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  • Taylor Swift is credited as the sole writer on more than 60 songs across her career.
  • This means she composed the lyrics and melodies alone.
  • These include fan-favorites like “Our Song,” “Love Story,” “Dear John,” “Red,” and “The Black Dog.”

Taylor Swift has been writing songs since she was 10 years old, when she first picked up a guitar.

At 15, Swift became the youngest songwriter to ever sign a publishing deal with Sony. In the two decades since, she has built a billion-dollar empire off the strength and popularity of her musical catalog.

“Everybody has their own sort of niche or specialty thing that they do that, you know, sets them apart from everybody else,” Swift said in “Miss Americana,” her 2020 Netflix documentary. “My storytelling is what it is for me. I know that without me writing my own songs, I wouldn’t be here.”

Although Swift has frequently worked with noted producers and fellow songwriters to create music collaboratively — as with her latest album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” which she co-produced and cowrote entirely with Max Martin and Shellback — Swift is credited as the lead writer on every song she has ever released.

Swift is also credited as the sole songwriter on more than 60 tracks across her discography, meaning she composed the lyrics and melodies alone. These are listed below in a loose chronological order.

“The Outside”

Album: “Taylor Swift” (2006)

Best lyrics:

I tried to take the road less traveled by
But nothing seems to work the first few times

“Should’ve Said No”

Album: “Taylor Swift” (2006)

Best lyrics:

I should’ve been there, in the back of your mind
I shouldn’t be asking myself why
You shouldn’t be begging for forgiveness at my feet
You should’ve said no
Baby, and you might still have me

“Our Song”

Album: “Taylor Swift” (2006)

Best lyrics:

Our song is the slamming screen door
Sneaking out late, tapping on your window
When we’re on the phone and you talk real slow
‘Cause it’s late and your mama don’t know

“Christmas Must Be Something More”

EP: “The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection” (2008)

Best lyrics:

What if ribbons and bows didn’t mean a thing?
Would the song still survive without five golden rings?

“Beautiful Eyes”

EP: “Beautiful Eyes” (2008)

Best lyrics:

I wake up, I’m alive
In only a little while, I’ll cry

“I Heart ?”

EP: “Beautiful Eyes” (2008)

Best lyrics:

Wake up and smell the breakup
Fix my heart, put on my makeup
Another mess I didn’t plan

“Fifteen”

Album: “Fearless” (2008)

Best lyrics:

Back then, I swore I was gonna marry him someday
But I realized some bigger dreams of mine
And Abigail gave everything she had
To a boy who changed his mind
And we both cried

“Love Story”

Album: “Fearless” (2008)

Best lyrics:

Romeo, save me, they’re trying to tell me how to feel
This love is difficult, but it’s real

“Hey Stephen”

Album: “Fearless” (2008)

Best lyrics:

Hey Stephen, I could give you 50 reasons
Why I should be the one you choose
All those other girls, well, they’re beautiful
But would they write a song for you?

“You’re Not Sorry”

Album: “Fearless” (2008)

Best lyrics:

You’re looking so innocent, I might believe you if I didn’t know
Could’ve loved you all my life if you hadn’t left me waiting in the cold
And you’ve got your share of secrets
And I’m tired of being last to know

“Forever & Always”

Album: “Fearless” (2008)

Best lyrics:

Was I out of line?
Did I say something way too honest, made you run and hide
Like a scared little boy?
I looked into your eyes
Thought I knew you for a minute, now I’m not so sure

“The Best Day”

Album: “Fearless” (2008)

Best lyrics:

Now I know why all the trees change in the fall
I know you were on my side even when I was wrong
And I love you for giving me your eyes
For staying back and watching me shine
And I didn’t know if you knew, so I’m taking this chance to say
That I had the best day with you today

“Change”

Album: “Fearless” (2008)

Best lyrics:

So we’ve been outnumbered, raided, and now, cornered
It’s hard to fight when the fight ain’t fair
We’re getting stronger now, find things they never found
They might be bigger but we’re faster and never scared

“Jump Then Fall”

Album: “Fearless Platinum Edition” (2008)

Best lyrics:

