As Long as You Love Me

"As Long As You Love Me"
Single by Backstreet Boys
from the album Backstreet's Back
Released	September 1997 (Europe) October 21, 1997 (United States)
Recorded	May 1997; Parc Studios (Orlando, Florida) Cheiron Studios (Stockholm, Sweden)
Genre	Pop
Length	3:40 (Album) 3:34 (Radio)
Label	Jive Records Zomba Recording
Writer(s)	Max Martin
Producer	Max Martin, Kristian Lundin
Backstreet Boys singles chronology "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" (1997) "As Long As You Love Me" (1997) "All I Have To Give" (1998) Backstreet Boys US singles chronology "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)" (1997) "As Long As You Love Me" (1997) "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" (1998)

"As Long As You Love Me" is the second single by the Backstreet Boys from their debut album in the United States and the second single from Backstreet's Back internationally. It was released in September 1997 internationally and in October of the same year in the United States. It is one of the bands' largest hits and considered one of their signature songs. It peaked at #1 in New Zealand and the Philippines, #2 in Australia and Austria, #3 in the United Kingdom, #4 in Switzerland and Sweden, and #5 in the Netherlands and Norway.^[1] At The 1997 MTV Europe Music Awards the song won Select Video.

Background

The song is their biggest selling single in the UK and the 13th biggest selling boyband single of the 90's in the UK selling 430,000 copies. In the US, although it was never released as a commercial single, it became an MTV staple and a radio airplay hit, spending 56 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart, with a peak of #4. It's about a man professing his love for a woman. In the song, he tells her he doesn't care about her shady past, as long as she loves him back. The song was a last minute addition to the album, as Clive Calder, then-chairman of Zomba, heard the song and called Jive Records president Barry Weiss, who then contacted the band's manager, Johnny Wright.^[2] Due to an error on the part of someone in the production chain, an early mix of "As Long As You Love Me" was included on the re-release 1997 US Backstreet Boys album, but not on Backstreet's Back. The original release of the US debut album had the "LP Version" included. But once the album was re-released, the "Video Version" was included on the album. This allegedly annoyed writer and producer Max Martin. This version subsequently became the version released as a single to radio and video. It has different instrumentation and mixing, as well as a slightly different structure, very similar to their previous US single, "Quit Playin' Games (With My Heart)". The US version is usually listed as the "Radio" or "Video Version", while the international version is typically listed as "Album" or "LP Version". Also, due to illness and the deadline for the song, member A. J. McLean's vocals do not appear on the recorded version of the song. He was taught the background vocals by Brian Littrell at the music video shoot on June 15, 1997.^[2][3]

Track listing

• UK

CD1

1. "As Long As You Love Me" (Radio Version) - 3:32
2. "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)" (E-Smoove Vocal Mix) - 6:48
3. "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" (Funked Up Mix) - 7:13
4. "Every Time I Close My Eyes" - 3:55

CD2

1. "As Long As You Love Me" (Radio Version) - 3:32
2. "As Long As You Love Me" (Unplugged Version) - 3:32
3. "As Long As You Love Me" (Instrumental Version) - 3:30

• America

CD1

1. "As Long As You Love Me" (LP Version)
2. "As Long As You Love Me" (Plastik Vocal Edit)
3. "As Long As You Love Me" (Soul Solution Edit)
4. "As Long As You Love Me" (Video Version)

CD2

1. "As Long As You Love Me" (Radio Version)
2. "As Long As You Love Me" (Unplugged Version)
3. "As Long As You Love Me" (Matty's R&B Mix)
4. "As Long As You Love Me" (Matty's House Dee Zee AH Mix)
5. "As Long As You Love Me" (Soul Solution Club Mix)

Music video

The video was directed by Nigel Dick and filmed on June 15, 1997 in Pasadena, California. It shows the band auditioning before six ladies. The number chosen so that the ladies would not appear to be matched up with the band members.^[4] The ladies video tape the performances and take notes. The band members primarily sing and dance, but each member also has a short "screen test" vignette in which he dresses up in a costume and performs various unusual activities. At the bridge, the members switch places with the ladies and have them perform screen tests. The positions reverse again near the end of the song. The dance for this song, as featured in the video, includes a dance that uses folding chairs as part of the choreography. For many years after the song's release, the band would end most performances of the song with the same chair dance routine. There are special effects utilized in the video. Most notably, morphing sequences where the face of one member would morph into the next's, as well as quick dissolves or straight cuts between footage of the members each doing the chair routine in the same exact position of the set. The cuts cause a working fan in the background to appear to stutter in its spin. One of the ladies in the video is Leighanne Wallace. After meeting her during rehearsals of this video on June 14, Littrell would ultimately marry Wallace in 2000.

• As Long As You Love Me

Charts

Chart (1997)	Peak position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart	2
Austrian Singles Chart	2
Begium (Flanders) Singles chart	4
Belgium (Walonia) Singles chart	7
Canadian Singles Chart	2
Danish Singles Chart	3
Dutch Singles Chart	5
Finnish Singles Chart	17
French Singles Chart	19
German Singles Chart	3
Irish Singles Chart	6
Italian Singles Chart	9
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart	1
Norwegian Singles Chart	5
Swedish Singles Chart	4
Swiss Singles Chart	4
UK Singles Chart	3
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay	4
U.S. Bilboard Top 40 Mainstream	3

End of year charts

End of year chart (1997)	Position
UK Singles Chart	25

Preceded by "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" by N-Trance featuring Rod Stewart

New Zealand RIANZ (New Zealand) number one single 17 December 1997 (3 weeks)

Succeeded by Never Ever (All Saints song) by All Saints

Trivia

• As Long as You Love Me is on the US Version of Now That's What I Call Music! which was released October 20, 1998 the song is track 2.^[5]
• In 2009, John and Edward Grimes sang the song while auditioning for The X Factor.

References

1. ^ charts.org.nz - Backstreet Boys - As Long As You Love Me
2. ^ ^{a b} Interview with Backstreet Boys, management, and others from Entertainment Weekly 10th Anniversary Issue.
3. ^ As noted in Backstreet Boys: All Access.
4. ^ Backstreet Boys: All Access.
5. ^ Now That's What I Call Music! (original U.S. album)