Songs: “Breathe,” “Breathe (Taylor’s Version)”
Albums: “Fearless,” “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)”
Backstory: Colbie Caillat, best known for hits like “Bubbly” and “Lucky,” was the first artist ever to be featured on a Taylor Swift album after the two singers met in Nashville.
“Breathe,” which Caillat said was inspired by a rift with one of Swift’s bandmates, was released in 2008 as track seven on “Fearless” and earned a nomination for best pop collaboration at the 2010 Grammy Awards (the same night that Swift won album of the year for the first time).
In 2021, when Swift announced that “Fearless” would be her first rerecorded album, fans were thrilled that Caillat had also returned to rerecord her vocals.
“It was so warm and welcoming and it took me right back to that time — which was a lifetime ago, like, we were babies then. It was fun to feel those emotions again,” Caillat told Business Insider at the time.
“Singing it again reminded me what a beautiful song it is, and that we can all relate to it at different times in our lives,” she added. “I know this is a special song for Taylor.”
Songs: “Safe & Sound,” “Safe & Sound (Taylor’s Version)”
Albums: “The Hunger Games: Songs From District 12 and Beyond”
Backstory: T Bone Burnett produced the first soundtrack for “The Hunger Games” movie franchise. Its first single, “Safe & Sound,” was born during a spontaneous writing session with Swift at his home studio.
“The Civil Wars had a show that night in L.A.,” Swift told Rolling Stone. “So they raced right over to T Bone’s house. There’s so many things he could’ve done production-wise to make that song bigger sonically than it is, but I think that would have possibly been a mistake. For him to have left the song as a lullaby is brilliant.”
Swift’s duet with the folk-pop duo was hailed as the best contribution to “The Hunger Games” movie soundtrack. “Safe & Sound” also won best song written for visual media at the 2013 Grammy Awards.
The Civil Wars abruptly disbanded in 2014, citing “internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition.” In 2023, Swift released “Safe & Sound (Taylor’s Version)” ahead of the start of The Eras Tour.
Both members of The Civil Wars returned to rerecord their parts for Swift’s “Taylor’s Version” series, but were credited separately as Joy Williams and John Paul White.
Songs: “The Last Time,” “The Last Time (Taylor’s Version)”
Albums: “Red,” “Red (Taylor’s Version)”
Backstory: According to Gary Lightbody, best known as the frontman of Snow Patrol, his duet with Swift was written and recorded in just nine hours.
“She works really fast. She’s extraordinary,” he told Rolling Stone. “We actually did that song, wrote it and recorded it in a day. And that was the version of it on the record, which is very rare.”
He also said he was “honored” to rerecord his vocals for “The Last Time (Taylor’s Version),” which was released nine years after the original.
“I’m so proud of the song and delighted to revisit it,” Lightbody wrote on Instagram. “It is extraordinary what Taylor is doing with the new versions of her albums. A gargantuan feat that would consume the lives of any mortal musician.”
Songs: “Everything Has Changed,” “End Game,” “Everything Has Changed (Taylor’s Version),” “Run (Taylor’s Version)”
Albums: “Red,” “Reputation,” “Red (Taylor’s Version)”
Backstory: Ed Sheeran is one of Swift’s closest and oldest friends. They became close when Swift was writing and recording “Red,” for which the pair cowrote two duets. Only one was included on the original tracklist, but both were rerecorded and released on “Red (Taylor’s Version).”
Five years after their “Red” writing session, Swift tapped Sheeran again to lend a verse to her “Reputation” single “End Game.”
“I have long, long, long conversations with Taylor about stuff just because I feel like she’s one of the only people that actually truly understands where I’m at,” Sheeran recently explained.
Song: “Bad Blood,” “Bad Blood (Taylor’s Version)”
Album: “1989 (Taylor’s Version) [Deluxe]”
Backstory: Swift’s collaboration with Kendrick Lamar was teased in her September 2014 cover story for Rolling Stone, in which she also revealed that “Bad Blood” was inspired by a professional betrayal.
After a swarm of paparazzi and fans descended upon Swift in Central Park, which reporter Josh Eells described as “a little scary,” Swift instructed him to listen to Lamar’s “Backseat Freestyle.”
“You want to know a trick to immediately go from feeling victimized to feeling awesome? This is my go-to,” she said, adding, “I know every word.”
The “Bad Blood” remix was promoted as a single in May 2015, seven months after “1989” was released. (It was never actually included on either tracklist for the standard or deluxe editions.)
