5 FACTS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT "…Britney Spears,

5 FACTS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT "…BABY ONE MORE TIME"

Hit us baby one more time! If you remember Britney Spears' lead smash hit ...Baby One More Time hitting the airwaves in the late '90s, prepare to feel very old: the infectious teenybopper song is celebrating the 16th anniversary of its release.

Every pop fan knows the words to the iconic track and has seen the high school-set music video, but how many Britney diehards know which group could have made "…Baby" their own hit, or who played Spears' love interest in the music video, or where did the not-that-innocent Catholic schoolgirl uniform come from?

To commemorate this musical milestone, here's a list of little-known facts relating to the first of the Pop Culture Juggernaut's many, many hits.  

  

1. The single was originally offered to TLC, but the R&B trio turned it down. A man's trash is another man's treasure, they say – after all, Spears turned down "Umbrella" years later, and it eventually became a smash for Rihanna.

2. "…Baby One More Time" is still Britney's biggest Hot 100 hit. The song spent 32 weeks on the tally, and is her longest-charting single. After debuting at No. 17 on the Hot 100 chart dated Nov. 21, 1998, the song hit No. 1 in its 11th week, in January 1999.

3. The iconic Lolita-esque schoolgirl costume she wore in the video came from US discount megastore Kmart. “Every piece of wardrobe in the video came from Kmart, and I was told at the time not one piece of clothing in the video cost more than $17," Spears revealed. "On that level, it’s real. That probably, in retrospect, is a part of its charm.”

3. The music video was shot at the same school used in "Grease." Venice High School in Los Angeles is the setting for iconic musical numbers from two distinct generations.

5. In the video, Britney's real-life cousin Chad Spears portrays her love interest. Chad was an Abercrombie & Fitch model at the time. Luckily their scenes together didn't go any further than a few stolen glances!

Now, hit play and relive those lost youth moment again below: