Speak Now
Encyclopedia
Speak Now is the third studio album by American singer–songwriter Taylor Swift
, released on October 25, 2010 by Big Machine Records
. Production for the album took place during 2008 to 2010 at several recording studios, and was handled by Swift and country music producer Nathan Chapman
. Written entirely by Swift, Speak Now expands on the country pop
style of her previous work, and features lyrical themes concerning love, romance and heartbreak.
Speak Now received positive reviews from most music critic
s, who complimented Swift's songwriting and themes. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200
chart, selling approximately 1,047,000 units in its first week. Due to strong digital sales, all fourteen songs from the standard edition of the album charted on the Billboard Hot 100
, with the lead single "Mine
" having the highest peak of number three. It was also an international success, charting within the top 10 in several countries, including Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The album has sold 3.7 million copies in the United States and has been certified triple platinum
by the Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA).
As of August 2011, the album has sold over 5.5 million copies worldwide. The album has been nominated at the 54th Grammy Awards
for Best Country Album
.
noted themes of regret and solitude, highlighting that "December is a month to get through so we can return to the beginning, and is certainly not a month to relish. Yet, Swift goes there—'all the time'—in 'Back to December' by delivering an apology to an ex-boyfriend, which she never did on her prior two albums." Music writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine
viewed that the album musically is "no great progression from Fearless
but rather a subtle shift toward pure pop with the country accents [...] used as flavoring".
Recording sessions for the album took place at several recording locations, including Aimeeland Studio, Blackbird Studios, and Capitol Studios
in Hollywood, California, Pain in the Art Studio, and Starstruck Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, and Stonehurst Studio in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Some of the songs feature live strings
, and some, a full orchestra
.
. It was made available for digital download
by iTunes
. The album's official cover was premiered through Us Weekly
on August 18, 2010. It was also released on vinyl LP
on November 22, 2010. On December 20, 2010 a karaoke
version of the album was released featuring the album as a CD+G
and a DVD.
Swift performed the song "Innocent" at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards
on September 12, 2010. Some of the tracks were previewed in advance of the release date: "Speak Now
" on October 4, "Back to December
" on October 11, and "Mean
" on October 18, 2010. These three were subsequently released to the iTunes Store
the following day, respectively. Additionally, "The Story of Us" was previewed October 22, 2010, through Comcast
on-demand and XfinityTv.com. "Speak Now" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100
at number eight and on the Billboard
Hot Country Songs
chart at number sixty the week of October 11, 2010, selling 217,000 digital downloads. "Back to December" debuted at number six on the Billboard Hot 100, with 242,000 digital downloads. "Mean" debuted at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 with 163,000 downloads. All fourteen songs on the standard edition of the album have charted on the Billboard Hot 100
, with ten tracks debuting the week of the album's release. The highest-charting of these was "Sparks Fly
" at number seventeen with 113,000 downloads.
On July 15, 2011, Swift's official website announced that she had partnered with Elizabeth Arden to launch a fragrance, which was released in October 2011. The fragrance's name, "Wonderstruck", is a reference to the song "Enchanted". The fragrance made it's in-store appearance on November 16, 2011. On November 8, 2011, Swift released two more promotional singles from the album, "If This Was a Movie" and "Superman", both were made available for digital download by iTunes.
Haunted, along with the promotional releases, charted on the Billboard 100 at #98 and Billboard Hot Digital Songs at #71.
from the album, "Mine
" was released on August 4, 2010. The single was released twelve days ahead of its planned August 16 release, due to an online leak
of the song. The music video for the song was shot in Kennebunkport, Maine
, during July. Swift said the single was about her tendency to "run from love". The song has peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100
. "Mine" sold 1,734,000 copies becoming Swift's fifth best-selling song to date. The second single, "Back to December
", sold 1,027,000 copies in the US, becoming Swift's twelfth best-selling song to date. "Back to December" was sent to US country radio on November 15, 2010. The music video premiered on January 13, 2011, on CMT and Great American Country
. Swift has said of the song's background, "[it] addresses a first for me, in that I've never apologized to someone in a song before. In the good, or bad, or the apology, the person I wrote the song for deserves this. This is about somebody who was incredible to me, just perfect to me in a relationship, and I was really careless with him, so these are the words that I would say to him -- that he deserves to hear."
The third single, "Mean
", was released for country stations on March 7, 2011. The music video premiered on CMT on May 6, 2011. The song would become Swift's eighth number one hit. According to Swift the song "is about, well, when you do what I do, which is you put yourself out there for a lot of people to say whatever they want about it, there are a million different opinions from a million different people." The fourth single, "The Story of Us
", was released on April 19, 2011 to mainstream pop. It was released in the UK on April 4, 2011. The music video premiered on MTV on May 24, 2011. Swift says that it "is a song that I wrote about an awkward situation where, well… Let me just preface by saying that I have happened to run into exes in strange places lately. This is about one of those situations where the strange place that I ran into him was an awards show." The song became Swift's first single that fail to peak inside the top forty of the Billboard chart.
