Taylor Swift’s Red debuted at #1

Red Taylor Swift

Released: October 22, 2012 (Original Version) Released: November 12, 2011 (Taylor’s Version) Peak: 17 US, 116, 11 UK, 12 CN, 13 AU Sales (in millions): 7.0 US, 0.6 UK, 8.78 world (includes US and UK) Genre: pop/country

Song Title (Writers) [Time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Tracks (Original Album): State of Grace [4:55] (10/27/12, 13 US, 36 UK, 9 CN, 44 AU) Red [3:43] (10/13/12, 6 US, 2 CW, 26 UK, 5 CN, 30, AU, worldwide sales: 1.44 million) Treacherous (Swift, Dan Wilson) [4:02] (11/10/12, 26 CW, 65 CN) I Knew You Were Trouble (Swift, Max Martin, Shellback) [3:39] (10/8/12, 2 US, 5 AC, 11 A40, 55a CW, 2 UK, 2 CN, 3 AU, worldwide sales: 7.75 million) All Too Well (Swift, Liz Rose) [5:29] (11/10/12, 80 US, 17 CW, 59 CN) 22 (Swift, Martin, Shellback) [3:52] (11/10/12, 20 US, 19 AC, 9 A40, 9 UK, 20 CN, 21 AU, worldwide sales: 2.92 million) I Almost Do [4:04] (11/10/12, 65 US, 13 CW, 50 CN) We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (Swift, Martin, Shellback) [3:13] (8/13/12, 13 US, 10 AC, 7 A40, 110 CW, 4 UK, #14 CN, 3 AU, worldwide sales: 9.1 million) Stay Stay Stay [3:25] (11/10/12, 91 US, 24 CW, 70 CN) The Last Time (Swift, Gary Lightbody, Jacknife Lee) [4:59] (with Gary Lightbody, 11/4/13, 25 UK, 73 CN) Holy Ground [3:22] (11/10/12, 32 CW, 89 CN) Sad Beautiful Tragic [4:44] (11/10/12, 37 CW, 92 CN) The Lucky One [4:00] (11/10/12, 33 CW, 88 CN) Everything Has Changed (Swift, Sheeran) [4:05] (with Ed Sheeran, 11/10/12, 32 US, 11 AC, 8 A40, 7 UK, 28 CN, 28 AU, worldwide sales: 1.07 million) Starlight [3:40] (11/10/12, 28 CW, 80 CN) Begin Again [3:57] (9/25/12, 7 US, 10 CW, 30 UK, 4 CN, 20 AU, US sales: 1 million) Tracks (Deluxe Edition): The Moment I Knew [4:46] Come Back…Be Here (Swift, Wilson) [3:43] (1/26/13, 64 CN) Girl at Home [3:40] (1/26/13, 75 CN) Treacherous (original demo recording) (Swift, Wilson) [4:00] * Red (original demo recording) [3:47] * State of Grace (acoustic version) [5:23] Tracks (Taylor’s Version): Ronan (Swift, Maya Thompson) [4:24] (9/8/12, 16 US, 34 CW) Better Man [4:57] Nothing New (with Phoebe Bridgers) [4:18] Babe (Swift, Patrick Monahan) [3:44] Message in a Bottle (Swift, Martin, Shellback) [3:45] I Bet You Think About Me (with Chris Stapleton) (Swift, Lori McKenna) [4:45] (11/15/21, 22 US, 23a CW, 17 CN, 43 AU) Forever Winter (Swift, Mark Foster) [4:23] Run (with Ed Sheeran) (Swift, Sheeran) [4:00] The Very First Night (Swift, Amund Bjørklund, Espen Lind) [3:20] All Too Well (10 minute version) Swift, Rose [10:13] (11/15/21, 1 US, 1 CW, 3 UK, 1 CN, 1 AU) Songs written by Taylor Swift unless noted otherwise. Songs marked with an asterisk are not on Taylor’s Version. Total Running Time (Original Version): 65:11 Total Running Time (Taylor’s Version): 130:26

