Posted October 27, 20222 yr Published this morning by the OCC: Taylor Swift’s career blossomed a little later in the UK than elsewhere (her first UK hit came four years after her US debut), but boy has she made up for it since. In the last three years alone, she's earned four UK Number 1 albums with Lover (2019), folklore and evermore (both 2020), Fearless (Taylor's Version) and Red (Taylor's Version) (both 2021). All signs are pointing towards a sixth with Midnights, too; as Taylor leads the Official Albums Chart race against Arctic Monkeys' The Car. Throughout a career that has transcended genres and shifted direction numerous times, Taylor has amassed 18 UK Top 10 hits, although it may come as a surprise she's only topped the Official Singles Chart once - with 2017's gothic Look What You Made Me Do (but more on that later). Now, she's undertaking her biggest challenge yet - re-recording her first six albums due to the controversial acquisition of her original masters by record exec Scott Borchetta and artist manager Scooter Braun (although it was confirmed last year Braun had sold the masters to a private equity firm, Shamrock Capital for $300 million). Last year, Fearless (Taylor's Version) and Red (Taylor's Version) became her seventh and eighth UK Number 1 albums respectively, with the latter pulling her level with Kylie Minogue for the second-most chart-topping LPs for a female solo act ever. Now, we reveal a fully-updated list of Taylor's Official Top 20 biggest songs in the UK to date. But before we reveal a closer look at the Top 3 - a few fan-favourite highlights: Willow The lead single from surprise album evermore (a follow-up to her first surprise release of 2020, folklore), Willow reunited Taylor with that project's chief collaborator, indie-pop producer Aaron Dessner. With a rollicking acoustic beat that's reminiscent of Lana Del Rey's hip-hop-influenced debut Born To Die, Willow takes us deeper into the mystical forest that folklore built. The newest entry inside the Top 20, it's managed to collect chart sales totalling 533,000. Style Endlessly elegant, the third single from 1989 was an instant fan favourite and another mercurial pop moment thanks to Taylor's partnership with Max Martin and Shellback. Riffing heavily off the post-disco movement and the music of dance acts like Daft Punk, Style feels at times like the darker sister of another pitch-perfect Max Martin production from the same era, Katy Perry's Teenage Dream. Despite its popularity with fans and critics, Style only reached Number 21 on the Official Singles Chart, although time has done little to dull its shine. It's now Taylor's 10th most popular track in the UK, with 872,000 chart sales in total, plus 66 million streams. Look What You Made Me Do Taylor's first-ever (and still at the time of writing, only) UK Number 1 single was the incendiary lead single from her braggadocious sixth album Reputation, where she attempted to burn it all down and start again. Helped along by an accompanying video packed with in-jokes and laden with references to her internet presence and numerous celebrity spats, Look What You Made Me Do went straight in at Number 1 in 2017, staying at the top for two weeks. As of 2022, it has chart sales of 1.3 million, and it's been streamed over 108 million times in the UK alone. In total, it's her seventh biggest song on the Official Singles Chart. And now, that Top 3 in full... 3. Blank Space Released: 2014 Official Singles Chart peak: Number 4 Total UK chart sales: 1.63 million Blank Space, the self-aware second single from her 1989 album, saw Taylor claim control of her perceived persona. Co-written with Max Martin and Shellback, the track served as a tongue-in-cheek take on the media's incessant interest in her personal relationships. Her third-biggest track in the UK to date, Blank Space boasts a total of 1.63 million chart units so far. The single's also racked up 117 million streams in the UK and counting. 