Taylor Swift: The 10-Minute Version of ‘All Too Well’ Is the Longest Song to Reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100
On Nov. 12, Taylor Swift released Red (Taylor’s Version), the re-recorded version of her 2012 album Red. For the album, Swift made “All Too Well,” a fan-favorite song from the original album, a single. The singer-songwriter also released a 10-minute version of the song as a “From the Vault” track. On Nov. 22, Billboard announced that “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, making the 10-minute version of “All Too Well” the longest song to ever reach No. 1 on the chart.
Taylor Swift’s song ‘All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)’ debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is a weekly chart that tracks the most popular songs in the U.S. based on sales, streams, and radio play.
For tracking purposes, both “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” from the album’s main tracklist and the 10-minute version are counted as one song.
According to Billboard, the song earned “54.4 million U.S. streams, 286,000 radio airplay audience impressions and 57,800 downloads sold in the Nov. 12-18 tracking week, according to MRC Data,” in its first week.
This debut on the Hot 100 made the 10-minute version of “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” the longest song to ever reach the top spot on the Billboard chart.
The Billboard report reads, “Given the (dominant) 10-minute, 13-second version of ‘All Too Well (Taylor’s Version),’ the song can now be considered the longest No. 1 by run time in the Hot 100’s history. Don McLean’s ‘American Pie (Parts I & II),’ at 8 minutes, 37 seconds, held the mark for nearly a half-century, dating to its first of four weeks at No. 1 in January 1972.”
‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200
Each week, the Billboard 200 chart tracks the most popular albums in the U.S. On Nov. 21, Billboard revealed that Red (Taylor’s Version) reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in its first week. Because of this, Swift set another record on the Billboard charts.
Billboard reports that “Swift is the first artist to debut atop the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 simultaneously as many as three times… BTS, Justin Bieber and Drake have scored one such simultaneous start each.”
Swift previously achieved this feat twice in 2020. First with folklore and its lead single “Cardigan,” and then with evermore and the album’s lead single “willow.”
‘All Too Well’ is Taylor Swift’s favorite song on ‘Red’
Leading up to the release of Red (Taylor’s Version), Swift appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to promote the album.
During her interview with Fallon, Swift shared that “All Too Well” was her favorite song on Red in 2012. Because of this, she was pleasantly surprised so many fans loved the song the same way she did.
“Basically, when I was writing the Red album, I knew I had a favorite on the album and it was a song called ‘All Too Well,’” Swift told Fallon. “But what happened on this album was this song became the fans’ favorite on its own. My favorite and their favorite song aligned.”
