Songfacts®:

• This was produced by Jermaine Dupri whose contributions to Carey's 2005 album The Emancipation of Mimi helped revitalize the New Yorker's career. Carey said of the producer: "I love Jermaine Dupri as a person and I love him as a fan, I'm a fan of his work. One of the funny things about Jermaine is when I say something to him, he just runs with it. I said on the beginning of 'Love Story' - I really want this beat to be hard, like do not make this too soft. I wanna stay true to what I love most which is Urban music and R&B music, and I feel it's the same thing that JD loves, and so basically, Jermaine did his ad-libs on the beginning of 'Love Story' before we mixed it, and he said 'MC said 'JD you gotta make it knock!'' right? and then he waits a few beats and goes 'You hear that?' So basically, what I asked him was 'make it really hard', like it's almost like a rap record, but it's a ballad, and I think that's where our success comes from because we understand each other on that level and because we grew up on the same type of music."
• This is featured on Carey's 11th studio album, E=MC2, the sequel to The Emancipation Of Mimi. The album debuted at #1 in the US with first-week sales of 463,000 copies - the most successful opening week of her career.