Delicious Surprise

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. 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.

Personnel
Compiled from liner notes.

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