Taylor Swift: The #1’s

Taylor Swift The #1’s: 2006-2023

Overview: Singer born Taylor Alison Swift on 12/13/1989 in Reading, Pennyslvania. She released her first album in 2006 while still a teenager. She started out as a country artist but completely transformed to a pop star by 2014 with her 1989 album. She has spent more weeks atop the Billboard album chart (54) than any other woman in history. She has sold more than 200 million records worldwide and won three Grammys for Album of the Year. On the Web: TaylorSwift.com (official site) Facebook Wikipedia Lists: Taylor Swift: Top 100 Songs

Awards:

The Studio Albums: Hover over an album cover to see its title and year of release. Click on the album to go to its dedicated DMDB page. Compilations: While Swift has released multiple editions of her studio albums and even re-recorded versions of some of them, she has yet to release a proper career retrospective. This page offers a glimpse of each of her studio albums, highlighting those songs which have reached #1 on various charts, thus offering a sampling of what songs would be most likely to appear on a very overdue compilation. Dates indicate the songs first appearance at #1 on any of the noted charts. Click for codes to singles charts.

Taylor Swift (2006): Swift’s self-titled debut was released when she was sixteen years old. The album gave her five top-10 country hits, two of which went to #1. All five of those songs also reached the Billboard top 40. The album spent 24 weeks atop the country album chart and reached #5 on the overall Billboard album chart. It was certified as 7x platinum. 12/22/2007: “Our Song” (CW: 6) 8/23/2008: “Should’ve Said Now” (CW: 2) Fearless (2008): Like its predecessor, Swift’s second album gave her five top-10 country hits, two of which reached #1. However, this album made her a bona fide pop star, giving her five top-10 pop hits and winning the Grammy for Album of the Year. In addition, the two songs listed here rank amongst the DMDB’s top 1000 of all time. The album spent 11 weeks at #1 on the overall Billboard album chart and 35 weeks atop the country chart. It was certified for 10 million in sales in the United States. 11/22/2008: “Love Story” (CW: 2, AC: 6, RR: 1, AU: 2) 8/22/2009: “You Belong with Me” (BA: 2, CW: 2, AC: 14, RR: 1) Valentine’s Day (soundtrack, 2010): 2/6/2010: “Today Was a Fairytale” (DG: 1, CN: 1) Speak Now (2010): Once again, Swift kept one foot in pop and the other in country, spending 6 and 13 weeks atop those respective album charts. It was certified for 6 million in sales in the U.S. The album gave her five more top-10 country hits and four more top-10 pop hits. 8/21/2010: “Mine” (DG: 1, AC: 1) 10/30/2010: “Back to December” (DG: 1) 11/26/2011: “Sparks Fly” (CW: 1) 3/31/2012: “Ours” (CW: 1) Red (2012): Swift’s farewell to country saw her spend 16 weeks at #1 on the country album chart and 7 on the pop chart. It landed 7 million in sales in the United States. She got three more top-10 country hits and four top-10 pop hits, including her first pop chart-topper, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” 9/1/2012: “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” (BB: 3, DG: 5, CW: 10, CN: 4) 10/13/2012: “Begin Again” (DG: 1) 10/27/2012: “I Knew You Were Trouble” (BA: 4, DG: 3, RR: 6, A40: 1) 1989 (2014): Swift’s full-fledged pop coronation made her a superstar. She racked up three #1 pop hits and two more top-10’s. “Shake It Off” and “Blank Space” rank in the DMDB’s top 1000 of all time. The album logged 11 weeks atop the Billboard album chart. At more than 12 million sales worldwide, it is her biggest seller to date. It also garnered her a second Album of the Year Grammy. 