Irresistible (Jessica Simpson Album) - Development

Development

Simpson started working on the album in mid-July 2000. While compiling songs for Sweet Kisses, she had expressed inconvenience when a track's lyrics were too suggestive or delivered a message she did not agree with and thus asked for its modification. However, for Irresistible, she decided to let Tommy Mottola, the CEO of Columbia, take control of the whole project. He enlisted many established composers and producers for the album, hand-picked each song for the track list, and rejected those he felt were not so good. Although she had previously announced that she would write a few songs for her second album, Simpson does not share songwriting credits on any of the tracks. On being asked why, she said that she was very shy when it came to songwriting and felt that it requires a lot of "bravery" to write songs. She also expressed that she could not find the right words for the songs and hence did not write for the record. According to Simpson, the album did not have a definite concept or theme; Mottola selected songs which they felt were good enough for Simpson and compiled them into an album.

Described as being very sexy and more grown up by Simpson, the opening title track was written by the Swedish duo Anders Bagge and Arnthor Birgisson, in collaboration with English singer-songwriter Pamela Sheyne. Birgisson told music technology magazine Sound on Sound that they started developing the song after Sheyne proposed the title and concept. Bagge and Birgisson developed the melody and completed the song's lyrics. Sheyne also sings backing vocals in the song. "A Little Bit" was written by Kara DioGuardi, along with Steve Morales and David Siegal. Although she had the written songs for other artists including Kylie Minogue and Martine McCutcheon, the song became DioGuardi's first writing credit for an artist from her native country. Simpson said that "the message behind the song is for the guys to listen to the girl." The next track, "Forever In Your Eyes", was co-written by Lachey, along with Rhett Lawrence.

Walter Afanasieff, long-time Mariah Carey collaborator, worked with Simpson on three cuts from Irresistible. One of the songs, "When You Told Me You Loved Me", was written by Afanasieff in collaboration with Billy Mann. In an interview with Allpop, Simpson named the song as one of her favorites and said, "I really base that on a situation of a friend of mine whose parents are divorced. I like the emotion behind that song." Cory Rooney wrote "Hot Like Fire" solely, which Simpson described as "certainly not kid stuff", a song "with a lot of attitude." Louis Biancaniello and Sam Watters were also brought in to write and produce songs for the album. One of the cuts, "For Your Love", according to Simpson, is reminiscent of "I Wanna Love You Forever" (1999). Simpson covered the gospel hymn "His Eye is on the Sparrow" as the last song of the album. She said, "I wanted to give my audience a piece of my heart and soul. The message is there's so much in life that can get you discouraged, but if you trust that you're being watched over, you have a reason to live and a sense of freedom. It's different for everyone, but for me, my relationship with God is the way I clear out the shadows that hang in our lives."