The fifth single, "Sparks Fly
", was released on July 18, 2011 to country radio. The song debut at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 8 on the Digital Songs Chart due to strong digital sales of 113,000 downloads. "Sparks Fly" is the opening song of the Speak Now World Tour
. According to Swift, the song is about "falling for someone who you maybe shouldn't fall for, but you can't stop yourself because there's such a connection and chemistry. This is a song I wrote a few years ago and I have been working on it ever since. It's been awesome to see it change over the years. The fans have heard it before in concert, but there have been some really cool changes that I am very proud of and can't wait for them to hear." The music video premiered on TaylorSwift.com on August 10, 2011. The sixth single, "Ours
" was released as a promotional single
on November 8, 2011. Billy Dukes of Taste of Country wrote that "Lyrically, 'Ours' is similar to 'Our Song
' in that it’s cheesy and delicious." Swift performed the song at the 2011 Country Music Association Awards
on November 9, 2011. The song will be released to country radio on December 5, 2011.
was announced on November 23, 2010 by Billboard
. The tour began with a six-day leg in Asia, from February 9 to February 21, 2011. The tour then ventured in Europe during the month of March, before Swift began the North American leg of the tour on May 21, 2011. The North American leg is set to end in New York City on November 22, 2011, with a total of 80 shows. In August 2011, Swift announced that the tour would be extended into 2012 in Oceania.
Critics have praised the tour with Billboard.com claiming that "Swift’s two-hour production was an overwhelming experience. There's an enormous amount of detail that worked to make the Speak Now Tour a sort of next step in country concert presentation….it blended the pacing, the music and the artist's personality in a way that transfixed.” The Korean Focus Times praised it by saying, “Taylor Swift charms Korea in style, radiant...with pitch-perfect and sincere vocals. The dedication of the fans present was boundless, the cheers of the crowd were sometimes louder than the music itself.” The New York Times claimed the tour "went off, as did every number, with clockwork professionalism and thousands of voices singing along and screaming between the lines. Ms. Swift, 21, is their superstar....her songs are taut, tuneful narratives.”
On August 10, 2011, Swift released a music video for "Sparks Fly", which featured clips taken from four different locations of the tour, which includes one from the show in Newark, New Jersey
. The footage with the rain was captured during one of the summer shows in a stadium. A live album
of the tour is set to be released on November 21, 2011. The DVD and Blu-ray included with the CD will feature all seventeen song performances taken from the North American leg of the tour.
s. At Metacritic
, which assigns a normalized
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
score of 77, based on 20 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Allmusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine
gave it four out of five stars and commended Swift for her lyrical maturity, stating "she writes from the perspective of the moment yet has the skill of a songwriter beyond her years". Los Angeles Times
writer Ann Powers
stated "she makes memorable music by in on the tiny stuff: the half-notes in a hummed phrase, the lyrical images that communicate precisely what it’s like to feel uncomfortable, or disappointed, or happy". Elysa Gardner of USA Today
complimented Swift's "youthful" perspective, stating "At its best, Speak Now captures the sweet ache of becoming an adult, as only those who are still in the process can articulate". Eric R. Danton of The Hartford Courant
commended her for "balancing the wistful teenage puppy-love mindset of her previous albums with more grown-up themes". Dave Heaton of PopMatters
noted "a richer array of narratives and even more songs about that process of turning your life into a narrative". Rudy Klapper of Sputnikmusic
gave the album four out of five stars and called it "the best pop record of the year".
Entertainment Weekly
s Leah Greenblatt praised Swift's songcraft and called the album's tracks "perfectly contained snow globes of romance and catharsis, whole cinematic narratives rendered in four-to six-minute miniatures". Jon Caramanica of The New York Times
called it a "bravura work of nontransparent transparency... the most savage of her career, and also the most musically diverse. And it's excellent too, possibly her best". Rolling Stone
writer Rob Sheffield perceived "a minimum of country schmaltz" and commended Swift for "slipping more grown-up details into her love stories". Despite finding its "bubblier tunes [...] the album's dullest, most forgettable moments", Mikael Wood of Spin
wrote that "Swift taps into something nervy and intense when she goes nasty". Theon Weber of The Village Voice
perceived Swift's songwriting strength as "not confessional, but dramatic" and stated "Like a procession of country songwriters before her, she creates characters and situations—some from life—and finds potent ways to describe them". Weber described the album's songs as "iceberg songs" and elaborated on Swift's musical approach and progression with the album, stating:
Allison Stewart of The Washington Post
called the album "ridiculously entertaining [...] a lengthy, captivating exercise in woo-pitching, flame tending and score-settling", but found it "long: 14 wordy, stretched-thin, occasionally repetitive songs". Chicago Sun-Times
writer Thomas Conner gave the album two out of four stars and stated "The topicality of Speak Now, plus Swift’s penchant for screwing a big, diesel-powered chorus into every song [...] makes the album a little exhausting". Slant Magazine
's Jonathan Keefe found her singing "technically poor" and commented that "her lyrics generally lack the variety and sophistication of her compositions", but complimented its "expertly crafted pop music" and called it "a studied, smart album that is easily the best, most dense work of Swift's career so far". Alex Macpherson of The Guardian
commented that "At times the self-consciousness of an artist forcing herself into new modes shows – but mostly, Speak Now is a triumph". In his consumer guide for MSN Music
, critic Robert Christgau
gave Speak Now an A- rating, indicating "the kind of garden-variety good record that is the great luxury of musical micromarketing and overproduction". Christgau found the songs "overlong and overworked", but ultimately stated "they evince an effort that bears a remarkable resemblance to care‑-that is, to caring in the best, broadest, and most emotional sense". The album was ranked number 13 on Rolling Stone
s year-end best albums list for 2010.
chart, it's sales of 1,047,000 copies made it just the sixteenth album in United States history to sell one million copies in a single week. It was the second biggest debut ever for a female artist - later pushed down to third biggest by Lady Gaga's Born This Way-, the second biggest ever by a country album, the biggest in five and one half years, and the biggest of 2010. It is Swift's second US number-one album and spent a total of 6 weeks on top. In the United Kingdom, it debuted at number six on the Top 40 Albums
chart. In Canada, the album debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart
, selling 62,000 copies.
