McCartney: 'Cowell wants more hits'

Simon Cowell has asked songwriter Jesse McCartney to write more tracks for his artists.

McCartney, who wrote Leona Lewis's hit single 'Bleeding Love' with Ryan Tedder, revealed that Cowell was keen to hook up with him again.

He told the Daily Star: "Simon is really pleased and wants me to continue writing for his artists, so it’s great. Hopefully I can write something else for Leona soon."

Talking about the overwhelming success of the record, he said: "It was a perfect storm. I’m still waiting for the publishing money to come in to see how good it’s really been.

"It’s a blessing and opened a lot of doors in terms of writing for other artists."

On the subject of the song's lyrical inspiration, he added: "I originally wrote it for my own record. I knew it had to be a big pop ballad and I kept thinking about being in love so much that it hurts.

"I was away from my girlfriend for four months at the time and I really wanted to throw in the towel and fly home.

"I was so in love that it was painful. It was like bleeding, it cut me open. That’s how my head was and that idea just really fit the song."