When Taylor Swift released “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” this month, there was no doubt that it would debut at No. 1. The only question is how hard it will smash records, how many mountains of vinyl it will sell and how far down. Swift’s chart catalog will drive all others.
“Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” the third installment in Swift’s series of rerecorded albums — it recreates “Speak Now” from 2010, with a thick appendix of tracks revisited from the cutting-room floor — is the biggest new LP of the year, notching the equivalent of 716,000 sales in the United States. It easily topped Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time,” which opened with 501,000 in March.
But that’s not all. This is the 12th No. 1 album by Swift, beating out Barbra Streisand for the most chart-toppers by a woman. Drake also has 12 No. 1 album, but the only acts with more are Jay-Z (14) and the Beatles (19).
The popularity of Swift’s Eras Tour has boosted her entire catalog, and this week, in addition to the new “Speak Now,” she has three other titles in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 album chart: “Midnights” (No. 5) , “Lover” (No. 7) and “Folklore” (No. 10). Swift is the first living act to have four albums in the Top 10 since then Herb Alpert in 1966. (Prince had five after his death in 2016, and for years Billboard banned older “catalog” albums from reappearing on its main chart — a rule that changed after Michael Jackson’s death, in 2009.)
Swift’s effort to remake her first six albums began after her old record label was sold without her involvement, as a way for Swift to reclaim and control her earlier work. But the project has become its own phenomenon, with fans seizing the opportunity to revisit their own relationship with the music, and critics scrutinizing the new recordings for rare — but notable — edits. , such as changing a lyric in the track “Better Than Revenge” from “Speak Now” that was found to be outdated or more severe.
The new version of “Speak Now” had a bigger opening than her two previous rerecordings, “Red” (605,000) and “Fearless” (291,000).
The 716,000 “equivalent” sales for the new “Speak Now” — a measure by Billboard and the data service Luminate that reconciles the different ways fans consume music today — include 269 million streams and 507,000 copy sold as a complete package. It also included 268,500 copies on vinyl, the second-biggest week for any vinyl album since Luminate’s predecessors began keeping reliable sales records in 1991 — the biggest being Swift’s own “Midnights,” which opened with 575,000 copies sold on LP in October.
“Speak Now” continues an impressively productive run for Swift. This is his sixth studio album in three years, and according to Billboard he is the only artist to earn new No. 1 album in each of the last five calendar years: “Lover” (2019); “Folklore” and “Evermore” (2020); “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and “Red (Taylor’s Version)” (2021); “Midnights” (2022); and now “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).”
Also this week, Wallen’s “One Thing” is at No. 2; Lil Uzi Vert’s “Pink Tape,” last week’s top album, fell to No. 3; and the “Génesis” of Peso Pluma is No. 4.