Taylor Swift’s 10-Minute “All Too Well” Becomes Longest #1 Song In Hot 100 History

Taylor Swift’s 10-Minute “All Too Well” Becomes Longest #1 Song In Hot 100 History

A week and a half ago, Taylor Swift released Red (Taylor’s Version), her re-recorded version of the album that she originally released in 2012. The album’s centerpiece is a new 10-minute version of “All Too Well,” Swift’s brilliantly bitter breakup album. Back in 2012, Swift did not release “All Too Well” as a single, though the song still made it to #80 on the Hot 100. In the years since, “All Too Well” has emerged as a fan favorite and a critical darling. Today, “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” debuts at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Swift’s eighth #1 hit.

The original “All Too Well” runs five and a half minutes. Billboard combined the stats for the newly recorded standard-length song, billed as “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version),” with the totals for the long version of the track, which technically has the parentheses-abusing title “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault).” Because the 10-minute version accounted for a larger percentage of the song’s activity last week — including 62% of streams and 78% of sales — “All Too Well” now stands as the longest #1 hit of all time, replacing Don McLean’s “American Pie.” At 10 minutes and 13 seconds, it’s about two minutes longer than McLean’s hit, which topped the Hot 100 in January of 1972. “American Pie” came this close to a 50-year run as the longest chart-topper in history.

Taylor Swift put a lot of muscle into promoting that 10-minute “All Too Well.” She directed a “short film” for the song, which stars Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien. She performed all 10 minutes on Saturday Night Live. She recorded a different version live at Aaron Dessner’s studio. Evidently, it all paid off. The whole world now wants Jake Gyllenhaal to give Swift back her scarf.

In other Taylor Swift chart news, Red (Taylor’s Version) debuted at #1 on the album charts, beating out albums from Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak’s Silk Sonic project and from the K-pop group TWICE. Billboard reports that nine different Taylor Swift albums are on this week’s Billboard 200, including both versions of Red. The last time any artist had that many albums on the charts, it was 2016, and the artist in question was Prince.

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