Britney Spears record label is – as of this post – RCA Records.

See, she ended up at RCA after her original label, Jive Records, was acquired by RCA.

But get this.

Britney started out at Jive only because everyone else passed on her.

Imagine being that record executive, and having to go to sleep with that blunder haunting your dreams like a lost inheritance…

It just goes to show that often the people that break-thru are the people that never gave up.

AT THE SONY BUILDING, a Philip Johnson–designed postmodernist skyscraper with a distinctive “Chippendale” top, Britney met Epic’s vice president of A& R, Michael Caplan. He was joined by Polly Anthony, a veteran of radio promotion, and several other key Epic personnel. Rudolph, who escorted Britney and her mother to the meeting, had assured Caplan that his client was “the next big thing.” But upon meeting her, the forty-year-old A& R man was unimpressed. “I was expecting a true artiste,” he later told Steve Dennis, “and in walked a shy little girl.” Britney performed a clutch of Whitney Houston songs for the Epic execs. “She came in,” Caplan went on, “warbled ‘I Will Always Love You,’ and I couldn’t wait for it to end. Her complexion wasn’t great, her voice wasn’t great and when the song ended, it was Larry, not Britney, who did all the talking. Seated beside me was Polly—more the pop connoisseur—and I don’t think she was impressed either, so we passed.” He added, “I believe in artistes, I believe in the art within music. Call me old-fashioned but I’m looking for true talent and a hell of a voice. I’m not looking for someone I can reinvent in the age of the celebutante that seems to have transcended the musical artiste.” Noble sentiments—and possibly the worst business decision Caplan ever made. Mercury also passed. That left Jive.

-John Seabrook, The Song Machine