spears/dp/B00DW5IKJI
  10. http://www.amazon.com/The-Essential-Britney-Spears/dp/B00EE0OLAW