In its second week on the Billboard 200, the album remained at number one and sold 320,000 copies. It dropped to number two and sold 212,000 copies in its third week. In its fourth week, Speak Now dropped to number nine and sold 146,000 copies. In its fifth week, it rose to number four and sold 241,000 copies. On December 6, 2010, Speak Now was certified triple platinum
by the Recording Industry Association of America
, for shipments of three million copies in the United States. As of September 2011, the album has sold 3.7 million copies in the United States. The album sold 2,960,000 copies in the United States in 2010 and 563,000 in the first half of 2011. The album has sold 543,000 digital copies as of March 2011. All fourteen songs on the album and 3 bonus tracks have charted on the Billboard Hot 100, eleven of them charted concurrently making Swift just the third artist in history and first female artist to have over ten concurrent Hot 100 hits. Speak Now is also the only album in history to spawn fourteen Hot 100 hits. It produced four top ten, seven top twenty, and nine top thirty hits.
and features an alternate cover, with Swift in a red dress instead of the standard edition's purple. It was released on the same day as the standard edition and includes three additional tracks, two acoustic songs
, a pop remix of "Mine", and thirty minutes of enhanced video content: the music video
for "Mine", as well as behind-the-scenes footage of its production. Released on her official website the Target deluxe edition was made available for digital download by Scattertunes. A deluxe edition was also released internationally featuring the same three bonus songs, acoustic songs and behind the scenes feature from the deluxe edition at Target. The international deluxe edition contains the US versions of "Mine", "Back to December, "The Story of Us" and the pop mix video for "Mine". On November 8, 2011, the three bonus songs were released individually as singles on iTunes and Amazon.com and the bonus remixes were released individually as singles on iTunes.
Taylor Swift
Taylor Alison Swift is an American country pop singer-songwriter, musician and actress.In 2006, she released her debut single "Tim McGraw", then her self-titled debut album, which was subsequently certified multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America...
, released on October 25, 2010 by Big Machine Records
Big Machine Records
Big Machine Records is an Independent American record label specializing in country music artists. It was launched in 2005 by former DreamWorks Records executive Scott Borchetta. The label was part of a joint venture between Borchetta and country singer Toby Keith, although Keith dropped his...
. Production for the album took place during 2008 to 2010 at several recording studios, and was handled by Swift and country music producer Nathan Chapman
Nathan Chapman (record producer)
Nathan Chapman is an American record producer who works in the field of country music. He is known primarily for working with Taylor Swift, having produced her albums Taylor Swift, Fearless and Speak Now. The former was also the first album that he produced...
. Written entirely by Swift, Speak Now expands on the country pop
Country pop
Country pop, with roots in both the countrypolitan sound and in soft rock, is a subgenre of country music that first emerged in the 1970s. Although the term first referred to country music songs and artists that crossed over to Top 40 radio, country pop acts are now more likely to cross over to...
style of her previous work, and features lyrical themes concerning love, romance and heartbreak.
Speak Now received positive reviews from most music critic
Music criticism
See also Music journalism for reporting on classical and popular music in the media.The Oxford Companion to Music defines music criticism as 'the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres'. In this...
s, who complimented Swift's songwriting and themes. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart, selling approximately 1,047,000 units in its first week. Due to strong digital sales, all fourteen songs from the standard edition of the album charted on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, with the lead single "Mine
Mine (song)
"Mine" is a country pop song performed by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. The song was written by Swift alone and produced by Swift along with Nathan Chapman. It was released as the lead single from Swift's third studio album, Speak Now by Big Machine Records...
" having the highest peak of number three. It was also an international success, charting within the top 10 in several countries, including Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The album has sold 3.7 million copies in the United States and has been certified triple platinum
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
(RIAA).
As of August 2011, the album has sold over 5.5 million copies worldwide. The album has been nominated at the 54th Grammy Awards
54th Grammy Awards
The 54th Annual Grammy Awards will be held on February 12, 2012, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. It will be broadcasted on CBS. Nominations were announced on November 30, 2011 on prime-time television as part of "The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live! – Countdown to Music's Biggest Night", a...
for Best Country Album
Grammy Award for Best Country Album
The Grammy Award for Best Country Album has been awarded since 1994. The equivalent award, the Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Album was presented in 1965 and 1966...
.
Background and recording
Swift worked on the album for two years prior to its release. Swift wrote all of the songs on the album without co-writers. Speaking on a live webcast on July 20, 2010, she said, "I actually wrote all the songs myself for this record. It didn't really happen on purpose, it just sort of happened. Like, I'd get my best ideas at 3:00 AM in Arkansas, and I didn't have a co-writer around and I would just finish it." She has described it as a "conceptual" project, with variations of the theme of "boy-crazy country starlet tries to stop dripping tears all over her guitar". In an analysis of Swift's lyrics, The Oxonian ReviewThe Oxonian Review
The Oxonian Review is a literature and arts review journal produced by graduate students at the University of Oxford. Each week during term time, an online edition is published featuring reviews and essays on current affairs and literature...
noted themes of regret and solitude, highlighting that "December is a month to get through so we can return to the beginning, and is certainly not a month to relish. Yet, Swift goes there—'all the time'—in 'Back to December' by delivering an apology to an ex-boyfriend, which she never did on her prior two albums." Music writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine is a senior editor for Allmusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for Allmusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes. He is also frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band Who Dat?Erlewine is the nephew...
viewed that the album musically is "no great progression from Fearless
Fearless (Taylor Swift album)
Fearless has been well-received by music professionals, with many praising Swift for her introspective lyrics, as well as her mature sound. According to the music review aggregator Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an...
but rather a subtle shift toward pure pop with the country accents [...] used as flavoring".
