Sweet Kisses - Background

Background

Simpson first developed and nurtured her talent in her local Baptist church, where her father also worked as the congregation's youth minister. At age twelve, she unsuccessfully auditioned for The Mickey Mouse Club. While attending a church camp, at the age of 13, Simpson sang Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" and an arrangement of "Amazing Grace". One of the camp's visitors was launching a Gospel music record label and saw great promise and profits in her voice. It was during this time, while attending J. J. Pearce High School, Simpson signed to Proclaim Records, a minor Gospel music record label. She recorded an album, Jessica, but Proclaim went bankrupt and the album was never officially released except for a small pressing funded by her grandmother. This small pressing gained her minor attention which led her to performing at concerts with other gospel legendary acts such as Kirk Franklin, God's Property, and CeCe Winans. When she was sixteen years old, Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola heard Jessica, he was impressed with Simpson’s musical talent and skill. Mottola instantly thought Simpson sounded like Mariah Carey. Simpson was immediately signed to the label. She dropped out of high school but later earned her GED.

Due to the mainstream success of teen pop artist Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, the label felt Simpson's debut album would perform just as well, if not better than Spears' and Aguilera's. Simpson immediately began working with producers such as Louis Biancaniello, Robbie Nevil, Evan Rogers, and Cory Rooney. Biancaniello worked with Simpson on three of the albums eleven tracks, including "I Wanna Love You Forever", "Where You Are", and "Heart of Innocence". She also worked with Cory Rooney, who had previously worked with the likes of Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez, among others. Rooney produced the track "I Think I'm in Love with You", which was later released as the album's third single. He also co-wrote the song, along with John Mellencamp, and Dan Shea. Simpson also met up with her then-boyfriend Nick Lachey, who already had a growing fanbase due to his work with boy-band 98 Degrees. Together, the couple recorded a duet, titled "Where You Are", which later became the album's second single. She also worked with Destiny's Child, who had already released two largely successful albums, with their previous album, The Writing's on the Wall, being certified 8x Platinum by the RIAA.

Simpson also collaborated with Sam Watters for the album. Watters produced the singles "I Wanna Love You Forever" and "Where You Are", as well as "Heart of Innocence". Watters also co-wrote the track "I Wanna Love You Forever", along with Louis Biancaniello. Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers also produced the tracks "I've Got My Eyes On You" and "Betcha She Don't Love You" together, though neither tracks were released as singles. Simpson's label wanted 'Sweet Kisses' to be different than that of Aguilera's and Spears' debut albums, in that they were sexually risque, especially the lead singles from both albums. For 'Sweet Kisses', the label decided they wanted Simpson to be the "anti-sex appeal", to which Simpson would sing about love and romance rather than sexual themes. Simpson "virgin" image was though as a great idea by the label, who felt that it would draw in listeners by making a girl whom they could relate to. Simpson also announced in an interview that should would be abstinent until marriage, which helped listeners give her the appearance the label was hoping for. Her "non-sexual" image was also carried over to her music videos, which featured simple themes, such as the "I Wanna Love You Forever" video, which consist of Simpson in a simple photo shoot.