When looking back at Taylor Swift’s discography, it feels almost impossible that she has penned the amount of hit songs she has to her name. Her discography alone has more hits than it does deep cuts and after 10 studio albums and a series of re-recordings, that is a serious feat.
Videos by American Songwriter
Her work outside of her own discography is equally robust. We previously detailed a few songs Swift had penned for other artists but, the list is so long that we had to circle back around. Find three more songs you didn’t know Swift penned for other artists, below.
1. “This Is Really Happening” (Britni Hoover)
Swift originally wrote “This Is Really Happening” with Blue Sanders for use on one of her own albums, but ultimately sold it Britni Hoover. Hoover shared the track on her 2007 album Country Strong. The lyrics – chock full of visuals – feel very Swiftian in nature: Beneath the chandelier of stars and atmosphere / Tangled like the roots on the ground / The windows opened up / The wind is blowing and we’re both not making a sound.
Though Swift never formally released “This Is Really Happening,” an early demo of the backing track can be found floating around on YouTube. A possible vault song on the “Taylor’s Version” re-recording of her debut album? We will have to wait and see.
2. “Safe & Sound” (The Civil Wars/Taylor Swift)
Earlier this year, Swift gave us a refresher on her work on the Hunger Games soundtrack by releasing a revamped version of “Safe & Sound” with The Civil Wars. The track was written by Swift back in the early 2010s, specifically for the film.
“When I got the call, I thought from what I’d heard about the movie, ‘It’s an action movie, right? We’re probably going to be writing a song that’s like, ‘We’re going to win!'” Swift told MTV in 2012. “And then I read the book, and I thought, ‘No, we’re going to have to write sort of a death lullaby, it’s so different from what I thought.'”
The song is a haunting ballad, made all the more hypnotizing with harmonies from John Paul White and Joy Williams. It ultimately earned her a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media.
3. “The Joker and the Queen” (Ed Sheeran/Taylor Swift)
Ed Sheeran released “The Joker and the Queen” on his 2021 album, Equals. A few months later, Sheeran tapped Swift for a remixed version of the track, which she added new lyrics to.
For her contribution to the song, Swift added a female perspective to the song by singing, I’ve been played before / If you hadn’t guessed / So I kept my cards close / To my foolproof vest.
The remixed version of “The Joker and the Queen” is just one of many songs Swift has written with Sheeran. “Taylor writes songs in all different situations,” Sheeran once told MTV News of Swift’s writing process. “I remember we went out. I think we were in the car to the studio and she took her phone out and mumbled something and sort of put it back. And I was like ‘What was that?’ and she was like ‘Oh, I was just singing down ideas.'”
(Photo by Omar Vega/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management )