Recording sessions for the album took place at several recording locations, including Aimeeland Studio, Blackbird Studios, and Capitol Studios
Capitol Studios
The Capitol Studios complex opened in the Capitol Records Building, a futuristic new building in the heart of Hollywood, in 1956. It has since hosted some of the most treasured recordings in music history, from Frank Sinatra to the Beastie Boys. It is owned by Capitol Records whose parent company...
in Hollywood, California, Pain in the Art Studio, and Starstruck Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, and Stonehurst Studio in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Some of the songs feature live strings
String section
The string section is the largest body of the standard orchestra and consists of bowed string instruments of the violin family.It normally comprises five sections: the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos, and the double basses...
, and some, a full orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
.
Title significance
According to Big Machine Records president/CEO Scott Borchetta, the album's original title was Enchanted. He explained: "We were at lunch, and she had played me a bunch of the new songs. I looked at her and I'm like, 'Taylor, this record isn't about fairy tales and high school anymore. That's not where you're at. I don't think the record should be called Enchanted." After the discussion, Swift then excused herself from the table at that point. By the time she came back, she had the "Speak Now" title, which comes closer to representing the evolution that the album represents in her career and in her still-young understanding of the world.Marketing
Speak Now was released worldwide on October 25, 2010 by Big Machine RecordsBig Machine Records
Big Machine Records is an Independent American record label specializing in country music artists. It was launched in 2005 by former DreamWorks Records executive Scott Borchetta. The label was part of a joint venture between Borchetta and country singer Toby Keith, although Keith dropped his...
. It was made available for digital download
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
by iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
. The album's official cover was premiered through Us Weekly
Us Weekly
Us Weekly is a celebrity gossip magazine, founded in 1977 by The New York Times Company, who sold it in 1980. It was acquired by Wenner Media in 1986. The publication covers topics ranging from celebrity relationships to the latest trends in fashion, beauty, and entertainment...
on August 18, 2010. It was also released on vinyl LP
LP record
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
on November 22, 2010. On December 20, 2010 a karaoke
Karaoke
is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...
version of the album was released featuring the album as a CD+G
CD+G
CD+G is an extension of the compact disc standard that can present low-resolution graphics alongside the audio data on the disc when played on a compatible device...
and a DVD.
Swift performed the song "Innocent" at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards
2010 MTV Video Music Awards
The 2010 MTV Video Music Awards took place on September 12, 2010 at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, honoring the best music videos from the previous year...
on September 12, 2010. Some of the tracks were previewed in advance of the release date: "Speak Now
Speak Now (song)
"Speak Now" is a country pop track with a length of four minutes and two seconds. It has a predominant pop music composition, intertwined with various country elements. The song is set in common time and has a fast tempo of 120 beats per minute. It is written in the key of G major and Swift's...
" on October 4, "Back to December
Back to December
"Back to December" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. Swift wrote the song and produced it alongside Nathan Chapman. It was sent to country radios on November 15, 2010, by Big Machine Records as the second single from Swift's third studio album, Speak Now. According to Swift,...
" on October 11, and "Mean
Mean (song)
"Mean" is a song by American country pop singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, taken from her third studio album, Speak Now . The song, written by Swift and produced by Nathan Chapman and Swift, was first released as a promotional single for the album on October 17, 2010, by Big Machine Records...
" on October 18, 2010. These three were subsequently released to the iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
the following day, respectively. Additionally, "The Story of Us" was previewed October 22, 2010, through Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
on-demand and XfinityTv.com. "Speak Now" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
at number eight and on the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...
chart at number sixty the week of October 11, 2010, selling 217,000 digital downloads. "Back to December" debuted at number six on the Billboard Hot 100, with 242,000 digital downloads. "Mean" debuted at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 with 163,000 downloads. All fourteen songs on the standard edition of the album have charted on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, with ten tracks debuting the week of the album's release. The highest-charting of these was "Sparks Fly
Sparks Fly (song)
"Sparks Fly" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, from her third studio album, Speak Now . The song was written and produced by Swift, with additional production handled by Nathan Chapman. Swift penned the song when she was sixteen years of age; before she had broken out into the...
" at number seventeen with 113,000 downloads.
On July 15, 2011, Swift's official website announced that she had partnered with Elizabeth Arden to launch a fragrance, which was released in October 2011. The fragrance's name, "Wonderstruck", is a reference to the song "Enchanted". The fragrance made it's in-store appearance on November 16, 2011. On November 8, 2011, Swift released two more promotional singles from the album, "If This Was a Movie" and "Superman", both were made available for digital download by iTunes.
Haunted, along with the promotional releases, charted on the Billboard 100 at #98 and Billboard Hot Digital Songs at #71.
Singles
The lead singleLead single
A lead single is usually the first single released by a musician or a band before the release of its home album.During the era of the grammophone record, all music arrived in the marketplace as what is now termed a single, one potential hit song backed by an additional song of generally less...
from the album, "Mine
Mine (song)
"Mine" is a country pop song performed by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. The song was written by Swift alone and produced by Swift along with Nathan Chapman. It was released as the lead single from Swift's third studio album, Speak Now by Big Machine Records...
