Taylor Swift has built her career on breaking the rules and stepping outside the lines, but 16 years ago, she broke an unexpected rule.

Swift developed her love for songwriting when she realized it would set her apart from all the other people in Nashville who dreamed of a country music career. Since then, the singer-songwriter has been known for writing all the songs on her albums.

While she started working with more co-writers as her career progressed, Swift has at least one solo written song on every album except reputation.

At the 2016 BMI Pop Awards, Taylor Swift took home the Songwriter of the Year trophy as well as an award named after her, The Taylor Swift Award. Swift was only the second artist in history to have a BMI award named after her, the first being Michael Jackson. In 2024, Swift took home Songwriter of The Year again, two years after winning Songwriter-Artist of the Decade at the Nashville Songwriter Awards.

While she’s a prolific songwriter, Swift loves covering other artists’ songs, too. In 2009, she broke her songwriting rule, putting one of these covers on her album.

Taylor Swift Only Has One Song On All of Her Albums She Didn’t Write

The Song Is Untouchable, A Luna Halo Cover

After releasing her sophomore album Fearless in 2008, Swift went on a sold-out headlining tour, quickly becoming one of the biggest stars of the moment. When Fearless went platinum, Swift celebrated by releasing Fearless Platinum Edition in 2009.

The album included a few songs that didn’t make it onto the initial record, like “Jump Then Fall” and a piano rendition of “Forever & Always.” However, the album also included a cover of Luna Halo’s “Untouchable.” While the original song is rock, Swift reworked it into a stripped-down country pop hit that fit with the other songs from the Fearless era.

Swift also reworked a few of the lyrics to fit her style, changing the second chorus from “In the middle of the night, I wake up from this dream / I wanna feel you in the dark lying next to me” to “In the middle of the night, we can form this dream / I wanna feel you by my side, standing next to me.” However, despite not actually writing the song, Swift managed to get a songwriting credit, since her composition was so different from the original.

How Did Untouchable End Up On Fearless?

Swift Had Previously Covered The Song

In 2008, to promote Fearless, Taylor Swift performed in a program called Live From The Clear Channel Stripped. Swift performed stripped-down versions of songs like “Fearless” and “Love Story” and debuted her cover of “Untouchable” too. According to Luna Halo member Nathan Barlowe, the choice came about when Swift’s former record label president had given her a copy of Luna Halo’s album. Then, before her Stripped performance, he encouraged her to do a cover.

Since she was a fan of the band and their album, she chose to cover “Untouchable.” Afterward, she did a studio recording for Fearless Platinum Edition and, 12 years later, rerecorded it as a vault track on Fearless (Taylor’s Version). Taylor Swift might be best known for writing her own lyrics, but her “Untouchable” cover proved she’s also a master of covering songs and making them her own.