The world of teen pop thrives on rivalries, real and imagined: David Cassidy vs. ­Donny Osmond, Debbie Gibson vs. Tiffany, Backstreet Boys vs. ’N Sync, Ashley Tisdale vs. Vanessa Hudgens. And so, the late-’90s emergence of not one but two blond, perky Mickey Mouse Club graduates was a perfect storm. Britney Spears struck first with “ … Baby One More Time,” but Christina Aguilera won round one, thanks to a song with a twitchy beat and a dirty-minded double entendre as old as Aladdin.

Aguilera, born in 1980 in Staten Island, New York, won her major-­label contract in 1998 on the strength of a four-track demo. When it came time to record her debut, her A&R man, Ron Fair (whose protégés include the Black Eyed Peas and Pussycat Dolls), was confident that Aguilera’s big, soulful voice would set her apart from the Auto-Tuned breathiness of her peers. But for the lead single, he felt that diva-grade power vocals were less important than a foolproof hook. “She’s a phenomenal singer,” he tells Blender, “but I needed an easier handle for teenagers.”

Fair called songwriter David Frank, an old friend, who had been collaborating with two other veterans, Pam Sheyne and Steve Kipner. The trio had just finished a song Frank thought would be perfect for a budding ­ingénue—Spears’s people, as it happened, had turned it down.

Frank had composed the basic track himself, combining a ­staccato synth riff with a jumpy kick drum. When he played it for Kipner and Sheyne, a snaking melody and come-hither lyrics quickly followed. Tapping an age-old metaphor for pent-up female sexuality, the song is a case study in the art of having it both ways: The 18-year-old singer ­negotiates the conflict between hormonal lust (“My body’s saying, let’s go”) and virginal restraint (“but my heart is saying no”), finally tipping in favor of pleasure with the suggestive come-on, “You gotta rub me the right way.” (In a cute, G-rated twist, “rub” was changed to “treat” for Radio Disney playlists.)

The result, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks, was a crafty, Lolita-pop classic. Aguilera’s debut entered the charts at No. 1, and six months later she beat out Spears for the Best New Artist Grammy. In the decade since, while Spears has spiraled out of her underwear and into tabloid infamy, Aguilera has graduated from her chaps-and-panties phase (2002’s Stripped) to glammed-up soul classiness (2006’s Back to Basics).

Still, Aguilera was never happy with her breakthrough hit. It was Fair’s decision to introduce her to the world with the song, and Aguilera fought him all the way. “I wanted to come out with a first single that showcased more of what I could do vocally,” she later said. She preferred the rough edge of the cult hit “A Stroke of Genius,” which mashed up her “Genie” vocals with the propulsive backing track from the Strokes’ “Hard to Explain.” “That should have been how I came out with it in the first place.”

“She was a very serious kid, and she never felt this song was about singing,” Fair says. “It’s not opera. But it is a great pop song.”

Vital Statistics:
Album Christina Aguilera Label RCA Writers David Frank, Steve Kipner, Pam Sheyne Producers Frank, Kipner Chart debut July 3, 1999 Highest chart position 1