9/6/2014: “Shake It Off” (BB: 4, BA: 4, DG: 4, ST: 2, RR: 2, AC: 5, A40: 8, CN: 4, AU: 3) 11/1/2014: “Out of the Woods” (DG: 1) 11/15/2014: “Blank Space” (BB: 7, BA: 6, DG: 7, ST: 7, RR: 5, AC: 4, A40: 6, CN: 6, AU: 3) 3/15/2015: “Style” (RR: 3, AC: 2, A40: 2) 6/6/2015: “Bad Blood” (with Kendrick Lamar, BB: 1, BA: 5, DG: 5, RR: 6, A40: 3, CN: 1, AU: 3) 10/25/2015: “Wildest Dreams” (BA: 2, RR: 2, A40: 4) Fifty Shades Darker (soundtrack, 2017): 12/31/2016: “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” (with Zayn, DG: 2) Reputation (2017): This one spent four weeks at #1 on the album chart and sold more than 4.5 million worldwide. It gave Swift another Billboard Hot 100 chart topper with “Look What You Made Me Do” and a top-5 hit with “Ready for It?” Three more songs reached the top 20. 9/16/2017: “Look What You Made Me Do” (BB: 3, DG: 1, ST: 2, RR: 1, UK: 2, CN: 3, AU: 2) 9/23/2017: “Ready for It?” (DG: 1) 11/11/2017: “Gorgeous” (DG: 1) 11/25/2017: “Call It What You Want” (DG: 1) 7/22/2018: “Delicate” (RR: 1, AC; 10, A40: 4) Lover (2019): Swift’s sixth consecutive chart-topper only spent one week atop the Billboard album chart but matched the 4.5+ million in sales of its predecessor. Swift barely missed the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking in the runner-up spot with “Me!” and “You Need to Calm Down.” The title cut was also a top-10 hit. The most interesting story, however, belongs to “Cruel Summer.” The fan favorite essentially served as the opening song on Swift’s record-breaking Eras tour and finally got its chart due, going all the way to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 nearly five years after its initial release. 5/11/2019: “Me!” (with Brendon Urie, DG: 1) 6/29/2019: “You Need to Calm Down” (DG: 1) 8/31/2019: “Lover” (DG: 2) 7/31/2023: “Cruel Summer” (BB: 1, RR: 2) Miss Americana (documentary, 2020): 2/15/2020: “Only the Young” (DG: 1) Folklore (2020): For her eighth album, Swift racked up another eight weeks at #1 on the Billboard album chart, but saw a drop-off in sales. It still sold 2 million worldwide. “Cardigan” gave Swift another #1 hit and “Exile” and “The 1” reached the top 10. The album was her third to win the Grammy for Album of the Year. 8/8/2020: “Cardigan” (BB: 1, DG: 1, ST: 1) Evermore (2020): Swift’s ninth studio release gave her another 3 weeks atop the Billboard album chart. This was her first album to fail to sell a million copies. “Willow” became Swift’s seventh song to reach the pinnacle of the Billboard Hot 100. 12/26/2020: “Willow” (BB: 1, DG: 1, A40: 3) Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (2021): 2/27/2021: “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” (DG: 1) Red (Taylor’s Version) (2021): 11/15/2021: “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” (BB: 1, DG: 1, ST: 1, CW: 3, CN: 1, AU: 1) Midnights (2023): Swift made history with her Midnights album when she locked down the entire top ten slots on the Billboard Hot 100. The album’s lead single, “Anti-Hero,” became her biggest #1 on the chart, spending eight weeks on top. 11/5/2022: “Anti-Hero” (BB: 8, BA: 5, DG: 5, ST: 2, RR: 3, A40: 7, UK: 6, CN: 5, AU: 6) 11/5/2022: “Question…?” (DG: 1) 6/10/2023: “Hits Different” (DG: 1) 7/10/2023: “Karma” (RR: 2)

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Taylor Swift First posted 11/16/2021; last updated 10/24/2023.

Taylor Swift hit #1 with Speak Now

Speak Now Taylor Swift

Released: October 25, 2010 Charted: November 13, 2010 Peak: 16 US, 113 CW, 6 UK, 12 CN, 11 AU Sales (in millions): 6.0 US, 0.3 UK, 6.85 world (includes US and UK) Genre: pop/country