2. Love Story Released: 2008 Official Singles Chart peak: Number 2 Total UK chart sales: 1.68 million Taylor’s breakout hit in the UK was very nearly a Number 1, peaking at 2 behind Kelly Clarkson’s My Life Would Suck Without You (what a time to be alive). As the title suggests, the song is a modern-day re-telling of Romeo and Juliet...without all the duels and accidental deaths. It's sweet, saccharine, and has a happy ending, as all good fairytales should. As it stands, Love Story has become Taylor's second most successful single in the UK - with total chart sales of 1.68 million (sorry, Kelly). In the UK alone, it's been streamed over 109 million times. It's a Love Story, baby just say yes... 1. Shake It Off Released: 2014 Official Singles Chart peak: Number 2 Total UK chart units: 2.4 million Nothing was left to change on the lead single from 1989, which was marketed as Taylor's first pure-pop anthem. Reuniting her with Max Martin and Shellback, there's not a guitar or a country twang in sight for this peppy statement of intent, clearly influenced by Toni Basil's Hey Mickey. No longer concerned about penning songs about past lovers (a trope Taylor would magnificently parody in follow-up single Blank Space), Shake It Off is quite simple in its messaging and world view - the players gonna play, the haters gonna hate, baby you just gotta shake shake shake shake... It's fitting then, that Taylor's first single as the biggest pop star in the world is also her biggest single in the UK. Shake It Off has amassed a massive 2.4 million UK chart units, including 177 million streams. It easily becomes her most popular song ever in the UK. The biggest surprise? That the track never reached Number 1, instead being held off by Meghan Trainor's All About That Bass (how very 2014!) Taylor Swift’s Official Top 20 biggest singles: POS CHART PEAK 1 SHAKE IT OFF 2 2 LOVE STORY 2 3 BLANK SPACE 4 4 I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE 2 5 WE ARE NEVER EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER 4 6 I DON'T WANNA LIVE FOREVER (FIFTY SHADES 5 7 LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO 1 8 WILDEST DREAMS 40 9 BAD BLOOD 4 10 STYLE 21 11 EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED 7 12 ME TAYLOR SWIFT FT BRENDON URIE 3 13 YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN 5 14 YOU BELONG WITH ME 30 15 22 9 16 LOVER 14 17 READY FOR IT 7 18 DELICATE 45 19 WILLOW 3 20 EXILE 8 ©2022 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved. https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/t...evealed__20273/ Edited October 27, 20222 yr by Liam.k.
October 27, 20222 yr Thanks. Love to see updated sales figures! I always get surprised by Wildest Dreams with a peak of 40 - but of course one of her most loved and highest ‘selling’ songs overtime. Can you also post in the Taylor section please?
October 27, 20222 yr 'Wildest Dreams' rightfully top 10 :wub: didn't it get a new peak with the Taylor's Version?
October 27, 20222 yr Not sure if Taylor's Versions are combined with the originals here, I assume not? In any case, good to see Wildest Dreams and Style in the top 10 ahead of the higher charting ones at 11-13.
October 27, 20222 yr Those low top 10 (Wildest Dreams/Bad Blood/Style) and top 20 (Delicate/willow/exile) trios ftw *.*
October 27, 20222 yr 'Wildest Dreams' rightfully top 10 :wub: didn't it get a new peak with the Taylor's Version? Yup it did at 25.
October 27, 20222 yr 'Look What You Made Me Do' is surely the polar opposite of a 'fan favourite' :kink: (ok I know Sam still loves it but aside from that xx) Nice proofreading as usual with them saying she's had 4 #1 albums in the last 3 years and then listing 5 :whistle: Taylor's music pretty wildly varies in quality for me from incredible to awful, both extremes represented here but for the most part the songs here aren't really reflective of her best work for me. 'Blank Space' is probably still her best song though so yay at that being so high, that's the only one of the top 7 that I particularly like that much oops ('Shake It Off' and 'I Knew You Were Trouble.' are both fun too though I liked them more at the time than I do now, the other 4 in that top 7 are all awful lol). Nice to see 'Lover', 'willow' and 'exile' making it in in the lower end too.
