IfJustifiedwas TimberlakesOff the Wall, it wasFutureSex/LoveSoundsthat would be hisThriller.
Released on Sept. 12, 2006, the record sold 9.2 million copies worldwide and became Timberlakes first No.
That was the only MO.
Credit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage
Does it excite you in that way?
Danja just happened to have that little feeling.
DOUGLASS:Justin was like, Maybe Ill bring something back!
Maybe Ill bring sexy back!
Thats literally how it went down.
We went about writing little ideas about club vibes.
We were just changing rhythms and finding melodies that [felt] timeless when we played them.
Justin, being the genius he is, said, Lets call it SexyBack.'
If you listen to the song, youll realize SexyBack happens [three] times in the song.
If you called the song Go Head Be Gone With It, people would have missed the whole point.
DANJA, Co-writer and Producer:Justin was singing in a way we never heard him sing.
I remember that opening line.
From conception it stuck.
One of the most important things about SexyBack is the silence between [the notes].
I think really good dance music that I hear now captures that as well.
They were just dancing around like crazy people, Justin and Timbaland and the entourage.
DANJA:I remember Cristal champagne.
I had my glass, like, Buddy up!
Tim had a chef there [in the studio].
I remember this lasagna he made and these frozen mojitos.
It was almost like cotton candy.
It was so sweet and good.
TIMBERLAKE:Thats the reason I had to go to the gym in the mornings.
I wasnt able to resist Tims chefs food!
Im a stubborn mule.
But when we started playing SexyBack for the people around usyoung peopleit just felt different to me.
DOUGLASS:We felt really amazed when he released that instead of My Love as the first single.
Half the people were like, Eh.
And the other half were like, This is huge!
Justin was coming off of Cry Me a River and Rock Your Body, which were first-listen smashes.
He was really riding in a fiery chariot at that time of his career.
He could have put out a song that was iffy and it would have become a hit.
But this was not an iffy song.
It made people talk, like, What does SexyBack mean, or Where did sexy go?
People analyzed the lyrics like art on the wall.
DOUGLASS:Dance music wasnt anywhere in sight in 2006.
EDM was an underground thing.
We thought, We scored [a song] that might even change the sound of radio.
Suddenly, there was more real dance music on the radio.
TIMBERLAKE:I didnt feel like it was a risk when we were making it.
We really did want to make a statement at that time and do something just a little more bold.
SexyBack debuted at No.
90 on theBillboardHot 100.
But it soon rose to No.
1 and spent seven weeks at the top of the charts.
DURAN:We premiered it.
I think we played it every hour that day.
By the second or third time we played it, people were requesting it.
The radio industry tends to play songs until they burn.
We burned the hell out of that one!
SexyBack had that bang out of statement.
DURAN:Obviously it was selling very well.
It received so much attention that we kept it in rotation for a very long time.
Summer songs are different than other seasons.
They have a whole other impact.
It was probably one of the biggest songs of that yearif not the biggest song of the year.
Before SexyBack dominated the airwaves, Timberlake headed to Barcelona with director Michael Haussman to film the music video.
Timberlake and Spanish actress Elena Anaya costarred as rival spies who become romantically entangled.
The video debuted on July 25, 2006, and was then put into rotation on MTV.
You look at the video and you have two parallel story lines: two spies spying on each other.
I thought the song was retroyet done new.
ELENA ANAYA, Costar:When we moved [into] the interior locations, Justin started dancing.
But he has an energy that pulls everyones energy up.
HAUSSMAN:It was like this family atmosphere [on set].
He was with Cameron Diaz at the time.
He and Cameron and his choreographer Marty [Kudelka] were all involved in some elaborate practical jokes.
But they never pranked me!
ANAYA:Youd have to call Justin Michael Angel, for security reasons.
Everyone would say, Okay, were going to shoot Michael Angel.
So [when we were together], he would say, Hi, Im Michael Angel.
Nice to meet you.
This is 10 years later.
I cant think of many songs that could stand up and succeed in that test of time.
TIMBERLAKE:I feel like what we did is rock & roll.
We wanted it to grab you by the throat.
