NSYNC “Bye Bye Bye” hit #1…but not on the Billboard Hot 100

Bye Bye Bye NYSNC

Writer(s): Kristian Lundin, Jake Schulze, Andreas Carlsson (see lyrics here) Released: January 11, 2000 First Charted: January 21, 2000 Peak: 4 US, 15 BA, 110 GR, 110 RR, 25 AC, 19 A40, 3 UK, 11 CN, 15 AU, 30 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.6 UK, 1.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 342.96 video, 473.31 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “Bye Bye Bye” was a chart-topping song for ten weeks, according to the Gavin Report and Radio & Records. The song also spent five weeks atop the Billboard radio airplay chart. However, it only reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, which integrates radio airplay as well as sales. Now, if you lived through the boy band days of the early millennium, you may be thinking, “what do you mean, NSYNC wasn’t #1 in sales also? That album was a monster!” The album No Strings Attached was absolutely a major seller and its lead single, “Bye Bye Bye,” did much to build that demand. The group premiered the song on October 28, 1999 at the Radio Music Awards, but it was never released as a commercial single. WK This became a common practice in the ‘90s to get people to plop down for the entire album instead of just one song. That meant the song’s chart performance might take a hit but the album sales benefited – and boy, did they benefit in the case of NYSNC. Strings sold 2.4 million copies in its first week – a record for one-week sales that stood for fifteen years until Adele outdid it with her 25 album in 2015. Not surprisingly, Strings would go on to be the biggest seller of 2000 and eventually sell more than 14 million copies in the United States alone. As for the song, “Bye Bye Bye” was originally intended for English boy band 5ive, but they rejected it in an effort to move more toward rap. WK Lyrically, it was about “a guy who has reached the end of his patience in his relationship and is ready to leave.” SF Band member JC Chasez described it as being about “kissing somebody off after they burned you.” SF Billboard magazine said the song was one of “the most decisive breakup anthems in pop history.” WK Allmusic.com’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine called the song “a piledriving dance number with the catchiest chorus they’ve ever sang.” AMG Complex’s Kathy Iandoli ranked it the best song ever by a boy band. WK Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for NSYNC AMG All Music Guide SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 8/11/2023.