Tim McGraw

Tim McGraw
Released	June 19, 2006
Recorded	2006
Length	3:54 (Album Version) 3:40 (Radio Version)
Writer	Taylor Swift, Liz Rose
Producer	Nathan Chapman
Label	Big Machine
Next single	"Teardrops on My Guitar"(2007)

"Tim McGraw" is the debut single of American country pop artist Taylor Swift. She was sixteen years old when she debuted with the song, which she co-wrote with Liz Rose. The song tells of Taylor's remembrance of a summer love, and how an un-named song by country music artist Tim McGraw (identified later on as "Can't Tell Me Nothin'" from his Live Like You Were Dying album) brings back memories of that love.

Swift has said she wrote the song during math class in high school. The song, she says, is about her and her boyfriend, when he was moving away to go to college, and they would eventually have to break up. Taylor goes on to say, "I started thinking of all the things that reminded me of him."

Lyrics, history, and content

The idea for the song came to Taylor during math class. "The song means so much to me and that's why we wanted it to be the first track on the album," Swift said. The song, which appears to be centered on a summer romance is actually about her boyfriend who moved away. Sitting in her math class she just started to sing to herself "When you think Tim McGraw" over and over. Soon after she left the classroom and recorded a voice memo about the song. After school she went downtown with her co-writer Liz Rose, sat down at the piano and they had finished the song within 15 minutes.

Swift said, "I wrote the song in my freshman year of high school. I was dating a guy who was about to go off to college. I knew we were going to break up so I started thinking of all the things that I knew would remind him of me. Surprisingly, the first thing that came to mind was that my favorite country artist is Tim McGraw."

LYRICS

You said the way my blue eyes shine put those Georgia stars to shame that night

I said "That's a lie."

You're just a boy in a Chevy truck

That had a tendency of getting stuck

On backroads at night, and I was

Right there beside him

All summer long

And then the time we woke up to find that

Summer'd gone

But when you think Tim McGraw

I hope you think my favorite song

The one we danced to all night long

The moon like a spotlight on the lake

When you think happiness

I hope you think that little black dress

Think of my head on your chest

And my old favorite blue jeans

When you think Tim McGraw

I hope you think of me

September saw a month of tears

And thanking God that you weren't here

To see me like that.

But in a box beneath my bed

Is a letter that you never read

From three summers back

It's hard not to find it all a little

Bittersweet

But looking back on all of that, it's

Not stupidly

[chorus]

And I'm back for the first time, since then, I'm

Standing on your street

And there's a letter that's on your doorstep

And the first thing that you read

Is, "When you Think Tim McGraw

I hope you think my favorite song

Someday you'll turn your radio on

I hope it takes you back to that place

When you think happiness

I hope you think that little black dress

Think of my head on your chest

And my old, faded blue jeans

When you think Tim McGraw

I hope you think of me."

Said the way my blue eyes shine, put those Georgia stars to shame that night

I said "That's a lie."

Alternate versions

On the album version of the song, the first stanzas are sung a second time at the end; the radio edit ends after the last chorus.

The line "Someday you'll turn your radio on" in the final chorus was altered in some markets, with "your radio" being replaced with either the name of the radio station or some popular show or host featured on that station. A similar change was made for the song on Bob Kingsley's Country Top 40, a radio countdown show, wherein the line was altered to "And turn the Bob Kingsley Countdown on." When Swift performed at Wembley Arena in 2009, she changed these lyrics to "Turn London radio on."

Chart performance

The song debuted at #60 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and spent 26 weeks on the chart before reaching a peak of #6. The song also peaked at #40 on the Hot 100 chart, the first of thirteen consecutive top forty hits as well as the first of her twenty charted hits in the last three years.

Chart (2006-2007)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs	6
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	40
Canadian Radio & Records Country Singles	10