After several weeks of rehearsals, the group set up a showcase and began planning to officially sign with Pearlman's Trans Continental Label.

Timberlake soon called his vocal coach, who suggested a 16-year-old from Mississippi named Lance Bass, who flew to Orlando to audition and was immediately accepted into the group.

[5] Eventually, the group signed to BMG Ariola Munich, and were sent to Stockholm to begin working on their debut album with the help of producers such as Denniz Pop, Max Martin and Andreas Carlsson around July–August 1996.

Initially, the band were recording songs similar to that of Boyz II Men, but had to switch their sound in order to accommodate to the dance-oriented European market.

[5] The album's official lead single, "I Want You Back", was released in Germany on January 15, 1997,[7] and reached the top 10 on November 18, 1997.

[18][19] Following their success of their début album in several European territories, the band captured the attention of Vincent DeGiorgio, an A&R rep for RCA Records.

This resulted in the tracks "Riddle", "Best of My Life", "More Than a Feeling", "Together Again" [20] and "Forever Young" being cut altogether, and new mixes of "I Want You Back", "Tearin' Up My Heart" and "For the Girl Who Has Everything" being recorded.

At first, sales of the album were mediocre in both British and American territories, until the band's worldwide broadcast Disney Channel in Concert special in 1998.

It reached number two on the Billboard 200 and shipped over 10 million copies in the United States alone, making it certified 10× Platinum and earning the group an RIAA diamond award.

[22] On February 9, 1999, a third single from the new version of the album, "(God Must Have Spent) A Little More Time on You", was released exclusively in the United States, peaking at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Though "I Drive Myself Crazy" did not crack the top 40 on Billboard, its music video was in heavy rotation on MTV show TRL, spending a total of 40 days in the number 1 position.