The Beatles & Taylor Swift (Updates)

Even Classic Rock fans should be impressed with how Taylor Swift is setting records!  Let’s start with a recent record that involves The Beatles, then look at more of Swift’s accomplishments, and compare more of her records with the Fab Four, including her total #1’s.  Her records keep coming, and they’re updated.

Taylor Swift broke a record The Beatles held for 54-years.  The Beatles had three #1 albums in England within just 364 days.  Now, Taylor Swift has had three #1 albums in only 259 days.  Wonder if that record will stand for 54 years.

(Swift obviously time-traveled back to 1968 to meet The Beatles.)

Naturally, Taylor Swift breaking The Beatles’ record really upset Ringo Starr.  Just kidding.  In a recent interview about today’s music, Ringo said “I love Taylor Swift…she’s the only one who’s doing well.”  Ringo is overstating it, but no one else is coming close to all the records Taylor Swift has been setting.

The three albums that broke The Beatles’ record are Folklore, Evermore, and her 2021 re-recording of her 2008 album Fearless.

Fearless (Taylor’s Version) was done because Taylor Swift was unable to purchase her old recordings.  She hopes to have control over her songs by re-recording her first six albums, and basically have the new recordings (labeled “Taylor’s Version”) replace the old ones.  She already owns her most recent albums.  It might be best if the owners of her old recordings figure out that their value is going down, and just sell the rights to Taylor.

(T.S. with Folklore co-writer and co-producer Aaron Dessner)

In 2021, Folklore won the Grammy for Album Of The Year.  Taylor Swift has the record for the most albums of the year at four (after Midnights won in 2024).

Swift’s albums have been at #1 for a total of 83 weeks (8/11/24).  Only The Beatles have more, 132 weeks.  The Beatles also have the record of 19 albums to hit #1.  (Taylor has 14 as of April 2024, which is second only to The Beatles.)  Swift passed The Beatles for the number of weeks with albums in the Top 10.  She has over 400 weeks (6/16/24), and The Beatles had 382 weeks.

Taylor Swift became a Beatles’ fan during her childhood.  She says she bought all their CD’s and studied their songwriting.  One thing she learned from The Beatles was to give most of her songs endings, instead of just fading out.

There are other records Taylor Swift shares with The Beatles.  They are the only two artists in history to have at least five albums that remained in the #1 position for six-plus weeks (Swift now has six 6/2/24).  In July, 2023 Taylor Swift tied The Beatles as the only artists to have three singles from three different albums in The Top-10 at the same time.

In late 2020, Taylor Swift & Paul McCartney interviewed each other for Rolling Stone.  They were put together, because Swift has always cited McCartney as having a major influence on her career.

In 2014 Billboard started a chart called the Artist 100.  It measures key metrics of music consumption, with a blend of Album & Track sales, Radio airplay, Streaming, and Social Media fan interaction.  Taylor Swift has dominated the chart.  Here’s an example of the chart from 3/20/24 (she’s added more weeks since then).

Most artists peak within their first five years or so, but Taylor Swift’s peak (as of 2024) is over 17 years into her career.  It’s hard to believe an artist could maintain such an incredible level of popularity for so long.  Swift has a shot at breaking The Beatles’ record of 19 #1 albums.

There’s already a Taylor Swift display in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland, even though she won’t be officially eligible until 2031.  The display includes items actually used in several of Swift’s music videos.

Update: The re-recorded version of 2012’s Red was released November 12th, 2021.  Instead of the original 16 tracks, Taylor’s Version has 30 tracks that were originally written for the album.  Reviews are very positive, with Rolling Stone giving it a perfect 5 stars. 

In November, 2021 classic rocker Elvis Costello said about Taylor Swift…”I think we’ll all be working for her eventually.  She’s smart and knows what she’s doing.  She can write and sing, and people love it.”

At about that same time, Billy Joel had this to say about Taylor Swift.  “She’s productive and keeps coming up with great concepts and songs, and she’s huge.  You have to give her high marks.  She knows music, and she knows how to write. She’s like that generation’s Beatles.

Records Update:  On August 28th, 2022, Taylor Swift became the first 3-time winner of Video Of The Year, for “All Too Well”, at the VMA’s.  [Update: On September 12th, 2023, she won it for the 4th time, for “Anti-Hero”, and on September 11th, 2024 she won for the 5th time for “Fortnight”.]  She also announced an album of 13 new songs…  Midnights.

It was released October 21st, 2022, and is a synth-based pop album. Three hours after the official release, Swift released an additional seven songs.

(Photos from Midnight’s release)

It became her 11th album in a row to debut at #1 on the Billboard chart.  Spotify reported that Midnights broke the record for most streams by an album in a single day (on October 21st, 2022).  Plus, in just one day, Midnights sold more physical & digital copies than any other album had sold in all of 2022.  Despite thousands of albums being available on vinyl, one out of every fifteen albums sold in 2023 were albums by Taylor Swift.  That’s amazing!

And…Taylor Swift is the first artist to have all of the Top 10 Billboard singles at the same time.

Then in April of 2024, Swift had the top 14 songs, because of her Tortured Poets album.

Fun fact, Taylor Swift & The Beatles were #1 & #2 on the November 4th, 2022 U.K. album chart with Midnights and the Revolver remix.  Midnights stayed at #1 for two weeks in the U.S., and then added non-consecutive third, fourth, fifth & sixth weeks at the top.   The album topped the sales chart for 12 consecutive weeks, which is the most since 1998.  “Anti-Hero” topped the singles chart for eight weeks.  Midnights won the Grammy for Album Of The Year, which is Taylor’s record-setting fourth time.

There’s also Swift’s Eras stadium tour, with 152 concerts from 2023 through 2024.  Amazingly, Swift is selling out stadiums multiple times (8 times in London).  After the shows in 2023 the tour is the first in history to break 1-billion-dollars, and may break 2-Billion after the international dates in 2024.

Update (July, 2023):  The re-recorded Speak Now was released on July 7th, 2023 (Ringo’s birthday!).  The album has six previously unreleased songs, for a total of 22..  It’s her 12th #1 album.

Fearless, Red, Speak Now, & 1989 are the four “Taylor’s Version” albums released so far.  That leaves two re-recorded albums to be released, Reputation & Taylor Swift. 

1989 Taylor’s Version was her 13th album in a row to debut at #1 on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart.  Amazingly, a “new” Beatles single, “Now And Then” replaced a Taylor Swift song at #1 on the U.K. singles chart!  Then when the new U.K. Album chart came out, it was 1989 (Taylor’s Version) #1, The Beatles (Remixed) Blue Album #2, The Beatles (Remixed) Red Album #3.

And as 2023 drew to a close, there was this…

Taylor Swift is the only entertainer to be named Time’s Person of the Year.

The new Taylor Swift album, The Tortured Poets Department, released April 19th, 2024, turns out to be a double album anthology with 31 songs.  It immediately broke a bunch of streaming and sales records.  It’s her 14th #1 album, second only to The Beatles, and it’s stayed at #1 for 12-weeks, and then popped back up to #1 for more weeks.

(Some of the cover options)

Couldn’t resist adding that Paul McCartney visited Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl.  McCartney shakes hands with Jason Kelce, and you can see Swift’s fangirl expression.

Taylor’s boyfriend’s team, the Chiefs, won the game 25-22 when the Chiefs scored a touchdown on the 13th play of the winning drive.  It was also the 13th time Swift attended a Chiefs’ game.  Looks like 13 really is Taylor’s lucky number.

Paul McCartney also attended Swift’s Eras Tour in London 6/23/24.