Janet Jackson was originally intended to record Britney Spears’ worldwide hit ‘Toxic,‘ according to the hit’s songwriter Cathy Dennis.
Read what the British hitmaker had to say on the matter below…
Divulging details in a new interview, Dennis reveals that ‘Toxic’ was written during a 7-day stint in Sweden with the ‘Nasty‘ singer in mind. Having met with Ms. Jackson previously in London (or perhaps New York, she ponders), the talented songwriter made the decision to work on Jackson’s fifth studio album ‘Damita Jo.‘
Speaking on ‘Toxic’, the ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head‘ writer shares:
“That [‘Toxic’] was written in Sweden with Bloodshy & Avant [Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg] and Henrik Jonback. I went over there to write with Janet Jackson in mind. I was there for about ten days in total.I’d had a meeting with Janet, I think in London, but it may have been in New York. I thought I’d have a go at writing something that would work for her and it didn’t come out at the time. We did have this song Toxic, though.It was started on day one of seven… then took part of day two to try to finish it. And because I couldn’t quite finish it, I said: ‘Look, let’s start on something else.’ So we wrote another three songs that week and in my spare time while I was in my hotel room I was very busy editing my lyrics on Toxic. Eventually on day seven, which was the day I was flying back to England, I had run out of time.”
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Wow! With Brit citing JJ as one of her biggest influences as a young girl, we imagine that ‘Toxic’ would have fit nicely into Janet’s discography! Though she didn’t get the song, Dennis went on to write ‘Island Life’ for Jan’s ‘Damita Jo‘ instead, as well as ‘I’m Here‘ on the Japanese edition of the album.
We wonder if Ms. Jackson’s version would have fared as well as Spears’…
What are…
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