" was released on August 4, 2010. The single was released twelve days ahead of its planned August 16 release, due to an online leak
Internet leak
An Internet leak occurs when a party's confidential information is released to the public on the Internet. Various types of information and data can be, and have been, "leaked" to the Internet, the most common being personal information, computer software and source code, and artistic works such...
of the song. The music video for the song was shot in Kennebunkport, Maine
Kennebunkport, Maine
Kennebunkport is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,720 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford metropolitan statistical area....
, during July. Swift said the single was about her tendency to "run from love". The song has peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
. "Mine" sold 1,734,000 copies becoming Swift's fifth best-selling song to date. The second single, "Back to December
Back to December
"Back to December" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. Swift wrote the song and produced it alongside Nathan Chapman. It was sent to country radios on November 15, 2010, by Big Machine Records as the second single from Swift's third studio album, Speak Now. According to Swift,...
", sold 1,027,000 copies in the US, becoming Swift's twelfth best-selling song to date. "Back to December" was sent to US country radio on November 15, 2010. The music video premiered on January 13, 2011, on CMT and Great American Country
Great American Country
Great American Country , is a Nashville, Tennessee-based country music cable television network.-History:The station launched December 31, 1995 and Garth Brooks' video "The Thunder Rolls" was the first video to air on GAC....
. Swift has said of the song's background, "[it] addresses a first for me, in that I've never apologized to someone in a song before. In the good, or bad, or the apology, the person I wrote the song for deserves this. This is about somebody who was incredible to me, just perfect to me in a relationship, and I was really careless with him, so these are the words that I would say to him -- that he deserves to hear."
The third single, "Mean
Mean (song)
"Mean" is a song by American country pop singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, taken from her third studio album, Speak Now . The song, written by Swift and produced by Nathan Chapman and Swift, was first released as a promotional single for the album on October 17, 2010, by Big Machine Records...
", was released for country stations on March 7, 2011. The music video premiered on CMT on May 6, 2011. The song would become Swift's eighth number one hit. According to Swift the song "is about, well, when you do what I do, which is you put yourself out there for a lot of people to say whatever they want about it, there are a million different opinions from a million different people." The fourth single, "The Story of Us
The Story of Us (song)
"The Story of Us" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, taken from her third studio album, Speak Now . Swift wrote the track solely, and produced it alongside Nathan Chapman. The song was released on April 19, 2011 by Big Machine Records, as the fourth single from Speak Now...
", was released on April 19, 2011 to mainstream pop. It was released in the UK on April 4, 2011. The music video premiered on MTV on May 24, 2011. Swift says that it "is a song that I wrote about an awkward situation where, well… Let me just preface by saying that I have happened to run into exes in strange places lately. This is about one of those situations where the strange place that I ran into him was an awards show." The song became Swift's first single that fail to peak inside the top forty of the Billboard chart.
The fifth single, "Sparks Fly
Sparks Fly (song)
"Sparks Fly" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, from her third studio album, Speak Now . The song was written and produced by Swift, with additional production handled by Nathan Chapman. Swift penned the song when she was sixteen years of age; before she had broken out into the...
", was released on July 18, 2011 to country radio. The song debut at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 8 on the Digital Songs Chart due to strong digital sales of 113,000 downloads. "Sparks Fly" is the opening song of the Speak Now World Tour
Speak Now World Tour
Speak Now World Tour is the second concert tour by American country singer-songwriter, Taylor Swift, in support of her third studio album, Speak Now. The tour visited Asia, Europe, North America and Australasia...
. According to Swift, the song is about "falling for someone who you maybe shouldn't fall for, but you can't stop yourself because there's such a connection and chemistry. This is a song I wrote a few years ago and I have been working on it ever since. It's been awesome to see it change over the years. The fans have heard it before in concert, but there have been some really cool changes that I am very proud of and can't wait for them to hear." The music video premiered on TaylorSwift.com on August 10, 2011. The sixth single, "Ours
Ours (song)
"Ours" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. The song was solely written by Swift and was aided by Nathan Chapman in producing the song as a bonus track from her third studio album, Speak Now...
" was released as a promotional single
Promotional recording
A promotional recording, or promo, is an audio or video recording distributed for free, usually in order to promote a recording that is or soon will be commercially available...
on November 8, 2011. Billy Dukes of Taste of Country wrote that "Lyrically, 'Ours' is similar to 'Our Song
Our Song (song)
"Our Song" is a country music song performed by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. The song was written by Swift and produced by Nathan Chapman. It was released on August 22, 2007 by Big Machine Records as the third single from Swift's eponymous debut album, Taylor Swift...
' in that it’s cheesy and delicious." Swift performed the song at the 2011 Country Music Association Awards
Country Music Association Awards
The Country Music Association Awards, also known as the CMA Awards, or the CMAs, and not to be confused with the ACM Awards, are voted on by business members of the Country Music Association. The first CMA awards were presented at an untelevised ceremony in Nashville's Municipal Auditorium in 1967...
on November 9, 2011. The song will be released to country radio on December 5, 2011.
Tour
To promote the album – a tour – entitled the Speak Now World TourSpeak Now World Tour
Speak Now World Tour is the second concert tour by American country singer-songwriter, Taylor Swift, in support of her third studio album, Speak Now. The tour visited Asia, Europe, North America and Australasia...
was announced on November 23, 2010 by Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
. The tour began with a six-day leg in Asia, from February 9 to February 21, 2011. The tour then ventured in Europe during the month of March, before Swift began the North American leg of the tour on May 21, 2011. The North American leg is set to end in New York City on November 22, 2011, with a total of 80 shows. In August 2011, Swift announced that the tour would be extended into 2012 in Oceania.
