The Number Ones: Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) [From The Vault]”

November 27, 2021STAYED AT #1:1 WeekIn The Number Ones, I'm reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart's beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present. The column is now biweekly, alternating with The Alternative Number Ones on Mondays. Book Bonus Beat: The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music.You can accuse Taylor Swift of a great many things, but pretentiousness is not one of them. Taylor Swift is a pop formalist. She believes in tight, structured songwriting. Her bridges tend to be the best parts of her songs, since she knows exactly how to make feelings surge up without breaking the format to which she carefully adheres. Swift started off in the world of commercial Nashville country music, where song architecture is practically a religious tenet. Even as she ventures far afield from those roots, she keeps that dedication. She doesn't play extended guitar solos or go off on free-form spoken-word jags. That's not who she is. A Taylor Swift song will not waste your time.So when Swift even made vague mention of a 10-minute version of one of her best-loved songs, that fabled ex...