“We both was in LA, so I came to her studio session. She had the music up and I started writing and jumped in the booth and we laid it down,” Lamar recalled in 2017, praising Swift as an artist with a “great business mind and integrity.”
“Fortunately, the vibe was right and it didn’t take too many takes and we was really locked in on the chemistry and we really felt what was going on when I was in the booth,” he added.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper also appeared in the song’s star-studded music video, which featured additional cameos from Selena Gomez, Karlie Kloss, Zendaya, and more.
Eight years later, Lamar returned to rerecord his feature, which was surprise-released with the deluxe edition of “1989 (Taylor’s Version).”
“I still look back on this collaboration with so much pride and gratitude, for the ways Kendrick elevated the song and the way he treats everyone around him,” Swift announced on social media. “The reality that Kendrick would go back in and re-record Bad Blood so that I could reclaim and own this work I’m so proud of is surreal and bewildering to me.”
Song: “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever”
Album: “Fifty Shades Darker: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack”
Backstory: Swift recorded a sultry duet with Zayn, formerly of One Direction fame, for the second installment in the “Fifty Shades” movie franchise. Swift, Sam Dew, and Jack Antonoff are credited as cowriters on the song.
“I called her up,” Zayn recalled during a Sirius XM interview. “She’d heard the song already; she liked it. I asked her if she wanted to be on it, and she was like, ‘Yeah.'”
“I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” was recorded in 2016, the same year that Zayn began dating Swift’s close friend, Gigi Hadid. The couple went on to have a child together, while Swift and Hadid have also remained close.
Song: “End Game”
Album: “Reputation”
Backstory: Future teamed up with Swift and Sheeran for “End Game,” the only song with features on her 2017 album “Reputation.”
Once again, Swift teased the collaboration several months in advance. In a 2016 commercial for Apple Music, Swift runs on the treadmill while singing “Jumpman,” a fan-favorite track from Drake and Future’s collaborative album “What a Time to Be Alive.”
The clip caused the song’s sales to spike 431% around the world, according to Forbes.
Song: “Me!”
Album: “Lover”
Backstory: Brendon Urie was featured on the lead single for “Lover,” the first album in Swift’s discography that she owned outright.
The Panic! At the Disco frontman also appears in Swift’s 2020 documentary “Miss Americana,” which shows behind-the-scenes clips from the studio. The two singers get deep about their experiences with stalkers, in addition to discussing Swift’s vision for the “Me!” music video.
“Whatever makes you, you — emo kids, theatre, dance sequences, ‘La La Land,’ everything,” she began, to which Urie replied, “Nailed it.”
“And when it’s me, it’s like — dancers, cats, gay pride, people in country western boots. I start riding a unicorn,” she continued. “Everything that makes me, me.”
Song: “Soon You’ll Get Better”
Album: “Lover”
Backstory: In “Miss Americana,” Swift discusses how country music executives repeatedly told her not to be like The Chicks, who were blacklisted after criticizing President George W. Bush in 2003.
Swift said she internalized the message as a teenager, even though she was a huge fan of their music. Years later, she was able to reflect upon the important lessons she learned from the band.
“Early in my life, these three women showed me that female artists can play their own instruments while also putting on a flamboyant spectacle of a live show,” she told Billboard in 2020. “They taught me that creativity, eccentricity, unapologetic boldness and kitsch can all go together authentically.
“Most importantly, they showed an entire generation of girls that female rage can be a bonding experience between us all the very second we first heard Natalie Maines bellow ‘that Earl had to DIE,'” she added, referencing their iconic song “Goodbye Earl.”
Swift reaffirmed her evolved outlook on “Lover,” which includes songs about politics (“Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince”) and social justice (“You Need to Calm Down”).
She also tapped The Chicks for “Soon You’ll Get Better,” which was inspired by Swift’s relationship with her mom, Andrea Swift.
Back in 2015, Swift told fans that her mom had been diagnosed with breast cancer. While Swift was creating “Lover,” Andrea was battling a relapse.
“Everyone loves their mom; everyone’s got an important mom,” Swift told Variety. “But for me, she’s really the guiding force. Almost every decision I make, I talk to her about it first. So obviously it was a really big deal to ever speak about her illness.”
Songs: “Exile,” “Evermore”
Albums: “Folklore,” “Evermore”
Backstory: Swift worked with Aaron Dessner to create “Folklore,” her first of two pandemic-era albums.
In addition to being a founding member of rock band The National, Dessner has a side project with Justin Vernon called Big Red Machine. Vernon also makes solo music under the stage name Bon Iver.