The bottom’s gonna drop out from under our feet
I’ll catch you, I’ll catch you
When people say things that bring you to your knees
I’ll catch you
The time is gonna come when you’re so mad you could cry
But I’ll hold you through the night until you smile

“The Other Side of the Door”

Album: “Fearless Platinum Edition” (2008)

Best lyrics:

With your face and the beautiful eyes
And the conversation with the little white lies
And the faded picture of a beautiful night
You carried me from your car up the stairs
And I broke down crying, was she worth this mess?
After everything and that little black dress
After everything, I must confess
I need you

“Today Was a Fairytale”

Album: “Valentine’s Day (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)” (2010), “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” (2021)

Best lyrics:

Can you feel this magic in the air?
It must have been the way you kissed me

“Mr. Perfectly Fine”

Album: “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” (2021)

Best lyrics:

Because I hear he’s got his arm ’round a brand-new girl
I’ve been pickin’ up my heart, he’s been pickin’ up her
And I never got past what you put me through
But it’s wonderful to see that it never phased you

“Mine”

Album: “Speak Now” (2010)

Best lyrics:

You made a rebel of a careless man’s careful daughter

“Sparks Fly”

Album: “Speak Now” (2010)

Best lyrics:

Get me with those green eyes, baby, as the lights go down
Give me something that’ll haunt me when you’re not around

“Back to December”

Album: “Speak Now” (2010)

Best lyrics:

And then the cold came, the dark days
When fear crept into my mind
You gave me all your love and all I gave you was goodbye

“Speak Now”

Album: “Speak Now” (2010)

Best lyrics:

She floats down the aisle like a pageant queen
But I know you wish it was me
You wish it was me, don’t you?

“Dear John”

Album: “Speak Now” (2010)

Best lyrics:

You are an expert at “sorry”
And keeping lines blurry
Never impressed by me acing your tests
All the girls that you’ve run dry have tired lifeless eyes
‘Cause you burned them out
But I took your matches before fire could catch me
So don’t look now
I’m shining like fireworks over your sad empty town

“Mean”

Album: “Speak Now” (2010)

Best lyrics:

I bet you got pushed around
Somebody made you cold
But the cycle ends right now
‘Cause you can’t lead me down that road
And you don’t know what you don’t know

“The Story of Us”

Album: “Speak Now” (2010)

Best lyrics:

I’d tell you I miss you, but I don’t know how
I’ve never heard silence quite this loud

“Never Grow Up”

Album: “Speak Now” (2010)

Best lyrics:

Remember the footsteps, remember the words said
And all your little brother’s favorite songs
I just realized everything I have is, someday, gonna be gone

“Enchanted”

Album: “Speak Now” (2010)

Best lyrics:

Please don’t be in love with someone else
Please don’t have somebody waiting on you

“Better than Revenge”

Album: “Speak Now” (2010)

Best lyrics:

She looks at life like it’s a party and she’s on the list
She looks at me like I’m a trend and she’s so over it
I think her ever-present frown is a little troubling
She thinks I’m psycho ’cause I like to rhyme her name with things

“Innocent”

Album: “Speak Now” (2010)

Best lyrics:

Time turns flames to embers
You’ll have new Septembers
Every one of us has messed up, too
Minds change like the weather
I hope you remember
Today is never too late to be brand new

“Haunted”

Album: “Speak Now” (2010)

Best lyrics:

Oh, holding my breath
Won’t see you again
Something keeps me holding onto nothing

“Last Kiss”

Album: “Speak Now” (2010)

Best lyrics:

So I’ll watch your life in pictures like I used to watch you sleep
And I feel you forget me like I used to feel you breathe
And I’ll keep up with our old friends
Just to ask them how you are
Hope it’s nice where you are
And I hope the sun shines and it’s a beautiful day
And something reminds you, you wish you had stayed
You can plan for a change in the weather and time
But I never planned on you changing your mind

“Long Live”

Album: “Speak Now” (2010)

Best lyrics:

And the cynics were outraged
Screaming, “This is absurd”
‘Cause for a moment, a band of thieves in ripped-up jeans
Got to rule the world

“Ours”

Album: “Speak Now (Deluxe Edition)” (2010)

Best lyrics:

Don’t you worry your pretty little mind
People throw rocks at things that shine

“Superman”

