On October 24, 2006, Taylor Swift released her eponymous album debut to critical acclaim. The country record received numerous nominations, including the CMA’s New Female Vocalist of the Year, Grammy Award for Best New Artist, and CMA Album of the Year. (Not bad for someone who was still a literal child of only 16 years old at the time.)
Swift’s debut marked the beginning of a career we don’t need to tell you about. It’s common knowledge that it’s Taylor Swift’s world; we’re just living in it. In the almost two decades since she released Taylor Swift, the prolific singer-songwriter has become one of the most successful pop stars of all time. After all, when Ringo Starr compares your fan base to Beatlemania, you have to be doing something right, right?
In honor of the anniversary of the official start of Swift’s career, we take a look at three of the best cuts from her debut.
“Tim McGraw”
What kind of beyond-your-years wisdom does a teenage girl from Pennsylvania need to have to start her debut album with the line, He said the way my blue eyes shined put those Georgia stars to shame that night. I said, ‘That’s a lie.’ Apparently, as much beyond-your-years wisdom as Taylor Swift possessed. The first single off her debut, “Tim McGraw,” perfectly encapsulated what was to come in the rest of the 11-song tracklist: teenage romance, Southern imagery, and the kind of self-deprecation tendencies that only a nervous kid can muster.
In a way, “Tim McGraw” foreshadowed the rest of her discography. Over the years, Swift has maintained that sense of nostalgic romanticism that’s hopeful and hopeless all at once. Her uncanny ability to poke fun at herself and others also persists. Indeed, Swift has built her whole career running the gamut from totally unserious to gravely sincere.
“Should’ve Said No”
In a country music world dominated by Miranda Lambert’s “Kerosene” and Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats,” Taylor Swift’s “Should’ve Said No” fit right in with the popular trend of righteous female rage. It has the same type of scorned lover vibe as “Picture to Burn” without that lyric and is also surprisingly emotionally mature coming from someone who wasn’t even of legal voting age when she wrote it. You should’ve said no, you should’ve gone home, you should’ve thought twice ‘fore you let it all go. Demanding forethought from a teenage boy? A tall order.
Interestingly, “Should’ve Said No” wasn’t always going to be on the record—a plausible explanation for why Swift’s debut was 11 tracks long instead of a round ten. According to Songfacts, it took Swift 20 minutes to write before she recorded it. “I was living every line in this song at the time,” she later said.
“Our Song”
Listen, say what you will about sugary sweet pop songs of the mid-2000s, but when “Our Song” came out, it was a bop. The upbeat love song features the same simplistic, down-home imagery as “Tim McGraw,” from the slamming screen doors to the uniquely teenage experience of whispering on the phone after lights-out—although that one line about talking real slow still doesn’t really make sense. Sorry, T-Swift.
“Our Song” peaked at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country chart and was certified platinum four times in the U.S. Need we remind you that Swift wrote this song for a high school talent show her freshman year? With the passing of time and her constant output of new music, it can be easy to forget the full trajectory of Swift’s immense and groundbreaking musical career. But Taylor Swift was inarguably flexing her songwriting muscles in that 2006 debut, and she certainly hasn’t stopped doing it ever since.
