Taylor Swift has been working hard to re-record the material from her first six albums, and on Wednesday (Dec. 2), she offered fans a peek at one of the biggest songs of the bunch. A snippet of the country-turned-pop superstar’s remade version of “Love Story” appears in a new Match.com ad.
Actor Ryan Reynolds, a good friend of Swift’s, wrote the commercial, Swift explains in a tweet. She’s “NOT done” with re-recording all of her old material, she stresses — but she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to let the song soundtrack a “LOLsome” love story between the Devil and 2020.
Swift’s newly recorded version of “Love Story” is faithful to the original in sound and style, though fans who’ve heard the track countless times through the years will be able to pick up on subtle differences in her lyrical delivery:
Written by Swift and Nathan Chapman and released as the lead single from Swift’s 2008 album Fearless, “Love Story” has sold more than 18 million copies worldwide and hit No. 1 on a variety of charts in numerous countries, including Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs, Adult Contemporary and Mainstream Top 40 charts. The smash-hit story song earned CMA and CMT Music Awards, as well as an ACM Awards nomination, for its music video.
In an Instagram Story, Swift shares that she’s “working hard to get the [re-recorded] music to you soon!!” She started the project “recently,” she revealed in a Twitter post in mid-November.
Swift is re-recording the music she released with Big Machine Label Group, from the start of her career through 2017’s Reputation, after BMLG founder Scott Borchetta, currently the company’s president and CEO, sold the company and its back catalog — including all of Swift’s work — to celebrity talent manager Scooter Braun. Swift left Big Machine in November of 2018, opting to sign a new deal with Republic Records, but after Borchetta sold BMLG to Braun in 2019, she publicly denounced the decision, telling fans that she had suffered “incessant, manipulative bullying” at Braun’s hands for years.
In November, it was announced that Braun had sold Swift’s master recordings and Big Machine-era work to Shamrock Holdings, a private equity company owned by the estate of Roy E. Disney, a longtime senior executive of the Walt Disney Company (Walt was Roy’s uncle). The company’s executives reached out to Swift after the sale was complete, hoping to work with her on their plans for her work, but because the terms of the deal mean Braun will still profit off their plans, per Swift, she has declined their offer.
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