OCC: Taylor's 20 biggest songs!

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

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