Album: “Speak Now (Deluxe Edition)” (2010)

Best lyrics:

Something in his deep brown eyes has me saying
He’s not all bad like his reputation
And I can’t hear one single word they say
And you’ll leave, got places to be and I’ll be OK

“Electric Touch” (featuring Fall Out Boy)

Album: “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” (2023)

Best lyrics:

I’ve gotten used to no one calling my phone
I’ve grown accustomed to sleeping alone
Still, I know that all it takes is to get it right
Just one time, just one time

“When Emma Falls in Love”

Album: “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” (2023)

Best lyrics:

She’s the kind of book that you can’t put down
Like if Cleopatra grew up in a small town

“I Can See You”

Album: “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” (2023)

Best lyrics:

You won’t believe half the things I see inside my head
Wait ’til you see half the things that haven’t happened yet

“Castles Crumbling” (featuring Hayley Williams)

Album: “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” (2023)

Best lyrics:

Power went to my head and I couldn’t stop
Ones I loved tried to help, so I ran them off
And here I sit alone behind walls of regret
Falling down like promises that I never kept

“Foolish One”

Album: “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” (2023)

Best lyrics:

‘Cause you got her on your arm and me in the wings
I’ll get your longing glances, but she’ll get your ring
And you will say you had the best of intentions
And maybe I will finally learn my lesson

“Timeless”

Album: “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” (2023)

Best lyrics:

That’s when I came upon a book covered in cobwebs
Story of a romance torn apart by fate
Hundreds of years ago, they fell in love, like we did
And I’d die for you in the same way, if I first saw your face
In the 1500s off in a foreign land
And I was forced to marry another man
You still would’ve been mine

“Eyes Open”

Album: “The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond” (2012)

Best lyrics:

So here you are, two steps ahead and staying on guard
Every lesson forms a new scar
They never thought you’d make it this far

“State of Grace”

Album: “Red” (2012)

Best lyrics: 

This is a state of grace
This is the worthwhile fight
Love is a ruthless game, unless you play it good and right

“Red”

Album: “Red” (2012)

Best lyrics:

Loving him is like driving a new Maserati down a dead-end street
Faster than the wind, passionate as sin
Ending so suddenly

“I Almost Do”

Album: “Red” (2012)

Best lyrics:

I bet you think I either moved on or hate you
‘Cause each time you reach out, there’s no reply
I bet it never, ever occurred to you
That I can’t say hello to you and risk another goodbye

“Stay Stay Stay”

Album: “Red” (2012)

Best lyrics:

You took the time to memorize me
My fears, my hopes, and dreams
I just like hanging out with you all the time
All those times that you didn’t leave, it’s been occurring to me
I’d like to hang out with you for my whole life

“Holy Ground”

Album: “Red” (2012)

Best lyrics:

Took off faster than a green light, go
Hey, you skip the conversation when you already know
I left a note on the door with a joke we’d made
And that was the first day

“Sad Beautiful Tragic”

Album: “Red” (2012)

Best lyrics:

In dreams, I meet you in warm conversation
We both wake in lonely beds, different cities
And time is taking its sweet time erasing you
And you’ve got your demons, and darling, they all look like me

“The Lucky One”

Album: “Red” (2012)

Best lyrics:

And they tell you that you’re lucky, but you’re just so confused
‘Cause you don’t feel pretty, you just feel used
And all the young things line up to take your place

“Starlight”

Album: “Red” (2012)

Best lyrics: 

I said, “Oh, my, what a marvelous tune”
It was the best night, never would forget how we moved

“Begin Again”

Album: “Red” (2012)

Best lyrics:

I’ve been spending the last eight months
Thinking all love ever does is break and burn and end
But on a Wednesday, in a café, I watched it begin again

“The Moment I Knew”

Album: “Red (Deluxe Edition)” (2012)

Best lyrics: 

What do you say when tears are streaming down your face in front of everyone you know?
And what do you do when the one who means the most to you is the one who didn’t show?

