“Toxic”
Single by Britney Spears from the album In the Zone
Released	February 24, 2004 February 2, 2004 March 1, 2004
Format	CD, DVD
Recorded	2003
Genre	Electropop, dance-pop
Length	3:21
Label	Jive
Writer(s)	Bloodshy & Avant, Cathy Dennis, Henrik Jonback
Producer	Bloodshy & Avant
Certification	Platinum (Australia, Norway, United States) Gold (New Zealand, Sweden) Silver (France, UK)
Britney Spears singles chronology
"Me Against the Music" (2003) "Toxic" (2004) "Everytime" (2004)

"Toxic" is a Grammy Award-winning dance-pop song written by Bloodshy & Avant, Cathy Dennis, and Henrik Jonback for Britney Spears' fourth studio album In the Zone (2003). It was released as the album's second single in early 2004 (see 2004 in music). "Toxic" enjoyed critical acclaim and international success, topping many singles charts around the world. In 2005 it won the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording, Spears' first Grammy ever.¹

Music and structure

"Toxic" is a dance-pop song composed in the key of C minor. It is written in common time and moves at 143 beats per minute. Spears' vocal range for the song spans nearly two octaves, from G₃ to F₅.²

The song's high-pitched hook.

After the introduction repeats the hook four times, Spears sings the first two verses, each one followed by the hook. After singing the bridge, she sings the chorus. Spears sings the third verse and then the chorus. Following a break she sings the chorus twice and closes the song with an outro.²

Acclaim

The song received much acclaim from critics and the industry. It earned Spears her first Grammy for Best Dance Recording in 2005. It also came 5th in the highly regarded Pazz and Jop Poll for single of the year.³ In addition, several popular music magazines have selected it one of the greatest songs to be released since the year 2000. Indie music websites Pitchfork Media and Stylus Magazine both named it one of the top songs to be put out between 2000 and 2005, Pitchfork ranked it 13th⁴ and Stylus ranked it 14th⁵. Blender also ranked it on their list of the top 500 songs from 1980 to 2005 placing it 110th.⁶ The song was chosen as the second favorite song of the world (all time) in a global survey made by Sony Ericsson, in which 700,000 music fans of 66 countries contributed, behind "We Are the Champions" by Queen.⁷

Formats and track listings

These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "Toxic".⁸

Remixes and other versions

These are (official) remixes and other versions of "Toxic":

• Album Version 3:24
• Instrumental 3:24
• Peter Rauhofer Reconstruction Mix 8:01
• Peter Rauhofer Reconstruction Mix Edit 6:44
• Peter Rauhofer Reconstruction Mix Radio Edit 4:29 - only available on B in the Mix: The Remixes Deluxe Edition
• Bloodshy & Avant's Intoxicated Remix 5:34
• Junior Vasquez Sound Factory Mix 7:14
• Felix Da Housecat's Club Mix 7:12
• Felix Da Housecat Remix 7:01
• Lenny Bertoldo Mixshow Edit 5:46
• Lenny Bertoldo Radio Mix 3:32
• Lenny Bertoldo's 2008 Electro Club Mix 7:10
• Armand Van Helden Remix 9:34
• Armand Van Helden Remix Edit 6:25
• Armand Van Helden Radio Edit 3:46
• A Cappella 3:11 - Leaked, never officially released.

A mix by DJ Sat One featuring a rap by Bahamadia (who some confuse with Penelope Magnet, a writer and background vocalist on the In The Zone album) which is considered by some to be official; however, it's not a commissioned release and is in fact a bootleg.

DJ Yiannis completed a bootleg tribal mix of his own, as well.

There are a further two remixes, the first nicknamed "Toxic Rhythm" released in the UK on the club circuit, involving rap style lyrics. This is an unofficial remix produced by Edinburgh DJ John Marr and as such can only be found on P2P file-sharing networks. The official title for this remix is John Marr - Toxic Rhythm. The second was released on MTV Mash Up and is a mix of Usher's "Yeah" with Spears' "Toxic".

• "Toxic" is the second track on the U.S. version of Now That's What I Call Music! 15 and marks the singers return to the compilation series since its tenth volume. The song also debuts the "In The Zone" album to the series.

Cover versions

Along with "…Baby One More Time", "Toxic" has become one of Britney Spears most covered songs. Cover versions include:

