 In June 1997 , Spears was in talks with manager Lou Pearlman to join female pop group Innosense . Lynne asked family friend and entertainment lawyer Larry Rudolph for his opinion and submitted a tape of Spears singing over a Whitney Houston karaoke song along with some pictures . Rudolph decided to pitch her to record labels , which required a professional demo . He sent Spears an unused song from Toni Braxton ; she rehearsed for a week and recorded in a studio with a sound engineer . Spears traveled to New York with the demo and met executives from four labels , returning to Kentwood the same day . Three rejected her , arguing audiences wanted pop bands such as the Backstreet Boys and the Spice Girls , and " there wasn 't going to be another Madonna , another Debbie Gibson or another Tiffany . " Two weeks later , executives from JIVE Records returned calls to Rudolph . Senior vice president of A & R Jeff Fenster stated , " It 's very rare to hear someone that age who can deliver emotional content and commercial appeal . [ ... ] For any artist , the motivation — the ' eye of the tiger ' — is extremely important . And Britney had that . " They appointed her to work with producer Eric Foster White for a month , who reportedly shaped her voice from " lower and less poppy " delivery to " distinctively , unmistakably Britney . " Spears recorded ten songs with White , including " Autumn Goodbye " , " E @-@ Mail My Heart " , " From the Bottom of My Broken Heart " , " I 'm So Curious " , " I Will Still Love You " , " Luv The Hurt Away " , " Soda Pop " , " Thinkin ' About You " , and " You Got It All " . The singer also recorded a cover of Sonny & Cher 's 1967 single " The Beat Goes On " . White was responsible for the vocal recording and song production , while additional production was done by English electronic music group All Seeing I. 
