The Essential Britney Spears

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The Essential Britney Spears
The Essential Britney Spears.jpg
Greatest hits album by
Britney Spears
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" 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" 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) (featuring Pharrell Williams)Hugo, Williams3:46
12."Me Against the Music" (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" (will.i.am and Britney Spears)Jean-Baptiste Kouame, Tulisa Contostavlos, 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

Certifications and sales

Certifications and sales for The Essential Britney Spears
RegionCertification Certified units/sales
New Zealand (RMNZ) [9] Platinum15,000‡
United Kingdom (BPI) [10] Silver60,000‡
United States—60,000 [11]

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Release history

Release history and formats for The Essential Britney Spears
CountryDateFormatLabel
United States [12] [13] August 20, 2013
VariousJuly 29, 2014Digital download

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. August 2, 2013. Retrieved November 18, 2023.
  3. 1 2 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Britney Spears - Playlist: The Very Best of Britney Spears Album Reviews, Songs & More". AllMusic . Retrieved November 18, 2023.
  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. ↑ "New Zealand album certifications – Britney Spears – The Essential Britney Spears". Radioscope. Retrieved December 14, 2024.Type The Essential Britney Spears in the "Search:" field.
  10. ↑ "British album certifications – Britney Spears – The Essential Britney Spears". British Phonographic Industry.
  11. ↑ Trust, Gary (May 15, 2020). "Britney Spears' Career Sales & Streams, In Honor of 20 Years of 'Oops!...I Did It Again': Ask Billboard Mailbag". Billboard . Prometheus Global Media . Retrieved September 5, 2024.
  12. ↑ "The Essential Britney Spears". Amazon. 2014.
  13. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/The-Essential-Britney-Spears/dp/B00EE0OLAW
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