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Mine [3:50] (8/21/10, 3 US, 30 UK, 7 CW, 1 AC, 7 AA, sales: 1.0 m) Sparks Fly [4:20] (11/13/10, 17 US, 1 CW) Back to December [4:53] (10/30/10, 6 US, 15 AC, 11 AA, sales: 1.03 m) Speak Now [4:00] (10/23/10, 8 US, 60 CW) Dear John [6:43] (11/13/10, 54 US) Mean [3:57] (11/6/10, 11 US, 1 CW, sales: 0.5 m) The Story of Us [4:25] (11/13/10, 41 US, 27 AC, 31 AA) Never Grow Up [4:50] (11/13/10, 84 US) Enchanted [5:53] (11/13/10, 75 US) Better Than Revenge [3:37] (11/13/10, 56 US) Innocent [5:02] (11/13/10, 27 US) Haunted [4:02] (11/13/10, 63 US) Last Kiss [6:07] (11/13/10, 71 US) Long Live [5:17] (11/13/10, 85 US) All songs written by Taylor Swift. Deluxe Edition – Disc 2: Ours [3:58] (11/26/11, 13 US) If This Was a Movie [3:54] (11/26/10, 10 US) Superman [4:36] (11/26/11, 26 US) Back to December (acoustic) [4:52] Haunted (acoustic) [3:37] Mine (pop mix) [3:50] Video: On the Set – Behind the Scenes of “Mine” Music Video [30:21] Video: Mine [3:55] Total Running Time: 67:29

Rating: 3.965 out of 5.00 (average of 33 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Taylor Swift’s third album had big shoes to fill as a follow-up to her huge-selling, Grammy-winning Fearless. She delivered with an album that debuted with more than a million in sales in its first week even as industry experts were saying no one would ever pull off a million-selling week again. It hadn’t been done for five years. It was the second-biggest debut ever for a country album. WK The album also pulled off the remarkable feat of landing all fourteen of its songs on the Billboard Hot 100, the only artist in history to do so. WK It made her the third artist in history to have more than ten hits on the Hot 100 simultaneously. WK When a deluxe edition of the album was released a year later with three new songs, those charted as well, giving her an album with seventeen Hot 100 charters! The album accomplished award attention as well, landing the American Music Award for Country Album of the Year. It also picked up a nod from the Country Music Association as Album of the Year and got a Grammy nod for Country Album of the Year. The album received largely positive critical attention as well. Sputnikmusic’s Rudy Klapper called it “the best pop record of the year.” WK Many of the commentaries focused on Swift’s talent for maintaining her youthfulness but also allowing for adulthood to seap into her lyrics. USA Today’s Elysa Gardner said the album “captures the sweet ache of becoming an adult, as only those who are still in the process can articulate.” WK Dave Heaton of PopMatters.com noted “a richer array of narratives” WK on the album while Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone commended Swift for “slipping more grown-up details into her love stories.” WK When comparing Speak Now to its predecessor, “Swift seemed like a genuine girl on Fearless, perhaps treating her songs a little too much like diaries, but that only made them more affecting. If anything, Swift ramps up the confessions on her 2010 sequel, Speak Now, but circumstances have changed: few listeners, if any, would have a clue about the identity of the boy who belongs with Taylor, but now that she’s a superstar, anybody with a passing familiarity with pop culture can discern which songs are about Kanye, Taylor Lautner (her ex), or Camilla Belle (the actress girl who stole Joe Jonas out from under our heroine).” STE Of course, Swift doesn’t make any real effort “to disguise who she’s writing about – not when she’s writing Dear John, an elegant evisceration of lecherous lothario John Mayer.” STE “Such gossip mongering is titillating but fleeting, suggesting that the charms of Speak Now are insubstantial, but Swift’s gift is that she sets the troubled mind of an awkward age in stone. She writes from the perspective of the moment yet has the skill of a songwriter beyond her years, articulating contradictions and confessions with keen detail and strong melody. Tellingly, underneath all her girlishness – and Taylor makes no apologies for being girly as she baits mean girls, dreamily thinks of stolen kisses on a sidewalk, or fantasizes about stealing away her ex-lover at the altar – there’s a steely strength. She walks away proudly from breakups and never dwells on mistakes; she moves forward.” STE “The same could be said about the sound of Speak Now itself, which is no great progression from Fearless but rather a subtle shift toward pure pop with the country accents, such as the Dixie Chicks foundation of Mean, used as flavoring. But that blend of pop and country, while certainly radio-friendly, is nearly as distinctive to Taylor Swift as her songwriting voice. She may be not a girl, and not yet a woman, but on Speak Now she captures that transition with a personal grace and skill that few singer/songwriters have.” STE

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Taylor Swift STE Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 12/8/2011; last updated 11/30/2022.