Simon Cowell Almost Stole Away Britney’s Breakout Hit

Before he was fulfilling the dreams of a generation of pop wannabes on ‘Pop Idol’ and ‘American Idol’, Simon Cowell was making and breaking careers. In today’s edition of The Mirror, the 43-year-old music boss talked candidly about the stars he made as well as those that got away. Cowell spoke of the song that slipped away only to launch the huge career of Britney Spears saying, “When I heard ‘Baby One More Time’ as a demo, I offered the songwriter a £65,000 Mercedes if he would give me that song. I would have recorded it with Five and it would have changed their career, but Britney got it and look what it did for her.”