Not that the world didn’t already know, but yesterday Britney Spears was unveiled alongside Simon Cowell, LA Reid and Demi Lovato as a judge on the new season of The X Factor USA.
With a pop career that dates back to a Disney show in 1994, Britney is the biggest star ever to be signed up for a talent show – and, with a $15 million payday, producers will be hoping that translates into ratings.
Internationally she has released 37 singles (30 in the UK), and below are her ten best-sellers. The list is fascinating – the general consensus is that Brit’s heyday is far behind her, and though her album sales have been sloping downwards in recent years, her singles figures tell a totally different story.
Note the sales figures are US only… UK stats are nowhere to be publicly found :(
UPDATE: The UK-only figures are out of date, but are unlikely to have changed much – they are (predictably) 1. ‘…Baby…’, 2. ‘Oops!’, 3. ‘Sometimes’, 4. ‘Womanizer’, 5. ‘Toxic’, 6. ‘Born To Make You Happy’, 7. ‘(You Drive Me) Crazy’, 8. ‘Everytime’, 9. ‘Piece of Me’, 10. ‘Lucky’
10. ‘I Wanna Go’
Album: Femme Fatale, 2011
Sales: 1.4 million
Chart peak: No7 (US), No138 (UK)
Although it didn’t quite catch on over here, in the US ‘I Wanna Go’ was one of the biggest hits of last summer. The cheeky video, that saw Britney poke fun at all the ridiculous rumours about herself and then parade around in front of a sign for Crossroads 2, was one of the weirdest clips of 2011. Co-written by Savan Kotecha (‘What Makes You Beautiful’, Glee) it is one of the most radio-ready anthems on the icon’s seventh studio album.
9. ‘Hold It Against Me’
Album: Femme Fatale, 2011
Sales: 1.45 million
Chart peak: No1 (US), No6 (UK)
A track that could well have marked Britney’s sixth UK number one if it weren’t for the ill-fated On Air, On Sale system, ‘Hold It Against Me’ boasted a dubstep-influenced middle-8 (this being before every song had a dubstep-influenced middle-8) and kept her one step ahead of the pack. Its innuendo-filled lyrics were as transparent as thin air, but this track was huge.
8. ‘Toxic’
Album: In The Zone, 2003
Sales: 1.6 million
Chart peak: No9 (US), No1 (UK)
Britney’s first Number 1 hit in four years in the UK, ‘Toxic’ was released at a time when we thought she had put all of her not-a-girl-not-yet-a-woman “troubled years” behind her. Little did we know, of course, that the worst of it was still three or four years away. ‘Toxic’s music video was one of the most iconic clips of the 00s, and remains one of her most renowned Greatest Hits.
6. ‘Piece Of Me’
Album: Blackout, 2007
Sales: 1.7 million
Chart peak: No18 (US), No2 (UK)
Her highest-charting UK single in five years, ‘Piece Of Me’ saw Britney staring her paparazzi enemies right in the face. “I’m Miss American Dream since I was 17… I’m miss Bad Media Karma, another day, another drama”, she purred robotically over crunching synths and liberal autotune effects. And, as life imitated art (or visa versa), she hit her lowest ebb around the same time this single became a worldwide smash.
5. ‘…Baby One More Time’
Album: …Baby One More Time, 1999
Sales: 1.8 million
Chart peak: No1 (US), No1 (UK)
Surprised that it’s only No5? The album may have sold 25 million copies worldwide, but the title track “only” shifted 1.8 million domestically, a personal best that went on to be beaten four more times in the years to come. It doesn’t particularly need an introduction, does it?
4. ’3′
Album: The Singles Collection, 2010
Sales: 2.1 million
Chart peak: No1 (US), No7 (UK)
For a Britney Spears single, ’3′ was quite poor. But then, the fact it was the only new track on her celebratory Singles Collection perhaps accounts for its astonishingly high sales figure. The LP did terribly in the charts (on both sides of the Atlantic), suggesting that fans probably opted to download this one original song instead of splash out on the 20-odd they already owned.
3. ‘Till The World Ends’
Album: Femme Fatale, 2011
Sales: 2.4 million
Chart peak: No3 (US), No21 (UK)
Without question this is the most under-rated song in Brit’s back catalogue. Released under on air, on sale rules in 2011, it only managed a No21 peak in the UK, but it is amazing. Co-written by Ke$ha, it’s a euphoric masterclass in dance-pop, clarifying that there’s no harm in treading a well-worn route (lyrics like “watch me move as I lose it hard”, “DJ what you waiting for” etc etc etc) if the production is as flawless as this. So good we named it our favourite single of 2011.
2. ‘Circus’
Album: Circus, 2008
Sales: 2.8 million
Chart peak: No3 (US), No13 (UK)
Blackout was “the comeback album” in terms of releasing music after a long hiatus, but Circus was “the comeback album” in terms of not being a train wreck of a human being anymore. The album was flawed, but as ever, it had a cracking cluster of hit singles on it… not least its title track. “All eyes on me in the centre of the ring, just like a circus”, came the chorus. If you ask me it’s not among the best of her best, but 2.8 million Americans clearly disagree.
1. ‘Womanizer’
Album: Circus, 2008
Sales: 3.2 million
Chart peak: No1 (US), No3 (UK)
‘Womanizer’ became Britney’s second US number 1 single in 2008… a decade since her first. As said above, the Circus era put her back at her personal best, and this was an addictive pop anthem so good that even Lily Allen covered it. The performance on the UK X Factor proved that Brit was still on the road to recovery performance-wise, but as a song it rightly ranks as one of her best.
