Despite what some may think, Disney
was not Britney's first 'job'. Her first job was shelling crawfish
in her great-grandmother's deli (Granny's Seafood Deli, which she
and her husband Arlie ran for 12 years) in south Louisiana. Mrs.
Pierce died on Dec. 12, 2001 at the age of 86. Britney is pictured
here in the kitchen of Granny's Seafood Deli.
Sadly on 10th of
December, that same year, Britney also suffered the loss of her
grandmother (Ruth Ritchie Ott Varnado Spears). Ruth
passed away at North Oaks Medical Center after loosing a long
battle with cancer. I'm sure this could not have been easy on Britney,
or anyone for that fact.
In 2001, Britney started asserting more control over the songs and styles of her music. On the album entitled 'Britney' she co-wrote five tracks, (Lonely, Anticipating, Cinderella, Let Me Be and That's Where You Take Me). Judging from the titles of the songs she co-wrote, Britney was apparently going through a transitional stage in her career and was crying out, in my opinion, basically saying , 'Leave me alone and let me do my thing - I know what I'm doing.'
There are those that didn't think Britney knew what she was doing and critisized 'Britney' the album saying such things as, 'Britney's latest album is definately not a step forward from her last'; 'The album begs for originality'; 'After hearing these songs, it is clear Britney should stick to singing and stay out of the production circle'. What can I say but, "to each their own, it made it to number one on the US charts and sold 745. 744 copies during the first week alone." In contrast, the lead single, 'I'm a Slave 4 U' only made it to number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 but it still made it the album's biggest hit.
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