Taylor Swift has had a remarkable run of singles in her almost two decades as a musician. Other people have ranked all of her songs or top songs, but I thought it would be interesting to concentrate only on her singles. So, here are all 58! of her radio singles ranked, with commentary on the top ten and the bottom ten.
58. “Ronan” – I don’t want to minimize the potential impact of this song to many; its lyrics are based on a true story of a mother losing her toddler son to cancer, and its release raised money for cancer research. But as a song, the tune isn’t great and the lyrics are very trite.
57. “coney island” featuring the National – It’s baffling to me why this was chosen as a single from Evermore. Every other song is more interesting whispery, acoustic singer-songwriter.
56. “Back to December” Again, I know that for many people this song is an important expression of grief and I don’t want to take that away from them. But even compared to her other early work it’s not a well-constructed song – it never really finds the melody and just seems to ramble.
55. “Eyes Open” – This song was a single for one of the Hunger Games movies. Taylor tries a little bit to make the sound and the story relevant to the movie franchise, but it’s clear she’s not really putting in her best work.
54. “Ours” – Another odd radio pick. Another rambling mess that never really finds a tune.
53. “Karma” – I guess Taylor has to pick a stinker for each album to highlight or something. She tries to make a danceable song about karma, but it doesn’t work. Though maybe if I had never heard “Sadness is a Blessing” by Lykke Li I wouldn’t constantly be thinking about how much better that song is.
52. “Picture to Burn” – This is Taylor trying to do the 90’s Country Diva bad boyfriend song. At the time she just didn’t have the bite of Jo Dee Messina, the self-deprecation of Lee Ann Womack, or the all-around polish of Shania Twain.
51. “Teardrops on My Guitar” – At this point, they’re not really bad songs anymore, they’re just not top Taylor songs. She paints a nice picture of a teenage crush and has some good if basic rhymes. She’s still drawing out her vocals too long for no particular reason though.
50. “End Game” featuring Ed Sheeran and Future – I get wanting to make a crossover pop/rap song with Future, but why add Ed Sheeran?
49. “White Horse” – The last of the somewhat rambling, singing verses too long and slow early singles. There’s just a little more musicianship in this from the other early lesser singles. It’s the time she takes to transition between the verses and the chorus and back.
48. “exile” featuring Bon Iver – Another slow pondering entry with a male indie darling vocalist. But the lyrics in this one are at least clever.
47. “Fearless”
46. “Message In A Bottle (Taylor’s Version)
45. “I Don’t Wann Live Forever”
44. “Christmas Tree Farm”
43. “Sparks Fly”
42. “Should’ve Said No”
41. “Tim McGraw”
40. “cardigan”
39. “Lover”
38. “Lavender Haze”
37. “I Bet You Think About Me (Taylor’s Version)”
36. “…Ready For It”
35. “Highway Don’t Care”
34. “betty”
33. “willow”
32. “Look What You Made Me Do”
31. “Begin Again”
30. “Today Was a Fairytale”
29. “The Last Time”
28. “Fifteen”
27. “no body, no crime”
26. “ME!”
25. “Red”
24. “New Year’s Day”
23. “Everything Has Changed”
22. “The Story of Us”
21. “Getaway Car”
20. “Out of the Woods”
19. “I Knew You Were Trouble”
18. “Delicate”
17. “Bad Blood”
16. “Mine”
15. “Our Song”
14. “Shake It Off”
13. “You Need to Calm Down”
12. “You Belong With Me”
11. “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)
10. “Love Story” – Something a little more exuberant about the original version. Just a perfect capture of the essence of a teenage crush.
9. “Style” – This entry is a bit of a slow burn. Originally one of my least favorite songs from 1989, each time I listen to it, it burrows deeper into my brain. The first few listens the rhymes seem too simple, but then it becomes part of the charm.
8. “Anti-Hero” – “I’m the problem, it’s me” has already entered the lexicon. It seems like a phrase we’ll be using hundreds of years from now. But the lyrics also admit, hey it’s not always to root for Taylor. Why it really connects though, is everyone can relate at times to feeling insecure, and thinking others may be better off without you.
7. “Wildest Dreams” – One of her narrative songs, that tells an easy-to-follow story, while still sounding like a poem. Some of her best couplet work.
6. “22” – When the inevitable Broadway songbook show comes out, I can just picture the whole audience singing along while dancers flip all over the stage. Children hear this song and imagine how fun it will be to be an adult, while adults hear it and reminisce about being young.
5. “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together – Another one that would just drop perfectly into a musical. Her definitive break-up song.
4. “New Romantics” – A great driving beat, a quick-fast rhymes. Taylor’s singing so fast that it’s getting close to rapping. Lyrically this is her most virtuosic song other than my number one, linking metaphor after metaphor. Top-tier song, unless you can’t stand that little “Ah-hahaha”.
3. “the Man” – A direct commentary on how different her public persona would be if she was a man. People would be celebrating everyone she dated, and dapping her up for all her accomplishments as “the Man”. Which could come across as preachy, but this is a bop.
2. “Mean” – This has become an anthem for everyone who’s ever had to deal with a mediocre man with unearned confidence. I don’t care what her inspiration was, she paints such a vivid picture of a blowhard everyone has to deal with at least once in their life.
“And I can see you years from now in a bar
Talking over a football game
With that same big loud opinion
But nobody’s listening”
We all want to tell those idiots off.
1. “Blank Space” This is Taylor’s pop masterpiece. Rhymes, characterization, and transitions are all top-notch. And for iconic lines, this one has to have the most in a single song “Oh, my God, look at that face
You look like my next mistake” to “I can make the bad Boys good for a weekend” to “Boys only want love if it’s torture Don’t say I didn’t, say I didn’t warn ya” it’s like every fourth line is destined to be someone’s FaceBook status.