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One of the Backstreet Boys' biggest songs nearly sounded totally different.
In the new documentary Larger Than Life: Reign of the Boybands, AJ McLean reflected on BSB's older albums, specifically the release of the group's third studio album, 1999's Millennium, per People.
"In our generation, you put out your first album. It does good, cool. But your second album is the one that's going to make or break your career," he said, adding, "Ours was Millennium, but it wasn't really until we then released, from that album, the single 'I Want It That Way' that everything changed."
While "I Want It That Way" has gone on to become one of BSB's most popular songs, it nearly had a completely different lyric that, while small, would have had a big impact on the iconic chorus. McLean said that the group's record label took issue with the line, "I never want to hear you say I want it that way."
"They felt like this song didn't make any sense, it wasn't going to go anywhere," he said, adding that executives even suggested changing to line to, "I love it when I hear you say I want it that way."
The Backstreet Boys considered the small change but decided against it as, according to McLean, "it doesn't hit right." The rest, as they say, is history.
"So they put their faith in us that we made the right call — and we made the right call," he said.
Elsewhere in the documentary, members of the biggest boybands in the world revealed some of the "crazy" rules they had to follow, from what they needed to look like to who they could date.
Larger Than Life: Reign of the Boybands is available on Paramount+.