Critics have praised the tour with Billboard.com claiming that "Swift’s two-hour production was an overwhelming experience. There's an enormous amount of detail that worked to make the Speak Now Tour a sort of next step in country concert presentation….it blended the pacing, the music and the artist's personality in a way that transfixed.” The Korean Focus Times praised it by saying, “Taylor Swift charms Korea in style, radiant...with pitch-perfect and sincere vocals. The dedication of the fans present was boundless, the cheers of the crowd were sometimes louder than the music itself.” The New York Times claimed the tour "went off, as did every number, with clockwork professionalism and thousands of voices singing along and screaming between the lines. Ms. Swift, 21, is their superstar....her songs are taut, tuneful narratives.”
On August 10, 2011, Swift released a music video for "Sparks Fly", which featured clips taken from four different locations of the tour, which includes one from the show in Newark, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
. The footage with the rain was captured during one of the summer shows in a stadium. A live album
Speak Now: World Tour Live
Speak Now: World Tour Live is the first live album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was released on November 21, 2011 by Big Machine Records. The live album debut at number 11 on the Billboard 200 with 77,000 sold.- Background :...
of the tour is set to be released on November 21, 2011. The DVD and Blu-ray included with the CD will feature all seventeen song performances taken from the North American leg of the tour.
Critical response
Speak Now received positive reviews from most music criticMusic criticism
See also Music journalism for reporting on classical and popular music in the media.The Oxford Companion to Music defines music criticism as 'the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres'. In this...
s. At Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 77, based on 20 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Allmusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine is a senior editor for Allmusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for Allmusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes. He is also frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band Who Dat?Erlewine is the nephew...
gave it four out of five stars and commended Swift for her lyrical maturity, stating "she writes from the perspective of the moment yet has the skill of a songwriter beyond her years". Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
writer Ann Powers
Ann Powers
Ann Powers is an American writer and pop music critic.Powers has been writing about popular music and society since the early 1980s...
stated "she makes memorable music by in on the tiny stuff: the half-notes in a hummed phrase, the lyrical images that communicate precisely what it’s like to feel uncomfortable, or disappointed, or happy". Elysa Gardner of USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
complimented Swift's "youthful" perspective, stating "At its best, Speak Now captures the sweet ache of becoming an adult, as only those who are still in the process can articulate". Eric R. Danton of The Hartford Courant
The Hartford Courant
The Hartford Courant is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is a morning newspaper for most of the state north of New Haven and east of Waterbury...
commended her for "balancing the wistful teenage puppy-love mindset of her previous albums with more grown-up themes". Dave Heaton of PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
noted "a richer array of narratives and even more songs about that process of turning your life into a narrative". Rudy Klapper of Sputnikmusic
Sputnikmusic
Sputnikmusic, or simply Sputnik, is a music website offering music criticism and music news alongside features commonly associated with wiki-style websites...
gave the album four out of five stars and called it "the best pop record of the year".
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
s Leah Greenblatt praised Swift's songcraft and called the album's tracks "perfectly contained snow globes of romance and catharsis, whole cinematic narratives rendered in four-to six-minute miniatures". Jon Caramanica of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called it a "bravura work of nontransparent transparency... the most savage of her career, and also the most musically diverse. And it's excellent too, possibly her best". Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
writer Rob Sheffield perceived "a minimum of country schmaltz" and commended Swift for "slipping more grown-up details into her love stories". Despite finding its "bubblier tunes [...] the album's dullest, most forgettable moments", Mikael Wood of Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
wrote that "Swift taps into something nervy and intense when she goes nasty". Theon Weber of The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
perceived Swift's songwriting strength as "not confessional, but dramatic" and stated "Like a procession of country songwriters before her, she creates characters and situations—some from life—and finds potent ways to describe them". Weber described the album's songs as "iceberg songs" and elaborated on Swift's musical approach and progression with the album, stating:
Allison Stewart of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
called the album "ridiculously entertaining [...] a lengthy, captivating exercise in woo-pitching, flame tending and score-settling", but found it "long: 14 wordy, stretched-thin, occasionally repetitive songs". Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
writer Thomas Conner gave the album two out of four stars and stated "The topicality of Speak Now, plus Swift’s penchant for screwing a big, diesel-powered chorus into every song [...] makes the album a little exhausting". Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
's Jonathan Keefe found her singing "technically poor" and commented that "her lyrics generally lack the variety and sophistication of her compositions", but complimented its "expertly crafted pop music" and called it "a studied, smart album that is easily the best, most dense work of Swift's career so far". Alex Macpherson of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
commented that "At times the self-consciousness of an artist forcing herself into new modes shows – but mostly, Speak Now is a triumph". In his consumer guide for MSN Music
MSN Music
MSN Music was a part of the MSN web services. It delivered music news, music videos, spotlights on new music, artist information, and live performances of artists. In 2004, Microsoft created an MSN Music download store to compete with Apple's iTunes Music Store, though its sales in comparison were...
, critic Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
gave Speak Now an A- rating, indicating "the kind of garden-variety good record that is the great luxury of musical micromarketing and overproduction". Christgau found the songs "overlong and overworked", but ultimately stated "they evince an effort that bears a remarkable resemblance to care‑-that is, to caring in the best, broadest, and most emotional sense". The album was ranked number 13 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s year-end best albums list for 2010.