• The Jerusalem-based indie rock band missFlag[2] regularly covers the song in concert [3] and has a newer version on their MySpace page[4].
• Indie band Hard-Fi covered the song for the Radio 1. Established 1967. The song is fused with The Clash's Brand New Cadillac. Lead singer Richard Archer is quoted as saying their cover will "send Britney mad".⁹
• Juliet Turner on Even Better than the Real Thing Vol. 2.
• The song was covered by alternative rock band Local H and is available for free by clicking on the picture here (Link no longer works)
• The progressive rock band Marillion recorded a live version of the song for their 2007 album Friends.
• The PlayStation 2 video game Karaoke Revolution Volume 2 has a cover of the song, covered by WaveGroup Sound.
• The WaveGroup cover was remixed by Shoichiro Hirata for another PS2 game, beatmania.
• Progressive bluegrass group Nickel Creek is known to cover the song in concert, with mandolinist Chris Thile imitating Spears' dance moves at select parts of the song.
• The song was covered by Norwegian band Hurra Torpedo and is found on their album "Kollossus of Makedonia." Their version is played at roughly half speed on a variety of kitchen appliances.
• The Columbia University Marching Band regularly plays an in-house arrangement of the song at football and basketball games, as does The Harvard University Band.
• Mark Ronson uses a sample of Spears' "Toxic" in his own hip-hop version of the song (titled simply "Toxic"). It features Ol' Dirty Bastard, Tiggers and Nick Catchdubs and can be found on his second album Version.
• Israeli singer Shiri Maimon has made her own version of this song in Hebrew, a video was also produced.
• "Toxic" has been mashed-up with Linkin Park's Faint for a song known as "Toxic Faint".
• The Gainesville, Florida, based ska band One and Done performs Toxic as part of their normal show.
• Saskatchewan based baritone Nathan Plant performed a cover as part of a special charity album.
• Monsters From Mars has released an instrumental surf version.
• French-Israeli singer Yael Naïm has released a pop-soul acoustic version on her eponymous album¹⁰. In Spain, this song is used to an official theme from 2008 TV serie "El Internado" on their third series.
• The Salem, Oregon band Moothart does a Techno / Hardcore version [5]
• EastEnders in the Episode Chelsea seeks solace
• Tony Yayo samples "Toxic" at the start of the song "Love My Style" from his 2005 album Thoughts of A Predicate Felon.
• In 2007 Israeli-American jazz act Yaron Herman Trio recorded a version on their album A Time For Everything.
• The Andalusian Dogs (German Avantgarde-Trashband)
• Indie-pop band Those Dancing Days covered the song in September 2008.
• Singer-songwriter Tristan Prettyman has played an acoustic version of the song many times in concert. In 2008 she released a Live Session via iTunes which includes a cover of "Toxic".
• Portland Cello Project's self-titled debut album includes a version of "Toxic".
• Metalcore band A Static Lullaby covered the song as a pre-order exclusive track on their album Rattlesnake!
• Gunzoo, a Death metal band from California, did a cover of "Toxic" that was going to be released on their second demo but the demo never got made.
• Electro-pop band Metronomy covered it, restyling it in an electro/polka vein.
• Chloe Lattanzi, daughter of Olivia Newton John, covered this song on the semi final of the MTV reality show Rock The Cradle.
• Tara Staffard-Allen sung the song in the third round of The One and Only as Britney Spears in which she fell bottom two and was eliminated against Victoria Jones, who posed as Kylie Minogue.
• Alexandra Burke covered this song on the quarter-finals of the British Reality TV Show, The X Factor.

Appearances in other media

The song was included in a 2005 episode of Doctor Who entitled The End of the World, where it was a recording on a jukebox that survived until the year 5 billion as an example of "a traditional ballad". It was used by the central villain of the story as background music for witnessing the destruction of the Earth.

The song is used for a commercial for Chuck in Warner Channel Latin America. The song's chorus and a part of second verse can be heard.

The song is played in a club in a first season episode of Entourage titled Date Night.

The song was used for the movie Knocked Up while Ben and Pete are driving to Las Vegas in their car.

Derrick Barry, a twenty-four year-old finalist on America's Got Talent, impersonated Spears on "Toxic", receiving much applause from the judges and the audience.¹¹

Mandy Moore guest starred in an episode of The Simpsons entitled "Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play", playing Tabitha Vixx, a Spears'-parody. She sings her latest song, "Troublelistic", which goes to the same tune.

The song is covered and played in NBA Live 2008 on the Xbox 360.

A cover version of this song is featured in the game Karaoke Revolution Volume 2.

The instrumental version can be heard in the trailer for Wild Child, a movie starring Emma Roberts.

Professional wrestling tag team the Olsen Twins (Colin Delaney and Jimmy Olsen) used a slightly modified version of this song as their entrance music.

Chart performance

"Toxic" became Spears' fourth top ten single in the United States reaching number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 in March, 2004.¹² It was a comeback single of sorts for Spears in the U.S., as her previous seven singles prior to "Toxic" had either failed to chart or missed the top twenty on the Hot 100. The single also experienced strong downloads, and became her first number-one on the Hot Digital Tracks.¹³ In addition, it ranked at forty-eight on the Billboard Hot 100 year-end chart for 2004.¹⁴ "Toxic" also became an all-around hit on Top 40 radio, going top twenty on the Rhythmic Top 40, top ten on Top 40 Tracks and to number-one for solid four weeks on the Mainstream Top 40.¹² The track was a club hit reaching number-one on the Hot Dance Club Play chart.¹² On June 14, 2006, the Recording Industry Association of America certified the single gold after having sold over 500,000 digital downloads.¹⁵

The single also became a huge success in the United Kingdom, selling 102,500 copies in its first week of release¹⁶ and debuting at number one in the official singles chart,¹⁷ charting ahead of Kylie Minogue's "Red Blooded Woman" which entered the chart at number five.¹⁷ The chart battle between the two divas was highly popularized in the U.K.¹⁸ Ironically, the song had originally been offered to Kylie for inclusion on her 9th studio album "Body Language", but she turned it down.¹⁹ "Toxic" sold a total of 268,000 copies in the U.K.²⁰ and became the 9th best-selling single of 2004.²¹ In the rest of the European continent, "Toxic" peaked within the top ten in every single country it charted,²² including big markets such as France and Germany.²² Eventually, the track topped the European Hot 100 singles chart for two consecutive weeks.²³

In the Pacific, "Toxic" was also a huge success. It went straight to number-one in Australia knocking Jamelia's "Superstar" off the top,²⁴ after having spent two weeks in the penthouse the track was replaced by Usher's "Yeah!".²⁵ The Australian Recording Industry Association certified the single platinum for shipping 70,000 copies.²⁶ Meanwhile, in New Zealand the single peaked at number two being held off the top spot by Eamon's "Fuck It (Don't Want You Back)".²⁷ In addition, the track reached the gold status for selling over 7,500 units.²⁸

Footnotes

External links

• Britney Spears — official web site.
• Britney Spears — official web site at Jive Records.
• Music video for "Toxic" at MTV Overdrive.