Yahoo Finance Taylor Swift overtakes Beatles with Fearless chart record
Taylor Swift’s re-recording of her album Fearless has topped the UK album chart and snatched a long-held record from The Beatles.
The album, titled Fearless (Taylor’s Version), was recorded following a high-profile row over the ownership of her master recordings with prominent talent manager Scooter Braun.
It is her third chart-topping album in the space of just 259 days, following surprise releases Folklore in July and Evermore in December, and it has set a new record for the fastest accumulation of three number ones, according to the Official Charts Company.
Swift shared the news with her Twitter followers alongside heart emojis.
The record was previously held by The Beatles for 54 years – the band notched up a trio of chart-toppers in 364 days between 1965-1966, with Help!, Rubber Soul, and Revolver.
Swift is the first solo artist to ever rack up three number one albums in the space of a year.
The original Fearless album was released in 2008 when Swift was an 18-year-old country music star.
Home is where the 💛 is but God I 💛 the UK!!! https://t.co/OiPahpxcLK
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) April 16, 2021
She is in the process of re-recording her back catalogue following the sale of her old record label and a dispute over her masters.
Fearless (Taylor’s Version) racked up more than 21,000 chart sales to become the star’s seventh UK number one album.
The new recording contains 26 songs, compared to the original’s 13, and Swift has said the extra material includes songs that were left off the original album for reasons including “too many break-up songs” and not being able to fit that much material on a physical CD.
Swift has also previously topped the Official Charts Company rankings with Red (2012), 1989 (2014), Reputation (2017), Lover (2019), Folklore (2020), and Evermore (2020).
The 2008 release of Fearless peaked at number five.
Justin Bieber is at number two on the album chart with Justice, while Dua Lipa is at three with Future Nostalgia.
Ariana Grande’s album Positions is back in the top five following its release on vinyl, and takes the fourth spot, while Harry Styles is at five with Fine Line.
