the 1

“the 1” is the opening track on Taylor Swift’s newest album “folklore”, and was written by Swift and Aaron Dessner, with production done by Dessner. The album and song were released on the 24th July 2020.

“the 1” is perhaps the most upbeat track on the entire “folklore” album, where Swift talks about a character reminiscing about a lover that used to be hers, and how she thought they were “the one”. In an interview with Vulture Magazine, Dessner spoke about the song and its meaning and process:

““the 1” and “hoax,” the first song and the last song, were the last songs we did. The album was sort of finished before that. We thought it was complete, but Taylor then went back into the folder of ideasMany of Dessner’s songs started from him sending files of sketches from a folder of ideas to Swift, who then replied with updated files of her ideas and additions. Swift also would start some songs by sending voice memos to Dessner, who would then flesh them out or write music to it. Dessner would also send files to his brother, Bryce, and other collaborators to flesh out the music; he sums up the process as “sending files around.” that I had shared. I think in a way, she didn’t realize she was writing for this album or a future something. She wrote “the 1,” and then she wrote “hoax” a couple of hours later and sent them in the middle of the night. When I woke up in the morning, I wrote her before she woke up in LA and said, “These have to be on the record.” She woke up and said, “I agree” [laughs]. These are the bookends, you know? It’s clear that “the 1” is not written from her perspective. It’s written from another friend’s perspective. There’s an emotional wryness and rawness, while also to this kind of wink in her eyes. There’s a little bit of her sense of humor in there, in addition to this kind of sadness that exists both underneath and on the surface. I enjoy that about her writing. The song [began from] the voice memo she sent me, and then I worked on the music some and we tracked her vocals, and then my brotherOn bringing in fellow The National member, Bryce Dessner: “My brother lives in France and that’s where he and his family were in lockdown. I would send songs to Bryce for him to add orchestration, and then he would send them back. He would compose to them and then I would have people record them over here remotely.” added orchestration. There are a few other little bits, but basically that was one of the very last things we did.”

There is no music video for “the 1” as of yet, however there is a lyric video on Taylor Swift’s YouTube channel that was uploaded on the 24th July 2020. As of late August 2020, the video has 13.9 million views and 387 thousand likes.

Release Date: 24th July 2020

Songwriter/s: Taylor Swift & Aaron Dessner

Producer: Aaron Dessner

Label: Republic

Chart Rankings: “the 1” charted at #10 on the UK official charts list.

The lyrics to “the 1” can be viewed here: LINK