“Girl at Home”

Album: “Red (Deluxe Edition)” (2012)

Best lyrics: 

And it would be a fine proposition
If I was a stupid girl
But, honey, I am no one’s exception
This, I have previously learned

“Better Man”

Album: “Red (Taylor’s Version)” (2021)

Best lyrics:

But your jealousy, oh I can hear it now
Talking down to me like I’d always be around
Push my love away like it was some kind of loaded gun
Oh, you never thought I’d run

“Nothing New” (featuring Phoebe Bridgers)

Album: “Red (Taylor’s Version)” (2021)

Best lyrics:

I know someday I’m gonna meet her, it’s a fever dream
The kind of radiance you only have at 17
She’ll know the way and then she’ll say she got the map from me
I’ll say I’m happy for her, then I’ll cry myself to sleep

“This Love”

Album: “1989” (2014)

Best lyrics:

Clear blue water
High tide came and brought you in
And I could go on and on, on and on, and I will

“Lover”

Album: “Lover” (2019)

Best lyrics:

My heart’s been borrowed and yours has been blue
All’s well that ends well to end up with you

“Cornelia Street”

Album: “Lover” (2019)

Best lyrics:

I get mystified by how this city screams your name
And baby, I’m so terrified of if you ever walk away
I’d never walk Cornelia Street again

“Daylight”

Album: “Lover” (2019)

Best lyrics:

I can still see it all in my mind
All of you, all of me, intertwined
I once believed love would be black and white
But it’s golden
And I can still see it all in my head
Back and forth from New York, sneaking in your bed
I once believed love would be burning red
But it’s golden

“Christmas Tree Farm”

Album: N/A

Best lyrics:

Sweet dreams of holly and ribbon
Mistakes are forgiven
And everything is icy and blue
And you would be there too

“My Tears Ricochet”

Album: “Folklore” (2020)

Best lyrics:

I can go anywhere I want
Anywhere I want, just not home
And you can aim for my heart, go for blood
But you would still miss me in your bones
And I still talk to you, when I’m screaming at the sky
And when you can’t sleep at night, you hear my stolen lullabies

“No Body, No Crime” (featuring HAIM)

Album: “Evermore” (2020)

Best lyrics:

Good thing my daddy made me get a boating license when I was 15
And I’ve cleaned enough houses to know how to cover up a scene
Good thing Este’s sister’s gonna swear she was with me
Good thing his mistress took out a big life insurance policy

“Vigilante Shit”

Album: “Midnights” (2022)

Best lyrics:

Picture me thick as thieves with your ex-wife
And she looks so pretty
Driving in your Benz
Lately, she’s been dressing for revenge

“Bigger Than the Whole Sky”

Album: “Midnights (3am Edition)” (2022)

Best lyrics:

No words appear before me in the aftermath
Salt streams out my eyes and into my ears
Every single thing I touch becomes sick with sadness
‘Cause it’s all over now, all out to sea

“My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys”

Album: “The Tortured Poets Department” (2024)

Best lyrics:

There was a litany of reasons why
We could’ve played for keeps this time
I know I’m just repeating myself
Put me back on my shelf
But first, pull the string
And I’ll tell you that he runs
Because he loves me

“Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?”

Album: “The Tortured Poets Department” (2024)

Best lyrics:

I wanna snarl and show you just how disturbed this has made me
You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me
So all you kids can sneak into my house with all the cobwebs
I’m always drunk on my own tears, isn’t that what they all said?
That I’ll sue you if you step on my lawn
That I’m fearsome and I’m wretched and I’m wrong
Put narcotics into all of my songs
And that’s why you’re still singing along

“The Black Dog”

Album: “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology” (2024)

Best lyrics:

Six weeks of breathing clean air, I still miss the smoke
Were you making fun of me with some esoteric joke?
Now I wanna sell my house, and set fire to all my clothes
And hire a priest to come and exorcise my demons
Even if I die screaming
And I hope you hear it

“Peter”

Album: “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology” (2024)

Best lyrics: 

You said you’d come and get me, but you were 25
And the shelf life of those fantasies has expired
Lost to the ‘Lost Boys’ chapter of your life
Forgive me, Peter, please know that I tried
To hold on to the days when you were mine
But the woman who sits by the window
Has turned out the light

“The Manuscript”

Album: “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology” (2024)

Best lyrics:

Then the actors were hitting their marks
And the slow dance was alight with the sparks
And the tears fell in synchronicity with the score
And at last, she knew what the agony had been for



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