Rating: 3.820 out of 5.00 (average of 11 ratings) Quotable: Red establishes “Taylor Swift as perhaps the only genuine cross-platform superstar of her time.” AMG Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Taylor Swift shocked the world with her fourth album, breaking away from country music to make a record that recalled classics by the Beatles and Prince in the way it pulled from across the pop and rock landscape and transformed every sound it touched.” RS’20 Red seeks “to prove Taylor is a genuine superstar, the kind who transcends genre, the kind who can be referred to by a single name.” AMG It certainly accomplished that goal on a commercial level. It was her third consecutive chart-topper, debuting with first-week sales of 1.21 million, making it the fastest-selling album in the US in more than a decade. WK It was also her third consecutive top-selling album of the year WK and received Grammy nominations for Album of the Year and Country Album of the Year. Red barely winks at country, and it’s a better album for it.” AMG It offers “every kind of sound or identity a Swift fan could possibly want.” AMG While the result is “uneven” and runs “just a shade too long as it sprints along in its quest to be everything to everyone,” AMG it establishes “Swift as perhaps the only genuine cross-platform superstar of her time.” AMG Billboard magazine said the album “transcends her country roots for a genre-spanning record” that is “her most interesting full-length to date.” WK Randall Roberts of the Los Angeles Times was impressed by her talent at incorporating different music styles. In Slant magazine, Jonathan Keefe gave the album a mixed review, but acknowledged that Swift “now sounds like the pop star she was destined to be all along.” She used the term “red emotions” to describe the “semi-toxic relationships” she experienced while making the album, hence the title of the album. WK “Tabloid types tied themselves in knots trying to figure out which song was about which ex, but the real news was Swift’s songwriting on high points like the astonishing All Too Well, as vivid a post-breakup remembrance as any artist has ever produced.” RS’20 When Swift re-recorded and re-released the album in 2021, the ten-minute version of the song soared to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 – and gave her yet another #1 country hit. In addition to exporing her “signature themes of love and heartbreak” WK she explores “fame and the pressure of being in the limelight.” WK She told MTV News “each song stands on its own. It’s this patchwork quilt of different sounds and different emotions.” WK Billboard magazine noted that “Red will likely be remembered for its sonic risks.” WK This includes the dance-pop lead single We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together with its “stomping, swaying electro twang.” RS’20 The song became Swift’s first chart-topper on the Billboard Hot 100. Also of note are the title cut, which “the title track was a swirl of banjos, dusty guitars, and talk-box elation,” RS’20 and I Know You Were Trouble. The latter, with its “dubstep groove,” RS’20 was released as an official single and became her eleventh song to debut in the top 10. “Back Together” was nominated for a Grammy for Record of the Year while Begin Again also received a Grammy nod – for Best Country Song. It was released as the official second single, debuting in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100. It was also serviced to country radio, becoming her seventeenth consecutive top 10 on the Billboard country songs chart. WK 22 was the album’s official fourth single. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of All Music Guide called it a “ludicrous club-filler,” AMG pointing it out as one of the songs contributing to the album’s uneven buffet nature. In noting the variety of the album’s material, he also cited the “shimmering melancholy reminiscent of Mazzy Star” AMG on Sad Beautiful Tragic), the “chilly new wave pulse” AMG of The Lucky One and “the unabashed arena rock fanfare of State of Grace.” AMG “Although she can still seem a little gangly in her lyrical details – her relationship songs are too on the nose and she has an odd obsession about her perceived persecution by the cool kids – these details hardly undermine the pristine pop confections surrounding them. If anything, these ungainly, awkward phrasings humanizes this mammoth pop monolith: she’s constructed something so precise its success seems preordained, but underneath it all, Taylor is still twitchy, which makes Red not just catchy but compelling.” AMG Notes: A deluxe edition, which was released in January 2013, added bonus tracks. In 2021, Swift re-recorded the album with even more songs. See track listings above for full details.

Resources and Related Links: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Taylor Swift AMG All Music Guide RS’20 Rolling Stone (9/22/2020). “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” WK Wikipedia page for original version TV Wikipedia page for Taylor’s version Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/4/2019; last updated 4/21/2022.