While she’s a music superstar these days, Taylor Swift was just entering the country music scene 14 years ago. It’s been 14 years since the artist released her debut album.
Swift released her self-titled album with Big Machine Records on Oct. 24, 2006. She was only 16-years-old at the time, and the album became an overnight success. Swift was the writer for all 11 songs on the album and released five singles that later went platinum.
The First Single For Taylor Swift Was ‘Tim McGraw’
The songs were “Teardrops on My Guitar,” “Our Song,” “Picture to Burn” and “Should’ve Said No.” But most audiences first heard Swift’s signature voice with her lead single “Tim McGraw”. The song made it to No. 6 on the country chart and No. 40 on the pop chart. She wrote the song while she was in math class.
“This song means so much to me. That’s why we wanted it to be the first track on the album,” Swift said at the time. “The idea for this song came to me in math class. I just started singing to myself.”
As with some of her later music, an ex-boyfriend inspired the lyrics behind the song. She said she dated a guy who was moving away to go to college. The two listened to Tim McGraw music together.
“I started thinking of things that I knew would remind him of me,” Swift continued. “The first thing that came to mind was that my favorite song is by Tim McGraw. After school, I went downtown, sat down at the piano and wrote this with Liz Rose in 15 minutes. It may be the best 15 minutes I’ve ever experienced.”
Later, McGraw confessed the song caused the equivalent of a career mid-life crisis for him. He questioned if he was still relevant in the industry. But he appreciated being the inspiration for Swift’s song.
For her album, Swift won both the CMA Horizon Award and the ACM Award for Top Female Vocalist. Since then, Swift has released eight studio albums and transitioned away from country music.