When Swift wrote “Exile” with her then-partner Joe Alwyn, they envisioned the song as a duet. So Dessner asked Vernon to fulfill the other role.
“When Taylor sent it to me as a voice memo, she sang both the male and female parts — as much as she could fit in without losing her breath,” the producer explained in an interview with Pitchfork. “We talked about who she was imagining joining her, and she loves Justin’s voice in Bon Iver and Big Red Machine.”
“She was like, ‘Oh my God, I would die if he would do it. It would be so perfect,'” he continued. “So I sent him the song and he was really into it. He tweaked some parts and added parts as well — the bridge where he says, ‘Step right out.’ The end, too, and his choral parts. It was fun because Justin and I work on a lot of stuff together, so it was very easy and natural. At some point I felt like a superfan, hearing two of my favorite singers.”
Song: “No Body, No Crime”
Album: “Evermore”
Backstory: Swift has been friends with the Haim sisters since at least 2014, when they tweeted about their admiration for Swift’s song “This Love.”
The following year, they all enjoyed a group vacation in Hawaii and Swift enlisted the band to open for the 1989 World Tour.
The four women finally teamed up on the countrified murder saga “No Body, No Crime,” the sixth track on Swift’s second pandemic-era album, “Evermore.” HAIM also opened for Swift on the Eras Tour, where they performed the duet during her six-show run in Los Angeles.
Although “No Body, No Crime” was never promoted as a single, the Haim sisters did get a chance to star in Swift’s 2022 music video for “Bejeweled.”
Song: “Coney Island”
Album: “Evermore”
Backstory: Dessner has become one of Swift’s most consistent collaborators, coproducing and cowriting songs on “Folklore,” “Evermore,” “Midnights (3am Edition),” “The Tortured Poets Department,” and her rerecorded albums.
But Dessner’s band is explicitly featured on “Coney Island,” the ninth track on “Evermore,” which is structured as a duet between Swift and The National frontman Matt Berninger.
Swift told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in 2020 that The National is her “favorite” band, and she wrote Berninger’s verse to mimic his lyrical style.
“We had an idea that Matt could sound amazing on this, and that was the perspective I was coming from: a male perspective of regret or guilt after a lifetime of a pattern of behavior,” she said.
Song: “You All Over Me (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)”
Album: “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)”
Backstory: Back in 2017, Maren Morris said she welcomes comparisons to Swift’s rise to fame as a country-pop star.
“I don’t think they’re comparing our sound, but I think they see in Taylor [that] she’s always been great at blending genres and still making her own sound out of it,” Morris told Coveteur. “You can’t really place her in one category or the other — she’s sort of just an all-encompassing, really great musician and songwriter, so I’m always really flattered when people compare [my career path] to her career path, because I grew up listening to everything.”
The following year, Swift invited Morris to her Reputation Stadium Tour show in Nashville to sing her hit single “The Middle.”
The two women maintained a friendship over the years, so when it came time for Swift to rerecord “Fearless,” she asked Morris to provide backing vocals on a previously unreleased song.
Their duet, “You All Over Me,” was the first “From the Vault” track that Swift ever released.
“One thing I’ve been loving about these From The Vault songs is that they’ve never been heard, so I can experiment, play, and even include some of my favorite artists,” Swift said at the time.
Song: “That’s When (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)”
Album: “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)”
Backstory: Swift’s connection to Keith Urban dates back to 2009, when she opened for the Australian rocker on his Escape Together World Tour. Six years later, Urban appeared as one of many special guests on Swift’s 1989 World Tour.
Flash forward to the 2020 holiday season, when Swift reached out to Urban about rerecording her sophomore album “Fearless” — the very album she performed while opening for his tour as a teenager.
“I get a text from Taylor saying, ‘I’ve got these couple of songs I’d like you to sing on, do you wanna hear them?’ I said sure, so she sends me the songs and I’m sitting in the food court at the shopping center listening to these two unreleased Taylor Swift songs,” he revealed on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
“It was an unusual place to be hearing unreleased Taylor Swift music,” he added. “But I loved the songs, and luckily got to put a vocal on both of those.”
Urban sings background harmonies on “We Were Happy,” but he’s explicitly credited as a featured artist on “That’s When.”
Song: “Nothing New (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)”
Album: “Red (Taylor’s Version)”
Backstory: Swift was a fan of Phoebe Bridgers before they forged a close friendship during the rerecording process for “Red.”