Commercial performance
Speak Now debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart, it's sales of 1,047,000 copies made it just the sixteenth album in United States history to sell one million copies in a single week. It was the second biggest debut ever for a female artist - later pushed down to third biggest by Lady Gaga's Born This Way-, the second biggest ever by a country album, the biggest in five and one half years, and the biggest of 2010. It is Swift's second US number-one album and spent a total of 6 weeks on top. In the United Kingdom, it debuted at number six on the Top 40 Albums
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
chart. In Canada, the album debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart
Canadian Albums Chart
The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS...
, selling 62,000 copies.
In its second week on the Billboard 200, the album remained at number one and sold 320,000 copies. It dropped to number two and sold 212,000 copies in its third week. In its fourth week, Speak Now dropped to number nine and sold 146,000 copies. In its fifth week, it rose to number four and sold 241,000 copies. On December 6, 2010, Speak Now was certified triple platinum
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
, for shipments of three million copies in the United States. As of September 2011, the album has sold 3.7 million copies in the United States. The album sold 2,960,000 copies in the United States in 2010 and 563,000 in the first half of 2011. The album has sold 543,000 digital copies as of March 2011. All fourteen songs on the album and 3 bonus tracks have charted on the Billboard Hot 100, eleven of them charted concurrently making Swift just the third artist in history and first female artist to have over ten concurrent Hot 100 hits. Speak Now is also the only album in history to spawn fourteen Hot 100 hits. It produced four top ten, seven top twenty, and nine top thirty hits.
Track listing
- International versions of the album feature pop versions of "Mine", "Back to December", and "The Story of Us", under the same title.
- Specific letters were capitalized in the lyrics in her cover booklet, spelling out hidden messages for each song.
Deluxe edition
A deluxe edition was released exclusively to the Target CorporationTarget Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
and features an alternate cover, with Swift in a red dress instead of the standard edition's purple. It was released on the same day as the standard edition and includes three additional tracks, two acoustic songs
Acoustic music
Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...
, a pop remix of "Mine", and thirty minutes of enhanced video content: the music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for "Mine", as well as behind-the-scenes footage of its production. Released on her official website the Target deluxe edition was made available for digital download by Scattertunes. A deluxe edition was also released internationally featuring the same three bonus songs, acoustic songs and behind the scenes feature from the deluxe edition at Target. The international deluxe edition contains the US versions of "Mine", "Back to December, "The Story of Us" and the pop mix video for "Mine". On November 8, 2011, the three bonus songs were released individually as singles on iTunes and Amazon.com and the bonus remixes were released individually as singles on iTunes.
Personnel
Credits for Speak Now adapted from liner notes.- Chuck AinlayChuck AinlayChuck Ainlay is a record producer. He has worked with Mark Knopfler on much of Knopfler's solo work, in addition to some Dire Straits material....
– engineer - Joseph Anthony Baker – photography
- Steve Blackmon – assistant
- Drew Bollman – assistant, assistant engineer, engineer
- Tristan Brock-Jones – assistant engineer
- David Bryant – assistant engineer
- Paul BuckmasterPaul BuckmasterPaul John Buckmaster is a Grammy Award-winning English artist, arranger and composer.He began learning the cello at the age of 4 and graduated from the Royal College of Music at age 16....
– conductor, orchestral arrangements - Nick Buda – drums
- Jason Campbell – production coordination
- Chad Carlson – engineer
- Chris CarmichaelChris Carmichael (musician)Chris Carmichael is a musician and arranger born in San Antonio, Texas on July 6, 1962. The son of an Air Force fighter pilot, Chris moved extensively before taking up the violin while living in Hampton, Virginia...
– composer, string arrangements, strings - Joseph Cassell – stylist
- Nathan ChapmanNathan Chapman (record producer)Nathan Chapman is an American record producer who works in the field of country music. He is known primarily for working with Taylor Swift, having produced her albums Taylor Swift, Fearless and Speak Now. The former was also the first album that he produced...
– banjo, bass, engineer, Fender Rhodes, guitar (12-string electric), electric and acoustic guitar, handclapping, mandolin, organ, piano, producer, programming, synthesizer, vocal harmony - Steve ChurchyardSteve ChurchyardSteve Churchyard is a British born record producer, engineer and mixer who began his career at Sir George Martin’s AIR Studios in London. He currently resides in the United States. He has been nominated for 4 Grammy awards. In 2008 he won a Latin Grammy for Juanes’ album “La Vida.....
– engineer - Smith Curry – lap steel guitar
- Eric Darken – percussion
- Caitlin Evanson – vocal harmony
- Shannon Forrest – drums
- John Gardner – drums
- Jed Hackett – engineer
- Rob Hajacos – fiddle
- Amos Heller – bass
- Liz Huett – vocal harmony
- Jeremy Hunter – engineer
- Aubrey Hyde – wardrobe
- Joel Quillen – engineer
- Suzie Katayama – orchestra contractor
- Tim Lauer – Hammond B3, piano
- Steve Marcantonio – engineer
- Tim Marks – bass
- Mike Meadows – electric guitar, handclapping
- Grant Mickelson – electric guitar
- Seth Morton – assistant engineer
- Emily Mueller –production assistant
- Jemma Muradian – hair stylist
- John Netti – assistant engineer
- Bethany Newman – design, illustrations
- Josh Newman – design, illustrations
- Justin Niebank – engineer, mixing
- Mark Petaccia – assistant engineer
- Matt Rausch – assistant
- Lowell Reynolds – engineer
- Michael Rhodes – bass
- Mike Rooney – assistant engineer
- Paul Sidoti – electric guitar
- Tommy SimsTommy SimsTommy Sims is a renowned bassist, songwriter, record producer and bandleader.-Music career:From 1987 to 1989 he was the bassist of the popular Christian rock band White Heart which he left to become a studio musician and producer. During 1992-1993, he played bass on the Bruce Springsteen and the...
