Backstreet Boys, Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)

In the 96^th edition of Bangerz N Bopz 🔥 (2025), we highlight “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)” performed by Backstreet Boys. 

Bring on the bold, fierce songs! Bangerz N Bopz 🔥 serves up background info and insight into songs of various styles, especially songs that raise eyebrows and/or stir the pot.  Featured records can be classic or brand new. In the 96^th edition of Bangerz N Bopz 🔥 (2025), we break down “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)” performed by Backstreet Boys.

“Quit Playing Games (With My Heart).” 

Those six words from the song, “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)”, put the Backstreet Boys – Brian Littrell, b. 1975, Kevin Richardson, b. 1971, Nick Carter, b. 1980, AJ McLean, b. 1978, and Howie Dorough, b. 1973 – on the map. “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)” is the second track from the boy band’s debut album, Backstreet Boys, released in 1996. Max Martin and Herbert Crichlow penned the track while Martin and Kristian Lundin produced it. “Quit” was a rousing success, peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100.  It spent a whopping 43 weeks on the pop charts.  It was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Associatixon of America.

“Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)” features what would become the quintessential, bubblegum, teen-pop sound of the 1990s and early 2000s.  There is also a hint of R&B infused in the mix.  As for the theme and lyrics, they are cheesy, schmaltzy, and youthful. Depth is not the modus operandi, particularly when referencing teen musicians of the mid-to-late 1990s. Well… only AJ and Nick would’ve been teens upon release… Anyways, Brian Littrell sings the first verse, pre-chorus, and leads the choruses. “Deep within my soul, I feel,” he sings in the first verse, “Nothing’s like it used to be.” Aww 🥰. His little 21-year-old heart asserts in the pre-, “Sometimes, I wish I could turn back time.” Word. Nick Carter sings the second verse and most of the second pre-chorus. He informs us, “Everything I do is for you / So what is it that you can’t see.” That sh*t is deep, man (if boy bands couldn’t curse back then, nor should I 😉). The chorus is the centerpiece:

“Quit playing games with my heart

Quit playing games with my heart (with my heart)

Before you tear us apart (My Heart)

Quit playing games with my heart

I should have known from the start

You know you have got to stop (From my heart)

You’re tearing us apart (My heart)

Quit playing games with my heart.”

Oh, snap! Some other notes regarding this quit song! Nick’s second verse is from the re-recorded version of the song; he was going through puberty and couldn’t sing during the original recording. AJ performs the bridge… Brian and Kevin performed the background vocals. There are no solos for Kevin or Howie D. Ultimately, as schmaltzy as it may be, “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)” is one of the great, pop bops of the 1990s. If I could address my younger self, scared of being labelled gay by other boys because of listening to boy bands (and owning a few posters, too), I’d say, don’t give a flip what others have to say.  They probably thought Nick was cute, too 😂!