Taylor Swift released her first highly anticipated re-recording from her first six albums on Thursday evening.
The songstress, 31, dropped a new more instrumental rendition of her 2009 smash hit Love Story, slightly tweaking the title to include ‘Taylor’s Version’ in the title – which quickly became the number one trending hashtag on Twitter.
A fresh spin on the song that really put her career on the map, the updated title seemed to be her way of letting the world know that she had regained ownership of her catalog after Scooter Braun sold her masters in November.
Love Story (Taylor’s Version): Taylor Swift, 31, releases her first re-recording from her first six albums, delighting fans with a revamp of her 2009 smash hit Love Story that features her touring band
In control: Slightly tweaking the title to include ‘Taylor’s Version,’ was her way of letting her fans know that she was back in full control
A scrapbook style video to accompany the ‘new’ track, old photos of the singer throughout the early days of her career appeared next to the song lyrics.
Previously teasing that some aspects of her re-recorded songs and albums would be different, fans were relieved to find that no lyrics to her high school Romeo and Juliet love ballad had been altered.
Speaking about the slight differences her fan could expect to hear on the track she said:
‘One fun thing about rerecording Love Story is that I really wanted my touring band to get a chance to play on this version because you know they spent a lot of years playing this song over and over again.’
Nostalgic: A scrapbook style video to accompany the ‘new’ track, old photos of the singer throughout the early days of her career appeared next to the song lyrics
Lyric change?: Fans were relieved to find that no lyrics to her high school Romeo and Juliet love ballad had been altered
Old ties: ‘I really wanted my touring band to get a chance to play on this version because you know they spent a lot of years playing this song over and over again,’ she said
Swifties were out in full force upon the track’s release, as the hashtag #Taylorsversion became the number one trending item on Twitter.
Alex Goldschmidt who became known as the guy Swift helped propose to his boyfriend in 2019 was quick to point out that she could now say ‘owned by Taylor Swift’ along with her other song credits.
Laguna Beach star Stephen Colletti who appeared in her music video for White Horse made a joke about reprising his role in the ‘Taylor’s Version’ of the track.
She teased new surprises with regards to her re-released music in a December interview with Zane Lowe as she said, ‘I want to keep a lot of cool surprises for the fans until I’m ready to show them fully to everyone.
Double duty: ‘There would be days where I’d be recording You Belong With Me, and then I’d be recording a song like Happiness (off Evermore), she told Lowe in a December interview
Out now: She released the track at Midnight on Thursday prompting a full Twitter explosion with the #Taylorsversion being the number one trending topic
Full ownership: One user was quick to provide support that Swift could now add ‘Owned by’ to the list of song credits
Blast from the past: Laguna Beach star Stephen Colletti who appeared in her music video for White Horse was quick to provide a laugh and support of the track
‘Perfect’: Fans were quick to provide support for the new track following her battle to regain ownership
Swift told Good Morning America Thursday that her next release will be a re-recorded version of her 2008 studio album Fearless.
Fans were only able to decipher the impending release date when she strategically capitalized letters in her social media announcement on Thursday, spelling out ‘April 9.’
Speaking about the extended 26 track album which will feature previously unheard tracks she said:
‘I tried to keep it as close to the original as possible. The additional [from the vault] songs add insight into what the album almost was, because every time you make an album you leave some songs off. It’s really cool that the fans will get to have the full picture.’
Now in full control over her first six albums (after Braun sold the masters in November after acquiring her former label Big Loud in June) she has been able to re-record her full catalog under her new label Republic Records.
First of many: Revealing one of many special announcements on Good Morning America Thursday she told Lowe in December, ‘I want to keep a lot of cool surprises for the fans until I’m ready to show them fully to everyone’
Fearless: Her next drop will be Fearless in April, an extended 26-track version of her 2008 album
She began the process while working on Evermore, saying that the juxtaposition of making new stuff while revisiting the old made her feel ‘really proud of sort of the scope of things.’
‘By then we had a great deal of Evermore done. I had shot a music video for Willow, but I was still writing and I was still recording. So there would be days where I’d be recording You Belong With Me, and then I’d be recording a song like Happiness (off Evermore).’
She said that all the songs she’s written over the years are equally as ‘valid’ to her, as she spoke about evolving from writing about ‘troubles in high school’ to the musings of her adult life that are reflected in her recent albums.
Swift piggybacked on the process of revisiting the old parts of her while ushering in the new, as she tweeted:
‘This process has been more fulfilling and emotional than I could’ve imagined and has made me even more determined to re-record all of my music. I hope you’ll like this first outing as much as I liked traveling back in time to recreate it.’
Emotionally fulfilled: Ahead of her first track release she tweeted ‘I hope you’ll like this first outing as much as I liked traveling back in time to recreate it’