"As Long As You Love Me" is the second single by the Backstreet Boys from their debut album in the United States and the second single from Backstreet's Back internationally.It was released in September 1997 internationally and in October of the same year in the United States.It is one of the bands' largest hits and considered one of their signature songs.It peaked at #1 in New Zealand and the Philippines,#2 in Australia and Austria,#3 in the United Kingdom,#4 in Switzerland and Sweden,and #5 in the Netherlands and Norway.At The 1997 MTV Europe Music Awards the song won Select Video.
The song is their biggest selling single in the UK and the 13th biggest selling boyband single of the 90's in the UK selling 430,000 copies.In the US,although it was never released as a commercial single,it became an MTV staple and a radio airplay hit,spending 56 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart,with a peak of #4.It's about a man professing his love for a woman.In the song,he tells her he doesn't care about her shady past,as long as she loves him back.The song was a last minute addition to the album,as Clive Calder,then-chairman of Zomba,heard the song and called Jive Records president Barry Weiss,who then contacted the band's manager,Johnny Wright.Due to an error on the part of someone in the production chain,an early mix of "As Long As You Love Me" was included on the re-release 1997 US Backstreet Boys album,but not on Backstreet's Back.The original release of the US debut album had the "LP Version" included.But once the album was re-released,the "Video Version" was included on the album.This allegedly annoyed writer and producer Max Martin.This version subsequently became the version released as a single to radio and video.It has different instrumentation and mixing,as well as a slightly different structure,very similar to their previous US single,"Quit Playin' Games (With My Heart)".The US version is usually listed as the "Radio" or "Video Version",while the international version is typically listed as "Album" or "LP Version".Also,due to illness and the deadline for the song,member A.J.McLean's vocals do not appear on the recorded version of the song.He was taught the background vocals by Brian Littrell at the music video shoot on June 15,1997.
