13 fun facts about Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’ that you may not know

Taylor Swift’s “1989” is back in the news this week, nine years after it earned rave reviews and crushed expected album sales, transforming Swift into a full-blown pop star.

“1989 (Taylor’s Version)” is already on track to eclipse the original’s success, according to Billboard. The rerecorded and extended tracklist has already broken the record for the most-streamed album in a single day on Spotify (a record that was previously set by Swift’s own “Midnights”).

Initially released as Swift’s fifth studio album, “1989” is a cherished and widely admired chapter in Swift’s career. Going against her label’s demands for more country music, Swift was determined to fully embrace the pop sounds she’d been toying with.

“Every single element of this album has been called into question, and I’ve had to say ‘No, this is how we’re doing it,'” she told Time in 2014. “It was all on me if this didn’t work.”

Luckily, it worked. “1989” moved 1.287 million copies in its first week and became Swift’s best-selling album to date. It eventually spawned three No. 1 singles and won album of the year at the 2016 Grammy Awards.

Due to its success, the album has been discussed and mythologized at length. Most people know that “Blank Space” is satire, for example, and “Bad Blood” was inspired by Swift’s since-buried feud with Katy Perry. But what of the less-publicized details and quirks from the creative process?

Keep scrolling for 13 fun facts about “1989” that non-Swifties likely don’t know.

“This Love” is the only song for “1989” that Swift wrote by herself.

According to excerpts from her diary, which were included with physical copies of her 2019 album “Lover,” she wrote the song in Los Angeles on October 17, 2012 — five days before she released her fourth album, “Red.”

The entry reveals how “This Love” was conceived in its entirety, with both verses, the chorus, and the bridge all finished together. The original lyrics also remained largely intact, except for a few tweaks and additions.

Before recording the final version, Swift added two key lines in the first verse: “And I could go on and on, on and on, and I will,” “And you were just gone and gone, gone and gone.”

She also adjusted a couplet in the second verse, which was initially written as, “Twisting, turning / Tried to keep warm with someone new.”

In the song, Swift sings, “Tossing, turning / Struggled through the night with someone new.”

“This Love” is the only song for “1989” that Swift wrote by herself.

According to excerpts from her diary, which were included with physical copies of her 2019 album “Lover,” she wrote the song in Los Angeles on October 17, 2012 — five days before she released her fourth album, “Red.”

The entry reveals how “This Love” was conceived in its entirety, with both verses, the chorus, and the bridge all finished together. The original lyrics also remained largely intact, except for a few tweaks and additions.

Before recording the final version, Swift added two key lines in the first verse: “And I could go on and on, on and on, and I will,” “And you were just gone and gone, gone and gone.”

She also adjusted a couplet in the second verse, which was initially written as, “Twisting, turning / Tried to keep warm with someone new.”

In the song, Swift sings, “Tossing, turning / Struggled through the night with someone new.”

“This Love” is the only song for “1989” that Swift wrote by herself.

According to excerpts from her diary, which were included with physical copies of her 2019 album “Lover,” she wrote the song in Los Angeles on October 17, 2012 — five days before she released her fourth album, “Red.”

The entry reveals how “This Love” was conceived in its entirety, with both verses, the chorus, and the bridge all finished together. The original lyrics also remained largely intact, except for a few tweaks and additions.

Before recording the final version, Swift added two key lines in the first verse: “And I could go on and on, on and on, and I will,” “And you were just gone and gone, gone and gone.”

She also adjusted a couplet in the second verse, which was initially written as, “Twisting, turning / Tried to keep warm with someone new.”

In the song, Swift sings, “Tossing, turning / Struggled through the night with someone new.”

As the тιтle suggests, Swift drew inspiration from ’80s artists while creating her first true pop album, specifically Peter Gabriel and Annie Lennox.

“Those were the two artists that I was listening to a lot when I was making this record,” she told NPR. “What Annie does is so interesting to me, and it’s not something you could ever try to duplicate. But the way she conveys a thought, there’s something really intense about it. And I think that’s something I’ll always aspire to.”

“With Peter, that’s an artist who has such incredible taste and such an incredible finger on the pulse of what would excite people, musically,” she continued. “What he was doing in the ’80s was so ahead of its time, because he was playing with a lot of synth-pop sounds, but kind of creating sort of an atmosphere behind what he was singing, rather than a produced track.”

Lennox found success as one-half of the British pop duo Eurythmics. In the music video for their 1983 hit “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” Lennox made waves by sporting a “powerful androgynous look” that “defied the male gaze,” per the BBC.

Gabriel is perhaps best known for his 1986 album “So,” which became a mᴀssive commercial success led by the No. 1 single “Sledgehammer.”

Swift said that “Slut!” felt too “California” to make the cut for the original album.

“Slut!” is another vault track that Swift cut from “1989” back in 2014, but later released with “1989 (Taylor’s Version).”

In an audio clip for Tumblr Music, Swift said the song was too thematically similar to “Blank Space” to include both on the original tracklist.

She added that “Slut!” didn’t quite fit in her cityscape vision at the time.

“I love this song because I think it’s really dreamy,” she said. “I always saw ‘1989’ as a New York album, but this song to me was always California. And maybe that was another reason it didn’t make the cut, ’cause sometimes thematically, I just have these weird little rules in my head.”

“Is It Over Now?” is the final track on “1989 (Taylor’s Version).”

“I always saw this song as sort of a sister to ‘Out of the Woods’ and ‘I Wish You Would.’ I kind of saw those songs as similar,” she said in a Tumblr Music audio clip. “Unfortunately, when we were making these decisions on what to put on ‘1989’ and what to leave behind, I had to make some tough choices.”

Indeed, “Is It Over Now?” and “Out of the Woods” both deal with big rhetorical questions that threaten to destroy her relationship. (“Was it over when she laid down on your couch?” “Are we out of the woods yet?”)

The newer song also describes a scene when Swift’s ex “lost control,” which resulted in “red blood, white snow.”

This recalls the bridge in “Out of the Woods,” when Swift sings, “Remember when you hit the brakes too soon? / Twenty sтιтches in a hospital room.”

In 2014, Swift opened up to Rolling Stone about that verse, paraphrased by reporter Josh Eells: “She says it was inspired by a snowmobile ride with an ex who lost control and wrecked it so badly that she saw her life flash before her eyes. Both of them had to go to the ER, although Swift wasn’t hurt. She corrects herself: ‘Not as hurt.'”

“People think they know the whole narrative of my life,” Swift told Eells. “I think maybe that line is there to remind people that there are really big things they don’t know about.”

“Now That We Don’t Talk” was left behind because it was written too late.

Although “Shake It Off” and “Clean” were late additions that made the cut, Swift recently revealed the vault track “Now That We Don’t Talk” was also written “towards the end of the process.”

Cowritten by Antonoff, Swift said they “couldn’t get the production right at the time,” which forced her to abandon the song. It was finally released on “1989 (Taylor’s Version).”

“We had tons of time to perfect the production this time and figure out what we wanted the song to sound like,” she said in another Tumblr Music audio clip. “I think it’s the shortest song I’ve ever had, but I think it packs a punch.”