Taylor Swift’s ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’ Debuts at No. 1 on Top Country Albums Chart
Written by djfrosty on July 17, 2023
Taylor Swift’s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) launches at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart (dated July 22), while all 22 of the re-recorded set’s songs hit Hot Country Songs, breaking her own record for the most simultaneously-charted titles on the survey among women.
Released July 7, the set, the third of Swift’s planned six re-recorded albums, arrives with 716,000 equivalent album units earned, with 507,000 in traditional album sales, in the U.S. in the week ending July 13, according to Luminate.
Both figures represent the largest week by those metrics for any album in 2023 and the best since Swift’s last studio set, Midnights, opened with 1.58 million units, of which 1.14 million were in album sales (as reflected on the Nov. 5-dated Billboard 200 chart).
Swift earns her eighth No. 1 on Top Country Albums, as well as her 12th leader on the all-genre Billboard 200; on the latter list, she surpasses Barbra Streisand for the most No. 1s among women.
Taylor Swift’s Career No. 1s on Top Country Albums:
Taylor Swift, No. 1 for 24 weeks, beginning Aug. 4, 2007
Beautiful Eyes (EP), one week, Aug. 2, 2008
Fearless, 35 weeks, beginning Nov. 29, 2008
Speak Now, 13 weeks, beginning Nov. 13, 2010
Red, 16 weeks, beginning Nov. 10, 2012
Fearless (Taylor’s Version), three weeks, beginning April 24, 2021
Red (Taylor’s Version), seven weeks, beginning Nov. 27, 2021
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), one week to date, July 22, 2023
Swift’s cumulative weeks at No. 1 on Top Country Albums now swell to a milestone 100, the most among women (ahead of Shania Twain’s 97). Since the chart began in 1964, Swift has the fifth-most weeks at No. 1 among all acts, after Garth Brooks (173), Alabama (125), Morgan Wallen (117) and Willie Nelson (107).
Prior to the debut of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), the largest week of 2023 by equivalent album units belonged to Wallen’s One Thing at a Time, which arrived with 501,000 units (March 18).
Also that week, Wallen lobbed nine tracks into the top 10 of the streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Country Songs chart, the most for an act in a single week since the ranking became an all-encompassing genre survey in 1958.
With seven songs from Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) debuting in the top 10 of the latest Hot Country Songs chart, Swift boasts the second-most top 10s in a single frame. (She has now scored 36 career Hot Country Songs top 10s.)
“I Can See You (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)” flies onto Hot Country Songs the highest, at No. 3, with 24.7 million official U.S. streams, 361,000 in airplay audience and 4,000 sold.
Taylor Swift on the July 22 Hot Country Songs Chart:
Rank, Title
No. 3, “I Can See You (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)”
No. 4, “Mine (Taylor’s Version)”
No. 5, “Back to December (Taylor’s Version)”
No. 7, “Enchanted (Taylor’s Version)”
No. 8, “Sparks Fly (Taylor’s Version)”
No. 9, “Dear John (Taylor’s Version)”
No. 10, “Better Than Revenge (Taylor’s Version)”
No. 13, “Castles Crumbling (Taylor’s Version),” feat. Hayley Williams
No. 14, “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)”
No. 15, “When Emma Falls in Love (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)”
No. 16, “Electric Touch (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault),” feat. Fall Out Boy
No. 17, “Mean (Taylor’s Version)”
No. 18, “Foolish One (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)”
No. 20, “The Story of Us (Taylor’s Version)”
No. 21, “Timeless (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)”
No. 22, “Haunted (Taylor’s Version)”
No. 24, “Long Live (Taylor’s Version)”
No. 26, “Last Kiss (Taylor’s Version)”
No. 27, “Never Grow Up (Taylor’s Version)”
No. 28, “Innocent (Taylor’s Version)”
No. 29, “Ours (Taylor’s Version)”
No. 31, “Superman (Taylor’s Version)”
Swift thus charts 22 entries simultaneously on Hot Country Songs, a new personal-best for her. She tops the 21 titles that she tallied on the Nov. 27, 2021, chart, when Red (Taylor’s Version) opened at No. 1 on Top Country Albums and the Billboard 200. (Wallen logged a record 35 tracks on the March 18 Hot Country Songs chart.)
Notably, thanks to debuts at Nos. 13 and 16, respectively, pop-rock mainstays Hayley Williams, of Paramore, and Fall Out Boy each make their first appearances on Hot Country Songs.
Concurrently, Swift adds seven top 10s on Country Streaming Songs, pushing her career total to 30. On Country Digital Song Sales, she nets three new top 10s, upping her career count to 45. Those are the most among all artists on both lists; Wallen has the second-most top 10s on Country Streaming Songs (25) and Blake Shelton is the runner-up on Country Digital Song Sales (37). (Country Digital Song Sales started in January 2010 and Country Streaming Songs began in April 2013.)