Delicious Surprise

2005 studio album by Jo Dee Messina

Delicious Surprise

Studio album by

Jo Dee Messina

Released

April 26, 2005 (2005-04-26)

Recorded

2001–2005^[1]

Genre

Country

Length

43:58

Label

Curb

Producer

Mark Bright
Byron Gallimore
Tim McGraw
Jo Dee Messina

Jo Dee Messina chronology

Greatest Hits
(2003)

Delicious Surprise
(2005)

Unmistakable: Love
(2010)

Singles from Delicious Surprise

"My Give a Damn's Busted"
Released: January 3, 2005
"Delicious Surprise (I Believe It)"
Released: June 20, 2005
"Not Going Down"
Released: December 5, 2005
"It's Too Late to Worry"
Released: July 10, 2006

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	^[2]
Rolling Stone	^[3]

Delicious Surprise is the fifth studio album by American country music artist Jo Dee Messina, released on April 26, 2005 via Curb Records. Her first non-Christmas album since Burn (2000), the album was recorded following the release of her first greatest hits collection in 2003. Delicious Surprise is Messina's first album in which she is credited as a producer. Messina also had a bigger hand in the writing of the album, co-writing three songs and solely writing another song.

The album became her third number one on the Top Country Albums chart and her first top ten album on the all-genre Billboard 200, peaking at number seven. The lead single, "My Give a Damn's Busted", became one of her most successful singles to date, topping the Hot Country Songs chart for two weeks. Follow-up singles "Delicious Surprise (I Believe It)", "Not Going Down", and "It's Too Late to Worry", although less successful, all peaked within the top-forty. The album has been certified Gold by the RIAA.

Following this album, Messina wouldn't release another commercially released album until 2014, with her sixth studio album Me. The singer had attempted a follow up to Delicious Surprise titled Unmistakable. Although a few singles were released from the recording sessions, Messina's label constantly delayed the album and it would end up being scrapped and divided into three EPs, with Unmistakable: Love charting on Billboard charts. This would be the last project Messina released for Curb Records before leaving the label in early 2012 to go independent.

Commercial performance

Delicious Surprise debuted on the Top Country Albums on May 14, 2005 at number one, selling 99,000 copies in its first week.^[4] Coincidentally, Delicious Surprise went number one on the country charts the same week "My Give a Damn's Busted" rose to the top of the Hot Country Songs chart. The album gave Messina the best first-sales week of her career. The album also managed to debut at number seven on the Billboard 200, surpassing the number-14 peak set by her 2003 Greatest Hits collection to becoming her highest-charting album on that chart. However, the album quickly fell from its peak positions on both charts due to the poor success of the following singles. Delicious Surprise only spent 40 weeks on Top Country Albums and 16 weeks on the Billboard 200.

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Not Going Down"	Kevin Savigar Shaunn Bolton	3:16
2.	"Someone Else's Life"	Danny Wells John Bettis Chris Farren	3:27
3.	"Delicious Surprise (I Believe It)"	Beth Hart Glen Burtnik	3:48
4.	"It Gets Better"	Jo Dee Messina	4:32
5.	"Who's Crying Now"	Patrick Jason Matthews George Teren	3:29
6.	"My Give a Damn's Busted"	Joe Diffie Tom Shapiro Tony Martin	3:18
7.	"It's Too Late to Worry"	Wells Ron Harbin Anthony L. Smith	3:55
8.	"Life Is Good"	Messina Mark Selby	3:12
9.	"Love Is Not Enough"	Messina Mike Reid	3:55
10.	"Where Were You"	Messina John Bettis Wayne Kirkpatrick	3:31
11.	"I Wear My Life"	Shaye Smith Katrina Elam Christi Dannemiller	4:08
12.	"You Were Just Here"	Brett James Troy Verges Hillary Lindsey	3:27
Total length:			43:58

Personnel

Compiled from liner notes.^[5]

Musicians

Larry Beaird – acoustic guitar
Mark Beckett – drums
Bekka Bramlett – tambo drums, tambourine, background vocals
Mike Brignardello – bass guitar
Pat Buchanan – electric guitar
Tom Bukovac – electric guitar
Lisa Cochran – background vocals
Dan Dugmore – steel guitar
Stuart Duncan – fiddle, mandolin
Shannon Forrest – drums, percussion
Larry Franklin – mandolin
Paul Franklin – steel guitar, slide guitar, Dobro
Kevin "Swine" Grantt – bass guitar
Kenny Greenberg – electric guitar
Aubrey Haynie – fiddle, mandolin
Wes Hightower – background vocals
Troy Lancaster – electric guitar
Michael Landau – electric guitar
B. James Lowry – acoustic guitar
Brent Mason – electric guitar, acoustic guitar
Jo Dee Messina – lead vocals
Gene Miller – tambo drums, background vocals
Steve Nathan – piano, synthesizer, synthesizer strings, organ, Wurlitzer electric piano
Jimmy Nichols – keyboards, organ, accordion, piano
Russ Pahl – steel guitar, banjo, electric guitar, Dobro
Kim Parent – background vocals
Javier Solis – tambo drums
Bryan Sutton – acoustic guitar
Russell Terrell – background vocals
Lonnie Wilson – drums
Glenn Worf – bass guitar
Jonathan Yudkin – fiddle

Production

Tracks 1, 3, 9: Byron Gallimore and Tim McGraw
Tracks 4-6, 8, 11: Byron Gallimore and Jo Dee Messina
Track 2, 7, 10, 12: Mark Bright and Jo Dee Messina

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Chart (2005)	Peak position
US Billboard 200^[6]	7
US Top Country Albums (Billboard)^[7]	1

Year-end charts

Chart (2005)	Position
US Billboard 200^[8]	198
US Top Country Albums (Billboard)^[9]	31

Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions
Year	Single	US Country	US	CAN Country
2005	"My Give a Damn's Busted"	1	63	1
	"Delicious Surprise (I Believe It)"	23	–	24
	"Not Going Down"	28	–	–
2006	"It's Too Late to Worry"	34	–	–

References

^ "This Time It's Personal: Jo Dee Messina's new record reflects on rocky times". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. April 15, 2005. p. W-27. Retrieved June 13, 2024.
^ Delicious Surprise at AllMusic
^ Rollingstone
^ "Over the Counter" (PDF). Billboard. May 14, 2005. p. 49.
^ Delicious Surprise (CD liner notes). Jo Dee Messina. Curb Records. 2005. 78770.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^ "Jo Dee Messina Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
^ "Jo Dee Messina Chart History (Top Country Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
^ "Top Billboard 200 Albums – Year-End 2005". Billboard. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
^ "Top Country Albums – Year-End 2005". Billboard. Retrieved August 24, 2020.