On November 12, singer/songwriter Taylor Swift released the album Red, in which she re-recorded her songs from a previous album with the same name. 

With the release of her album, Swift also uploaded a 10-minute version of her song “All Too Well,” which was not released previously.

The song, which Swift co-wrote with country music songwriter Liz Rose, details a woman in her 20s reflecting on her past relationship with an older man, which did not end well. Swift said that she wrote this song based on her relationship with her ex, Jake Gyllenhaal, an American actor.

During an interview, Taylor said, “I started ad-libbing what I was going through [at the time], and what I was feeling, and it went on, and the song kept building and building in intensity, and the song just went on for, you know, 10 to 15 minutes long of us doing this.”  

Soon after its release, the song hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and set a new record for the longest song at No. 1. This record has been unbroken since 1972 with Don McLean’s “American Pie,” which was nearly 8 minutes and 37 seconds long. 

“Let’s face it, nobody ever wants to lose that No. 1 spot, but if I had to lose it to somebody, I sure am glad it was [to] another great singer/songwriter such as Taylor,” said McLean, in an interview with Billboard’s Gil Kaufman.

Swift also broke the record for the most simultaneous US Hot 100 new entries, with 26 of her songs from her album making it onto the chart.

By Alexandria Kim