NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 22: Taylor Swift performs onstage during the “Speak Now World Tour” at … [+]
Taylor Swift’s music has stood the test of time, as even her older releases perform well whenever she gives fans a reason to stream and buy them once more. This week, she earns a somewhat odd spot in the history books as one of her newly-released cuts arrives.
On this week’s edition of the Country Digital Song Sales chart, Swift’s track “If This Was a Movie (Taylor’s Version)” debuts at No. 1. The list ranks the tunes that can be classified as country and which actually sold the most copies in the prior tracking frame. That’s a different methodology from the Hot 100 or even the Hot Country Songs tallies, which take into account radio play and streams.
Billboard notes that “If This Was a Movie (Taylor’s Version)” hitting No. 1 is a historic moment for Swift. Among all country acts, she’s managed something that no one has done before. Though to be honest, it’s likely not many have even tried.
“If This Was a Movie (Taylor’s Version)” is the first song to hit No. 1 on the Country Digital Song Sales chart twice in two different iterations. The original take, titled just “If This Was a Movie,” ruled in 2011. Now, the re-recording has repeated that success.
The song arrives having sold 11,300 copies in its first frame of availability, according to data shared by Luminate. That’s also enough for it to open at No. 4 on the all-genre Digital Song Sales chart.
Swift is in the middle of re-recording all the material featured on her first six albums, as well as plenty of tracks that were written and recorded during that time period, but never released. She’s doing so in order to regain some control over her own work, as the rights to all that music have been sold several times, and she doesn’t control them.
“If This Was a Movie (Taylor’s Version)” was released alongside three other tracks a little over a week ago. Swift doled them out to fans to hype them up for her new The Eras Tour…not that anyone needed to be more excited for the most highly-anticipated concert of the year. It dropped at the same time as “All of the Girls You Loved Before,” “Safe & Sound (Taylor’s Version),” with Joy Williams and John Paul White and “Eyes Open (Taylor’s Version).”
The original “If This Was a Movie” served as a bonus track on Swift’s Speak Now album. In addition to rising to No. 1 on the Country Digital Song Sales chart, it also peaked at No. 10 on the Hot 100.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2023/03/31/taylor-swift-manages-a-strangebut-impressivefeat-on-billboards-country-chart/