“Phoebe Bridgers is one of my favorite artists in the world,” Swift told Seth Meyers. “If she sings it, I will listen to it. I love her voice, and I also love that she’s a very funny person.”
Swift reached out to Bridgers while rerecording “Nothing New,” a song she wrote when she was 22, which explores her fear of getting older and becoming less relevant.
“That song is really special to me. I sent it to Phoebe and said, ‘It would mean the world to me if you would do this as a duet,’ ’cause I really wanted another female artist who I loved to sing it with me, because I think it has a very female artist perspective, that we go through that experience,” Swift said. “And her response was, ‘I’ve been waiting for this text my entire life.’“
Bridgers had the honor of becoming the first woman with her own verse in one of Swift’s songs (rather than only providing backup vocals). She later joined Swift on the road for The Eras Tour.
Song: “I Bet You Think About Me (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)”
Album: “Red (Taylor’s Version)”
Backstory: Chris Stapleton, one of the most beloved country stars working today, sings background harmonies on another “Red” vault track.
Neither Swift nor Stapleton have spoken openly about their connection, but one could assume they simply respect each other as artists and vocalists.
When Stapleton was asked about working with Swift at the 2021 Country Music Association Awards, he replied, “Those are calls you pick up and say, ‘What shall I do? OK, cool.’ That’s how that goes.”
Songs: “Snow on the Beach,” “Snow on the Beach (feat. More Lana Del Rey)”
Albums: “Midnights,” “Midnights (The Til Dawn Edition)”
Backstory: Back in 2019, Swift described Lana Del Rey as “one of my favorite artists of the decade” during her speech at the Billboard Music Awards.
“She was ruthlessly criticized early in her career, and then slowly but surely, she turned into, in my opinion, the most influential artist in pop,” Swift said. “Her vocal stylings, her lyrics, her aesthetics, they’ve been echoed and repurposed everywhere in music.”
Swift also gave a shoutout to Del Rey’s “Norman Fucking Rockwell!” — nominated for album of the year at the 2020 Grammys and primarily coproduced by Antonoff, who has been Swift’s go-to collaborator since 2014.
Swift and Del Rey have continued to split time in the studio with Antonoff, which presumably brought them closer together. Indeed, Del Rey was the only featured artist on “Midnights,” the first album that Swift and Antonoff coproduced entirely as a duo.
After fans criticized the song for sidelining Del Rey’s vocals, Swift released a deluxe version of “Midnights” with a remastered version of their duet, dubbed “Snow on the Beach (feat. More Lana Del Rey).”
“I had no idea I was the only feature,” Del Rey told Billboard. “Had I known, I would have sung the entire second verse like she wanted.”
“She was very adamant that she wanted me to be on the album, and I really liked that song,” she continued. “I thought it was nice to be able to bridge that world, since Jack and I work together and so do Jack and Taylor.”
Song: “Anti-Hero”
Album: N/A
Backstory: In addition to his prolific career as a producer (he has worked on all of Swift’s albums since “1989,” including the rerecords), Antonoff makes his own music with the alt-rock band Bleachers.
After Swift released “Midnights,” she promoted the lead single “Anti-Hero” with a slew of remixes, including one with Antonoff’s vocals. Bleachers is officially credited as the featured artist.
The duo’s version of the song is structured more like a conversation, with Antonoff bemoaning “art bros” and offering Swift some reassurance in the second verse (“Taylor, you’ll be fine”).
Song: “Karma”
Album: “Midnights (The Til Dawn Edition)”
Backstory: Ahead of her Eras Tour stop in New Jersey, Swift released a deluxe version of “Midnights” with a remix of “Karma.”
The new version features Ice Spice, an up-and-coming rapper from New York City, best known for hits like “Munch (Feelin’ U)” and “In Ha Mood.” She then joined Swift onstage at MetLife Stadium to close all three shows with their duet.
“She reached out through her team, just kind of saying, ‘Hey, Ice has been a big fan of Taylor’s since she was a little kid, would love to collaborate if that was ever something that came about,'” Swift revealed in a Spotify clip.
“I had been listening to her nonstop, like getting ready for my tour, I was just listening to Ice Spice constantly,” she continued. “So I immediately got her number and said, ‘Hey, would you wanna do your version of ‘Karma’? Do you relate to this?’ So she jumped in headfirst.”
In the months since, both artists have heaped praise upon each other. Ice Spice has called Swift “my sis” and “the nicest ever,” while Swift complimented the rapper’s “humility and humor, curiosity and focus.”
