https://www.wsj.com/articles/americas-favorite-taylor-swift-song-poll-11666222697?mod=hp_listc_pos3
Of the roughly 200 songs Taylor Swift has released since the start of her recording career, “All Too Well” has long been a fan favorite—it’s the song, Ms. Swift has said, that concertgoers request more than any other. But what do other listeners think?
A national poll conducted by Ipsos for The Wall Street Journal posed the open-ended question “What is your favorite Taylor Swift song?” to a nationally representative sample of 1,024 people. Though their selections may not reflect the tastes of die-hard Swifties, they show the enduring power of Ms. Swift’s catchy chart toppers, dating back to her first album.
Here are their top five picks, along with commentary from Journal readers.
Taylor Swift’s 10th studio album, ‘Midnights,’ is out Oct. 21.
5. ‘You Belong With Me’
One of Ms. Swift’s earliest hits has proved to be one of her most enduring. After its release in 2008, “You Belong With Me” rose to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for song of the year and best female pop vocal performance at the 2010 Grammys.
More than a decade later, the song has become an unofficial sports anthem. “If you asked 4,800 Providence College students, 57,000 PC alumni, the state of Rhode Island and thousands of Friar Fanatics, the best Taylor Swift song is still ‘You Belong With Me,’” said reader Jenn O’Meara, 51. Following a request for the song at a Friars men’s basketball game last December, the team went on to win its first Big East season championship.
The song, which appears on the album “Fearless,” is among the top five favorites of Americans of all generations, according to our poll.
4. ‘Tim McGraw’
“Tim McGraw” introduced a 16-year-old Taylor Swift to the music scene in the summer of 2006. The single, from her self-titled debut album, hit No. 6 on the Hot Country Songs chart and remained on the Billboard Hot 100 for 20 weeks.
According to our poll, the song is particularly popular among baby boomers, with 10% of them calling “Tim McGraw” their favorite in Ms. Swift’s oeuvre.
“‘Tim McGraw’ was the very beginning,” said reader Shaw Adcock, 29, who noted that the country track’s “romanticism and world-building songwriting still underlies the majority of her work.”
3. ‘Blank Space’
The second single from “1989,” “Blank Space” was an immediate hit, spending seven weeks as the top song on the Billboard Hot 100. In our poll, “Blank Space” was the runner-up among Gen Z respondents, 8% of whom cited it as their favorite song.
The “Blank Space” music video—which portrays Ms. Swift as a man-eating villain—went on to win best female video and best pop video at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2015. Just this year, it surpassed three billion views on YouTube.
2. ‘Love Story’
The 2008 song that catapulted Ms. Swift to international fame was the second-most popular in the Journal’s poll, with 11% of respondents citing it as their favorite.
The debut single from “Fearless,” the song is popular across several generations, with 14% of Gen Z respondents, 15% of millennials and 10% of Gen Xers choosing it as their favorite.
Packed with allusions to Shakespeare and Hawthorne, “Love Story” is a classic tale of forbidden lovers planning to run away. Ms. Swift recently rerecorded the song as part of her effort to reclaim control over her music catalog.
1. ‘Shake It Off’
“Shake It Off,” with its upbeat tempo, earworm of a chorus and haters-be-damned message, blew away the competition in our poll, ranking as the favorite of Ms. Swift’s songs across geography and generations.
Following its release, “Shake It Off” spent four weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, and 50 weeks on the chart overall, tying it with “You Belong With Me” as Ms. Swift’s longest-charting single. The song is currently the focus of a copyright battle over the lyrics “players gonna play.”
Reader Betty Jo L. Currie, 69, recalled singing “Shake It Off” with her granddaughter on a car ride last spring. She said the song helps her to “shake off any troubles and get back to the joyful business of living.”
Honorable Mention: ‘All Too Well (10-Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)’
Although “All Too Well” was overlooked in our national poll, Journal readers who replied to a separate callout chose Ms. Swift’s unabridged version of the song by a wide margin. “Her wit, poetic lyrics, and beautiful lyrics make ‘All Too Well (10-Minute Version)’ the best song of Taylor’s career,” said reader Sophia Cook, 21.
“All Too Well” was released in 2012 on the album “Red,” which Ms. Swift rereleased in 2021. Both versions tell the story of a love gone cold and the scarf that remains in its wake.
“I have two soon-to-be-fully-adult daughters who have never had their hearts broken,” said reader Jon Putnam, 65. “I hope that by learning how real this song is, they never have to sing it for themselves.”
Courtesy of Big Machine Records
Write to Madison Conte at madison.conte@wsj.com, Gretchen Tarrant at gretchen.tarrant@wsj.com and Harry Carr at harry.carr@wsj.com