While she has yet to falter with any of her albums, Taylor Swift’s 1989 was perhaps her biggest and most successful production yet. The several-year period in which she was promoting the pop full-length was incredibly exciting and historic, and the set produced some of the biggest hits of her career. Now, as she gets ready to drop the re-recorded version of the project, the world needs to prepare itself for those same singles to be massive all over again.
On October 27, Swift will release 1989 (Taylor’s Version), which will see the singer re-record all the tunes featured on the original album, reworked ever so slightly. The title is perhaps the most highly-anticipated of the six projects she’s re-releasing, largely because of how successful it and its singles were when it was first introduced to the world nearly a decade ago.
1989 produced a trio of No. 1s on the Hot 100 as well as two additional top 10s, and plenty of other cuts from the project also rose high on the chart. Interest is so high in 1989 (Taylor’s Version) that when it arrives, those same cuts will likely launch high on the Hot 100 once again.
Several songs from her other re-recorded albums that were once hits have become hits again, such as “Love Story (Taylor’s Version),” featured on Fearless (Taylor’s Version), missed out on the top 10 on the Hot 100 by one space after the original rose to No. 4 many years ago.
“State of Grace (Taylor’s Version)” from Red (Taylor’s Version) nearly matched the No. 13 peak of its predecessor, instead coming in at No. 18. From Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), both “Mine (Taylor’s Version)” and “Back to December (Taylor’s Version)” opened inside the top 20, while the first versions made their way into the top 10.
If these songs can come close to reaching the peak positions that the first editions made hit, what’s in store for some of Swift’s even-more-commercially successful wins? After announcing 1989 (Taylor’s Version), Swift’s “Blank Space” became so popular it managed to break back into the upper half of the Hot 100, which is no easy feat. Many other tracks from 1989 surged in consumption as well, so what’s stopping them from becoming smashes once more?
When the album is available in full, or perhaps if Swift doles some of them as singles, they could easily enter the top 40 yet again, which is typically when a tune becomes a hit. It’s likely that these songs, such as “Blank Space,” “Shake It Off” and “Style,” among many others, will launch even higher. They could all break into the top 20 or perhaps even the top 10, depending on how she drops them and what she’s competing with at the time.
Swift may choose to promote individual tunes as singles ahead of the release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) and even after the album drops in full, which she has done with some of her re-releases. She may also opt to not single out any track and simply present it as one solid collection. In the end, it probably doesn’t matter, as the songs that were hits the first time around will likely become big wins for Swift all over again—now the world just needs to wait and see how high they climb on the Hot 100 and if they can eclipse their former versions…if that’s even possible for some.
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