On February 11, Swift announces that she has re-recorded her 2008 album Fearless, as Fearless (Taylor’s version), and that the updated main single, “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)”, will be released tonight. Fearless became Swift’s first number 1 album on the Billboard 200, while ‘Love Story’ was her second Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit. Since then, Swift has counted seven more number 1 albums and another 27 top-10 Hot 100 hits.
As for the original version of ‘Love Story’, it sold about 200 downloads in the US on February 12th. In the week that the re-release was released, the original version has a negligible amount on a daily basis. The original “Love Story” sold 6.13 million downloads in the US until February 4
Re-recordings of older songs or albums are treated separately from their original ones, with independent history for each release. Therefore, Fearless (Taylor’s version) and ‘Love Story (Taylor’s Version)’ will be signed separately from Swift’s original 2008 recordings of the album and song respectively.
In the coming days, news of the streaming activity of “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” will be reported on February 12th.
And now, the radio story … As for radio broadcasting on its first day, “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” – which is not actively promoted to radio stations – drew 144 plays on 12 February on 89 stations reporting to Billboard‘s radio song card, based on the entire genre, an amount translated into 777,000 audience impressions. The biggest lead at the 144 plays was 83 on Pop Airplay card reporters, 34 on Adult Pop Airplay reporters and 12 on Country Airplay panelists.
How does the play compare to the 2008 version?
The new recording drew more than twice as many plays as the original on February 12, which recorded 67 plays on Radio Songs reporters yesterday. Adult Contemporary Map Reporters was responsible for 25 of the turns, followed by Country Airplay panelists who contributed 12.
While the new version drew 777,000 impressions from the public on February 12, the original 227,000 drew.
Although ‘Love Story (Taylor’s Version)’ is not actively being promoted to radio, three tracks are still being promoted to various formats of Swift’s latest LP, Always. “Willow” rose 11-9 on the recently released Adult Pop Airplay chart (dated February 13), which became Swift’s 24th top 10 on the leaderboard, extending her record for most among women. It also held the No. 9 high on Adult Contemporary and climbed 23-20 on Pop Airplay. Meanwhile, the series ‘Coney Island’, with The National, repeated at number 26 on Adult Alternative Airplay, and ‘No Body, No Crime’, with Haim, at number 60 on Country Airplay.
The original “Love Story” hit number 2 on radio songs (and number 4 on the multi-metric Billboard Hot 100). It topped Country Airplay and Pop Airplay and remains the only song that led both charts. It also crowns the contemporary adult and rises to number 3 on the pop doll for adults.