Teardrops on My Guitar

I'm a day one Tay-won like Anna.

I'm very excited for the debut re-release since I've been listening to Taylor since middle school, and I even wanted to wear the dress from Teardrops on My Guitar to my prom.

Anyway, I wanted to ask, because we're all excited for I'd Lie, but are you guys familiar with the song I Heart Question Mark?" This is an, this is another unreleased song from her debut era.

When I think, like, okay, the debut, um, vault tracks, like, I'm really praying, hoping, wishing for I'd Lie, Taylor's version.

Speak on that.

Or, like, Teardrops On My Guitar.

Um, that first, like, debut alb- like, era for her-

Yeah

... happy and at home, and understood for a second.

And that, that song definitely did that for me a whole lot.

And then Teardrops on my guitar, the, it, the same thing but the polar opposite emotion.

Oh, yeah.

The screaming slam door and the teardrops...

No, that's Teardrops On My Guitar.

Um, oh, um, hold on.

Love story, just say yes.

Yes.

But if you think it's just gonna be an- the announcement, maybe she would announce it the 24th, which would be the true 20-year anniversary, which is insane, 'cause I remember being on the bus in elementary school and listening to, like, it was always, um, Our Song or Teardrops on My Guitar.

Of course.

Definitely the first two.

and immature

I wonder if that's why it never got included on the album because like you have songs like Tim McGraw and Teardrops on My Guitar and like Even the songs that are more, like, revenge songs, like Picture to Burn, like, they are presented in a very, like, not teenager way.

Like, a little more

grown up.

Okay, on with the show.

Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate Magazine about the hits from coast to coast.

I'm Chris Melanfi, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's Why Is This Song Number

One series.

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After everything you've read and heard in the last few weeks, you don't need me to tell you Dolly Parton is a songwriting and singing legend.

But all of the remembrances since late August haven't explained why some of her greatest hits weren't bigger pop hits.

For example, the legendary Jolene only reached number 60 in 1974 on the Hot 100.