October 27, 20222 yr 'Blank Space' is probably still her best song though so yay at that being so high L5IruIdkCb4
October 27, 20222 yr 'Look What You Made Me Do' is definitely not on 1.3m as it's still not 2x Platinum, I'm guessing it should read 1.1m (which itself is probably rounded up). This was Taylor's Top 20 back in February 2022 and in brackets I've put the song's movements in the OCC's current list: 1) Shake It Off 2,247,453 2) Love Story 1,543,019 3) Blank Space 1,477,007 4) I Knew You Were Trouble 1,466,245 5) We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together 1,147,437 6) I Don't Wanna Live Forever 1,075,517 7) Look What You Made Me Do 968,982 8) Everything Has Changed 821,768 (falls 3) 9) Bad Blood 814,979 10) Wildest Dreams 803,977 (up 2) 11) Me! 763,099 (down 1) 12) Style 747,412 (up 2) 13) You Need To Calm Down 694,511 14) 22 676,952 (down 1) 15) You Belong With Me 644,616 (up 1) 16) Lover 574,641 17) ...Ready For It? 511,080 18) Delicate 486,489 19) Willow 443,975 20) Exile 366,601
October 27, 20222 yr Taylor Swift's official biggest albums in the UK revealed 27 October 2022 | By George Griffiths Perhaps more than any artist in the modern era, Taylor Swift has explemified the power of the album. The album cycle is integral to Taylor's artistic identity and her progression as an artist. 11. Fearless (Taylor's Version) Released: 2021 Official Albums Chart peak: Number 1 Total UK chart sales: 103,000 The first of Taylor's original six albums to be re-released and re-recorded following a very public falling out with her old record label Big Machine over the rights to their master recordings, Fearless (Taylor's Version) sees Taylor take ownership (literally) over her sophomore album's eclectic country-pop soundscape with a distinctly nostalgic lens. 10. Red (Taylor's Version) Released: 2021 Official Albums Chart peak: Number 1 Total UK chart sales: 190,000 Grap that red scarf, take a sip of your pumpkin spice lattee and get ready to watch the leaves change colour. Red (Taylor's Version) sees Tay revisit her masterful fourth album, the first instance which showed her fully embrace her pop hitmaking skills, as well as some of the most masterful songwriting of her career. Of course, the centrepiece of the album is the long-mythologised 10 minute version of heart-tearing ballad All Too Well, which Taylor recasts from a sensitive and tender lament to a powerful odyssey of a relationship whose scars can be felt long after they were first made. 9. Taylor Swift Released: 2007 Official Albums Chart peak: Number 81 Total UK chart sales: 198,000 Everyone has to start somewhere. With cutesy tracks such as Tim McGraw, Teardrops On My Guitar and A Place In This World, Taylor Swift remains a fascinating insight into the genesis of a true superstar. 8. Evermore Released: 2020 Official Albums Chart peak: Number 1 Total UK chart sales: 235,000 The folksy sister record to Folklore, Evermore takes a deeper dive into the mystical forest that Tay's 2020 isolation album built. Across tracks with Bon Iver and Haim, it sees Taylor become more and more fascinated with constructing labyrinthine fictional narratives in her songs, as opposed to strictly autobiographical ones. 7. Speak Now Released: 2010 Official Albums Chart peak: Number 6 Total UK chart sales: 331,000 Written entirely by Taylor herself, Speak Now was formed after the success of Fearless, when some critics began to doubt that a teenager could really write songs that good without help. And what did she do? Prove to them that she could do it entirely by herself. 6. Folklore Released: 2020 Official Albums Chart peak: Number 1 Total UK chart sales: 379,000 A surprise release during the height of COVID, Folklore is an expansive and surprising body of work, even two years after its release. Finding the perfect collaborators in Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner of the National, many of Folklore's tracks hum with enigma and mystery. Intertwined within the album itself are three interconnected tracks (Cardigan, August and Betty) telling the story of three teenagers caught inside a scandalous affair, told from three different perspectives thank rank among one of Taylor's greatest ever accomplishments. 5. Lover Released: 2019 Official Albums Chart peak: Number 1 Total UK chart sales: 411,000 Taking a deep inhale of breath after the chaos surrounding reputation, Lover finds Taylor back in a sugary-sweet and contemplative mood. Singles Me! and You Need To Calm Down may be the singer at her most gregarious, but it's the quiet hum of the title track, the under-scored synths of The Archer and the magnificent new-wave bounce of Cruel Summer (the smash hit single that never was) make Lover shine. 