– bass - Bryan SuttonBryan SuttonBryan Sutton is an American musician. Primarily known as a flatpicked acoustic guitar player, Sutton also plays many other instruments including mandolin, banjo, and electric guitar....
– acoustic guitar, 12-string guitar, ukulele - Austin K. Swift – photography
- Taylor SwiftTaylor SwiftTaylor Alison Swift is an American country pop singer-songwriter, musician and actress.In 2006, she released her debut single "Tim McGraw", then her self-titled debut album, which was subsequently certified multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America...
– vocals, art direction, composer, acoustic guitar, handclapping, liner notes, producer, vocal harmony - Todd Tidwell – assistant engineer, engineer
- Lorrie Turk – make-up
- Hank Williams – mastering
- Brian David Willis – engineer
- Al Wilson – handclapping, percussion
Weekly charts
| Chart (2010) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
1 |
| Australian Country Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
1 |
| Austrian Albums Charts | 16 |
| Belgian Albums Chart Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... (Flanders) |
18 |
| Belgian Albums Chart Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... (Wallonia) |
45 |
| Canadian Albums Chart Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS... |
1 |
| Danish Albums Chart IFPI The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a not-for-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland... |
26 |
| Dutch Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
17 |
| French Albums Chart Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... |
39 |
| German Albums Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
15 |
| Greek Albums Chart IFPI Greece International Federation of the Phonographic Industry Greece or IFPI Greece is the Greek branch of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and is the official charts provider and recording sales certification body for Greece. Currently two charts are compiled, one for sales of... |
17 |
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
6 |
| Italy Albums Chart Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy.... |
18 |
| Mexican Albums Chart | 8 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
1 |
| Spanish Album Chart | 10 |
| Swedish Albums Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
18 |
| Swiss Albums Chart Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
17 |
| Taiwanese Albums Chart Taiwan Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following... |
1 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... |
4 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
6 |
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
1 |
| US Billboard Billboard charts The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine... Top Country Albums |
1 |
Certifications
| Country | Certification |
|---|---|
| Australia Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956... |
3× Platinum |
| Canada Canadian Recording Industry Association Music Canada is a Toronto-based, non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 to represent the interests of companies that record, artists, manufacture, production, promotion and distribution of music in Canada... |
3× Platinum |
| Ireland Irish Recorded Music Association Irish Recorded Music Association is the Irish record industry association. IRMA is a non-profit association set up to manage and control the music industry in the Republic of Ireland.-Goals and activities:... |
Gold |
| Japan Recording Industry Association of Japan The Recording Industry Association of Japan is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved the music industry... |
Gold |
| New Zealand Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
Platinum |
| Philippines | Platinum |
| United Kingdom British Phonographic Industry The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies... |
Gold |
| United States Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States... |
3× Platinum |
Year-end charts
| Chart (2010) | Position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 | 9 |
| US Billboard Top Country Albums | 3 |
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Country Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales... |
US Pop Songs Mainstream Top 40 (Pop Songs) The Mainstream Top 40 is an airplay chart from Billboard magazine, and is also known as Pop Songs on billboard.com. It was often mistaken for and confused with the now discontinued Pop 100 Airplay chart... |
US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
US AC | US Adult |
CAN Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine which ranks songs in Canada. The chart debuted in the Billboard issue dated June 16, 2007 and was made available for the first time via their online services on June 7, 2007... |
UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
|||
| 2010 | "Mine Mine (song) "Mine" is a country pop song performed by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. The song was written by Swift alone and produced by Swift along with Nathan Chapman. It was released as the lead single from Swift's third studio album, Speak Now by Big Machine Records... " |
2 | 12 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 30 | |
| "Back to December Back to December "Back to December" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. Swift wrote the song and produced it alongside Nathan Chapman. It was sent to country radios on November 15, 2010, by Big Machine Records as the second single from Swift's third studio album, Speak Now. According to Swift,... " |
3 | 11 | 6 | 14 | 11 | 7 | — | ||
| 2011 | "Mean Mean (song) "Mean" is a song by American country pop singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, taken from her third studio album, Speak Now . The song, written by Swift and produced by Nathan Chapman and Swift, was first released as a promotional single for the album on October 17, 2010, by Big Machine Records... " |
2 | — | 11 | — | — | 10 | — | |
| "The Story of Us The Story of Us (song) "The Story of Us" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, taken from her third studio album, Speak Now . Swift wrote the track solely, and produced it alongside Nathan Chapman. The song was released on April 19, 2011 by Big Machine Records, as the fourth single from Speak Now... " |
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| "Sparks Fly Sparks Fly (song) "Sparks Fly" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, from her third studio album, Speak Now . The song was written and produced by Swift, with additional production handled by Nathan Chapman. Swift penned the song when she was sixteen years of age; before she had broken out into the... " |
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| "Ours Ours (song) "Ours" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. The song was solely written by Swift and was aided by Nathan Chapman in producing the song as a bonus track from her third studio album, Speak Now... " |
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| "—" denotes singles which did not chart or were not released in the region. | |||||||||