An accompanying music video, directed by Nigel Dick, was shot at the Paradise Cove in Malibu, California.

Before recording her debut album, Spears had originally envisioned it in the style of "Sheryl Crow music, but younger [and] more adult contemporary".

[2] She flew to Cheiron Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, where half of the album was recorded the spring of 1998, with producers Max Martin and Rami Yacoub, among others.

[5] Spears also co-wrote and recorded a track called "I'm So Curious", produced by Eric Foster White, that was released as a B-side to "Sometimes".

"[7] The e-mail was considered fake and the lawsuit was dismissed on October 31, 2005, when Judge John D. Tinder ruled that the singer did not steal the song.

[11] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said that "Sometimes" and the album's other hit songs revealed Max Martin's mastery of the pop hook, Eurodance rhythm, and memorable melody.

A reviewer from CD Universe commented that the song "warns a potential love of [Spears'] need for time and patience, rolling along nicely with a slow groove and a big beat".

[16] Caryn Ganz of Rolling Stone called "Sometimes" a "further hit" from ...Baby One More Time, along with "From the Bottom of My Broken Heart" and "(You Drive Me) Crazy".

[19] Nicholas Hautman, from Us Weekly, deemed it "the epitome of bubblegum pop, a genre that unjustly got a bad rap.

[21] While reviewing ...Baby One More Time on its 20th anniversary, Billboard's Chuck Arnold felt that "there is a wistful melancholy to this diary entry of a song that digs deeper into the doubts and insecurities below the bubbly surface of both 'Crazy' and the title track".

[22] The staff from Entertainment Weekly placed it at number 22 on their ranking of Spears's songs and said that "not quite a ballad, not yet a banger, ['Sometimes'] cemented Britney as pop's good girl of '99".

[34] "Sometimes" was also certified Gold by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP), for sales over 250,000 units of the single in France,[35] where it peaked at number 13.

[36] A month later, Spears released in a statement: "I want to thank my wonderful fans and all of the people who have offered their love and support during this time," while revealing she would not be able to shoot the music video until April 1999.

[38] According to MTV, the initial concept for the music video was to portray Spears on the porch of a beachfront home watching a group of kids having fun, prompting flashbacks about her former boyfriend.

[36] However, the video begins with Spears, in a long sleeveless white dress, walking barefoot through a lawn to a telescope, and looking through it.

The concept was later changed to a man and a dog walking on the beach, portraying the singer as the girl next door, watching her love interest, played by model Chad Cole, from afar.

[40] A writer of Rolling Stone noted the video is best known for "purifying the sexy persona Spears introduced in the '... Baby One More Time' video",[41] while describing it as "a virginal Britney in a long, flowing white dress (and other demure outfits) gazing at a clean-cut boy on the beach, then she walks on the balcony with a pink ball and does some chaste choreography that features her dancers forming a heart while she sings that she only wants to "hold you tight, treat you right."