Simon Cowell Says He Tried to Bribe Max Martin to Give Britney Spears' 'Baby One More Time' to Him

Steve Granitz/WireImage; Lester Cohen/WireImage Simon Cowell, Britney Spears and Max Martin

If Simon Cowell got his way, Britney Spears never would've released "...Baby One More Time."

In a new interview on his fellow America's Got Talent judge Howie Mandel's podcast Howie Mandel Does Stuff, Cowell recalled attempting to bribe Swedish producer Max Martin with a luxury Mercedes-Benz car in order to get "...Baby One More Time" — which would later go to Spears — for one of his own acts to record.

The English television personality and record executive, 62, explained that he got the chance to listen to "...Baby One More Time" and a flurry of other would-be hit singles produced by Martin, 51, before they were released. At the time, Cowell was working with a boy band called 5ive that was on the brink of finding success in the United States, and a music industry contact told him about the song, which was then meant for TLC — but the girl group rejected it.

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"The guy plays it down the phone to me, this song 'Hit Me Baby One More Time.' I'm like, 'My God, I've got to have this song,'" recalled Cowell. "So I phoned up Max, and I said, 'Max. Please, please give me this song.' And he went, 'No, I've promised it to someone else.' And I said, 'Well, I'll send you a Mercedes – literally a Mercedes 500 SL if I can have this song.'"

Martin turned down the offer and informed Cowell that a brand-new, yet-to-debut artist was already slated to record the song. The X Factor creator detailed, "I went, 'Who?' And he went, 'Britney Spears.' I went, 'Max, let me give you some advice. No one is going to have a hit with a name called Britney Spears."

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Cowell then acknowledged Martin — who's also responsible for hits by Katy Perry, Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift, among others — for his honorability in keeping a promise to give the song to Spears, 40, as the producer made the right decision. Shortly following the release of "...Baby One More Time" in 1998, the single reached No. 1 in over 22 countries, earned a Grammy nomination and launched Spears' pop music career, which has remained successful through today.

"I missed out on that, but that's sort of how we met and became friends," Cowell told Mandel, 66, of Martin.

Of course, Cowell's gone on to achieve major successes of his own as a judge on Pop Idol and American Idol as well as multiple versions of his own X Factor and Got Talent franchises. Through the talent competition shows, he's helped launch the careers of Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Little Mix, Fifth Harmony, Susan Boyle and One Direction.