"L.O.V.E." is planned as the second single from Ashlee Simpson's sophomore album, I Am Me. In late October 2005, prior to its release as a single, "L.O.V.E" debuted at #78 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA, becoming Simpson's 5th Hot 100 entry. It has also reached #50 on the Billboard Pop 100. The single has not officially been released to radio, but has charted on the strength of its digital downloads from music stores like iTunes. Like all the tracks on I Am Me, "L.O.V.E." was written by Simpson, Kara DioGuardi, and John Shanks, and produced by Shanks. The song was originally supposed to be the first single off I Am Me, but "Boyfriend" took its place.
| "L.O.V.E." | |
|---|---|
| Song |
In this pop uptempo, Simpson recalls her boyfriend noting that he doesn't answer the telephone, and that she doesn't even know where he goes. Annoyed, but not letting it get the best of her, she calls up her friends, and they proceed to have a party without dealing with men. (The single was also remixed by Missy Elliott.)
On November 21, 2005, she performed the song on The Late Show with David Letterman, and on the November 22 episode of The View she also sang it. Also in November, Simpson filmed the music video for the song, directed by Diane Martel.
The video for "L.O.V.E." premiered on December 7 on AOL's "First View" on the Internet, and on December 8 on Total Request Live (TRL). It features partying and dancing, as Simpson ignores her boyfriend's calls and goes out to have fun. At the beginning of the video, she decides not to answer a call from her boyfriend and tosses her phone into a toliet; at the end of the video, after Simpson is seen returning home from a long night of partying, the phone is shown again, submerged, with 21 missed messages from her boyfriend. Although dancing is the focus of the video, the director, Martel, said she was disappointed that they had not included some things they had initially intended: there was supposed to be a scene where Simpson slashed a guy's shirt off with a samurai sword, and a chainsaw was to be used to cut furniture apart, but "there was a limited amount of time", Martel said. [1]
On December 6, Simpson sang "L.O.V.E." as part of a performance with Pretty Ricky at the Billboard Music Awards.