Tim: So here’s something fun: semi-notable Swede Lisa Miskovsky recorded this and put it on her 2008 Greatest Hits album.
Tom: Good grief, I can’t tell whether that introduction’s a compliment or an insult. Anyway, yes, off the Greatest Hits album.
Tim: Indeed, but does it remind you of anything?
Tom: Not off the top of my head. Why – what’ve you got stuck on?
Tim: Oh, not stuck on at all, but check out the title, the lines “Hold me now don’t bother, if every minute it makes me weaker” and then have a listen to this particular Backstreet Boys track. Go on, I’ll wait.
Tom: I haven’t heard that song in years! I’d completely forgotten it. So, what, an odd cover version?
Tim: No, far more interesting actually: Lisa Miskovsky, primarily known for her singing of several lovely songs, especially this one, did a bit of writing back in the day, and came up with the main structure for Shape Of My Heart. She got in touch with Max Martin and Rami Yacoub, who said something along the lines of “ooh, that’s nice, we’ll have a go with that,” then fiddled around with it, and a few months later, the Backstreet Boys have what’s destined to be one of their biggest hits.
Another eight years later, though, our Lisa thinks, “actually, they changed that a LOT, let’s see what I can do with it,” and so we have this, a pleasing behind the scenes insight into the world of songwriting. Fun, no?
Tom: And you know what, I reckon this track’s better than the Backstreet Boys version.
Tim: You know, in a lot of corners of the internet, that’d get you in serious trouble; here, though? You’re not far wrong, and not least because of the chorus line that sounds like the main line of Labrinth’s Read All About It and has lyrics to ‘phasers around us,’ which sounds very exciting.