Swift even made a surprise appearance at “Saturday Night Live” to support Ice Spice’s first stint as a musical guest.
Song: “Electric Touch (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)”
Album: “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)”
Backstory: As BI previously reported, Swift has a long history as a Fall Out Boy fan that dates back to her freshman year of high school. She took her admiration public when she performed an acoustic cover of “Sugar, We’re Going Down” on the Speak Now World Tour.
A few years later, Swift enlisted Fall Out Boy’s frontman Patrick Stump for a surprise cameo during the Red Tour. They also performed together at the 2013 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
Then, in a 2019 interview with Rolling Stone, Swift cited the emo-rock band as one of her biggest inspirations.
“I love Fall Out Boy so much. Their songwriting really influenced me, lyrically, maybe more than anyone else,” she said. “They take a phrase and they twist it. ‘Loaded God complex / Cock it and pull it’? When I heard that, I was like, ‘I’m dreaming.'”
When it came time to rerecord “Speak Now,” Fall Out Boy seemed a natural fit to hop on a rock-infused vault track.
Song: “Castles Crumbling (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)”
Album: “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)”
Backstory: Much like Fall Out Boy, Swift has been inspired by Hayley Williams since she was a teenager (and vice versa).
The two singers met as 19-year-olds in 2008, when Williams’ band Paramore and Swift were both nominated for best new artist at the Grammys.
“So, we were at some Grammy party,” Williams recently told Jimmy Fallon. “It was actually Timbaland’s Grammy party. Huge. I was very nervous.”
“A woman came up to me and she said, ‘I’m Taylor Swift’s mom and, you know, Taylor doesn’t have a lot of friends her age that do music. And I would love to, like, you know, introduce you guys or get your number,'” Williams continued. “So Andrea, the legend that she is, she connected us.”
Soon after, Swift invited Williams to perform together during the Nashville stop on her 2011 Speak Now World Tour. Williams also had a cameo as the “Crimson Curse” in Swift’s “Bad Blood” music video.
More recently, Paramore opened for the first two Eras Tour shows in Arizona. Just four months later, Williams lent her voice to “Castles Crumbling,” a vault track from the “Speak Now” era that explores self-sabotage and public perception.
“It was really special because we have known each other for a very long time in different stages of our lives,” Williams told Coup De Main. “I heard the song and I was super impressed by the storytelling in it, which is no surprise because it’s a Taylor Swift song, but it’s about an experience that both of us have shared growing up in the public eye, and I just felt very honored to get to sing about that feeling.”
Song: “Fortnight”
Album: “The Tortured Poets Department”
Backstory: We don’t know exactly how Swift met Post Malone, but we do know that she ran to give him a hug at the 2019 AMAs before accepting her award for artist of the year.
Nearly five years later, Swift tapped Malone to duet with her on “Fortnight,” the lead single from “The Tortured Poets Department,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
“It’s once in a lifetime that someone like @taylorswift comes into this world,” Malone wrote on Instagram. “I am floored by your heart and your mind, and I am beyond honored to have been asked to help you with your journey.”
Swift returned the favor, praising Malone’s songwriting and “those melodies he creates that just stick in your head forever.”
“I got to witness that magic come to life firsthand when we worked together on Fortnight,” she added.
Song: “Florida!!!”
Album: “The Tortured Poets Department”
Backstory: Florence Welch, who creates music under the name Florence + The Machine, has been friends with Swift since at least 2015.
During an interview with Billboard, Welch said she visits Swift at home whenever she’s in New York City.
“Every time I’ve been around her, she is the most magnetic person in the room — surrounded by people who are fascinated by the idea of being near her,” Swift told Billboard. “But when she meets people, she pays them a warm compliment and immediately disarms them. There are very few people I’ve met in my life who are truly electric, and Florence is one of them.”
Swift also gave Welch the courage to make music about her real experiences.
“Taylor said that you must sing about what’s happening in your life,” Welch said. “It’s definitely not about trying to be vindictive. It’s about being honest.”
Many years later, Swift approached Welch with “a concept and a story” — the urge to run away and reinvent yourself after heartbreak — that eventually became “Florida!!!”
“I almost didn’t think of the scale of it. There’s the sort of bigness of [Taylor Swift the phenomenon], and then there’s the Taylor I spend time with in the studio, who is just the sweetest and most down to earth,” Welch told British Vogue. “We had such a fun time. And then when it came out I was like, ‘Oh, shit!'”
The two women also share an affinity for working with Antonoff, who coproduced Welch’s 2022 album “Dance Fever.”
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