4. reputation Released: 2017 Official Albums Chart peak: Number 1 Total UK chart sales: 548,000 There will be no explanation, there will just be reputation. So went the announcement of Taylor's incendiary sixth album. Misunderstood at the time of its release, the years have been nothing but kind to this complicated and un-compromising piece of pop craftmanship. Because really, reputation is an album of two halves; the braggadocious first, mainly produced by Max Martin, sees Taylor flex a heel turn as a villainous alter-ego (I Did Something Bad, ...Ready For It?) and a more sombre second-half that sees Tay break down her walls and let us see the cracks behind the veneer. Home to her first UK Number 1 single, Look What You Made Me To, reputation is the ultimate proof that sometimes, you have to burn it all down to start again. 3. Fearless Released: 2008 Official Albums Chart peak: Number 5 Total UK chart sales: 679,000 Jump in head first, Fearless. There's the lingering spectre of Shania Twain on Taylor's effervescent sophomore record. A thrillingly ambitious album that sees her pair her country roots with a bright-eyed pop vision that gave her a one-two punch of singles, Love Story and You Belong With Me, that changed the game forever. 2. Red Released: 2012 Official Albums Chart peak: Number 1 Total UK chart sales: 826,000 Red represents the best of two worlds. It sees Taylor finessing her already established skill at penning confessional country ballads (this time infused with a heavy rock influence, such as State Of Grace and Holy Ground) as well as finding her ideal pop partners with Max Martin and Shellback (We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, I Knew You Were Trouble). Taylor's second-most successful album in the UK, Red has pushed more than 826,000 chart sales here. You can read more about how Taylor successfully pivoted to pop on Red here. 1. 1989 Released: 2014 Official Albums Chart peak: Number 1 Total UK chart sales: 1.5 million The perfect pop album for the perfect pop star, 1989 was the key that enabled Taylor Swift to conquer the world. There was no room for error or compromise on this hits-packed LP, Taylor's first official 'pop' album that pulls from so many disparate forms of pop, from icy minimalism (Blank Space), maximalist big-band (Shake It Off) and stylish French disco (Style), it's a wonder that all that people ever doubted she could make the transition from country to pop and do it better than anyone had ever done it before. 1989 is, obviously, Taylor's biggest album in the UK, and it leaves no prisoners. It's gained over 1.5 million chart sales to date, as well as being her biggest physical seller (729,000), most digitally-downloaded (398,000) and most-streamed (album equivalent streams of 386,000) to date. Now that's what you call an imperial phase. Taylor Swift's Official biggest albums in the UK POS TITLE PEAK YEAR 1 1989 1 2014 2 RED 1 2012 3 FEARLESS 5 2008 4 REPUTATION 1 2017 5 LOVER 1 2019 6 FOLKLORE 1 2020 7 SPEAK NOW 6 2010 8 EVERMORE 1 2020 9 TAYLOR SWIFT 81 2007 10 RED (TAYLOR'S VERSION) 1 2021 11 FEARLESS (TAYLOR'S VERSION) 1 2021 ©2022 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.
October 27, 20222 yr Did I completely miss some major re-evaluation of 'reputation'? I thought most people still thought it was largely not very good by her standards (outside of like a couple of songs). 'Midnights' possibly coming to land straight in at #9 on that list (and overtake poor brave 'evermore' soon afterwards I guess aw).
October 27, 20222 yr I'm going to guess 'Wildest Dreams' is still under 1m. 'Love Story', 'Blank Space' and 'Style' have averaged 3.9k, 4.2k and 3.5k in the 36 weeks that have passed since the last update and 'Wildest Dreams' would have to have averaged 5.4k to have passed 1m this week.
October 27, 20222 yr It’s a shame that shake it off and blank space would both be #1 hits had she not removed her discography from Spotify. I remember her being #1 on the sales chart by a big lead but had obviously zero streams to add. Likewise style would be top 10 and wildest dreams would have been top 20.
October 27, 20222 yr Best Taylor song for me is "Delicate", incredibly hard choice though. And her best album has to be "Folklore", "1989" is a close second but I think I over played the album a tad. "Folklore" just gets better and better, it ages like wine. "Shake It Off" deserves zero hate, it's a pop classic. She has so many album tracks that are so good too but weren't released as singles but would have been big hits, "Cruel Summer", "August", "All You Had To Do Was Stay", "Call It What You Want". She's a legend. Edited October 27, 20222 yr by JamBlade
October 27, 20222 yr It’s a shame that shake it off and blank space would both be #1 hits had she not removed her discography from Spotify. I remember her being #1 on the sales chart by a big lead but had obviously zero streams to add. Likewise style would be top 10 and wildest dreams would have been top 20. I always forget she did that. And to think she's arguably the biggest artist on spotify now.
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