Beautiful Eyes is the second extended play (EP) by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released as a Walmart exclusive on July 15, 2008, by Big Machine Records. In later years, after the MP3 service got closed down, Walmart transferred the rights to Amazon for their Amazon MP3 service, where it remains exclusively available.[1]
| Beautiful Eyes | ||||
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| EP by | ||||
| Released | July 15, 2008 | |||
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| Genre | ||||
| Length | 19:26 | |||
| Label | Big Machine | |||
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| Taylor Swift chronology | ||||
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Beautiful Eyes has a primarily country pop sound. It consists of alternate versions of tracks from Swift's 2006 debut album Taylor Swift and two original tracks—"Beautiful Eyes" and "I Heart ?"—which Swift had composed as early as 2006. The physical edition of the EP also features a DVD including music videos of singles from Swift's 2006 album.
Beautiful Eyes peaked at number nine on the US Billboard 200 and topped Billboard's Top Country Albums. "I Heart ?", which had been released as part of a Best Buy-exclusive version CD of Taylor Swift, was released as a promotional single in June 2008. "Beautiful Eyes" was also released as part of Swift's promotional deal with the magazine Seventeen.
Background
editSwift earned commercial success in the country music scene with her debut studio album, Taylor Swift (2006), and began working on her second studio album in 2007. During that time, she received a number of e-mails from fans requesting for new material to be released, which drove Swift into releasing Beautiful Eyes: "I thought this might tide them over till the new album comes out in the fall."[2]
Beautiful Eyes is musically oriented to country pop and contemporary music.[3] It includes new versions of tracks from Taylor Swift: an alternate version of "Should've Said No", the fifth single from the album, an acoustic version of "Teardrops on My Guitar", the second single from the album, a radio edit of "Picture to Burn", the fourth single from the album, and "I'm Only Me when I'm with You", a promotional single from the album. The EP also features two original songs, "Beautiful Eyes" and "I Heart?", which she previously wrote in 2003.[2] The EP's DVD features music videos from the singles from Taylor Swift, as well as a music video made for "Beautiful Eyes" from footage from Swift's eighteenth birthday party.
Swift did not want any misconceptions of Beautiful Eyes as her second album and therefore partnered with the American retail company Walmart to make the EP an exclusive release.[2] The album was only made available through American Wal-Mart stores and Wal-Mart's website.[4] Furthermore, it was made a limited release because Swift only allowed Big Machine Records to manufacture a certain number of copies of the EP.[2] She said, "I’m only letting my record company make a small amount of these. The last thing I want any of you to think is that we are putting out too many releases."[2]
Commercial performance and reception
edit| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [5] |
On the week ending August 2, 2008, Beautiful Eyes debuted at number nine on the Billboard 200 due to sales of 45,000 copies.[6][7] The EP spent a total of twenty weeks on the Billboard 200.[8] On the same week, it debuted at number one on Top Country Albums, replacing her own album Taylor Swift as the chart's number one album. With Taylor Swift charting at number two, Swift became the first artist to hold the first two positions on Top Country Albums since LeAnn Rimes charted in 1997 with Blue (1996) and Unchained Melody: The Early Years (1997).[9][10] The following week, the EP slipped to number two[11] and, in total, it spent twenty eight weeks on Top Country Albums.[8] As of July 2019, the EP has sold 359,000 copies in the United States.[12]
Promotion
edit"I Heart ?" was released as a promotional single from Beautiful Eyes on June 23, 2008.[13] Swift promoted Beautiful Eyes minimally for the reason being she did not want for misconceptions of the EP being her second album, although she did perform the title track at different venues.[2] She first performed "Beautiful Eyes" on January 23, 2005 at the 2005 NAMM Show, an annual music product trade show held in Anaheim, California at the Anaheim Convention Center.[14] The performance featured Swift, dressed in a red blouse and blue jeans, performing acoustically with a guitar, sitting on a bar stool. "Beautiful Eyes" was later performed as part of Swift's set for iHeartRadio.com's Stripped on August 5, 2008; she wore a black, one-shoulder dress and performed with a back-up band while playing a rhinestoned acoustic guitar.[15]
Track listing
edit| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Beautiful Eyes" | Taylor Swift | Robert Ellis Orrall | 2:58 |
| 2. | "Should've Said No" (alternate version) | Swift | Nathan Chapman | 3:46 |
| 3. | "Teardrops on My Guitar" (acoustic version) |
| Chapman | 2:58 |
| 4. | "Picture to Burn" (radio edit) |
| Chapman | 2:54 |
| 5. | "I'm Only Me When I'm with You" |
|
| 3:35 |
| 6. | "I Heart ?" | Swift | Orrall | 3:15 |
| Total length: | 19:26 | |||
| No. | Title | Director(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Beautiful Eyes" (music video) |
| 2:56 |
| 2. | "Picture to Burn" (music video) | Fanjoy | 3:36 |
| 3. | "I'm Only Me When I'm with You" (music video) | Swift | 3:47 |
| 4. | "Tim McGraw" (music video) | Fanjoy | 4:00 |
| 5. | "Teardrops on My Guitar" (pop version) (music video) | Fanjoy | 3:26 |
| 6. | "Our Song" (music video) | Fanjoy | 3:30 |
| 7. | "Picture to Burn" ('making of' video) | Cassetty | 22:02 |
| 8. | "GAC new artist special" | 14:45 | |
| 9. | "Should've Said No" (2008 ACM Awards performance) | 4:04 | |
| Total length: | 60:46 | ||
Personnel
editCredits adapted from the album's liner notes[16]
- Taylor Swift – lead vocals
- Ken Love – mastering
- Nathan Chapman – production & acoustic guitar (2–4), harmony vocals (3, 4), mixing & recording (3), electric guitar & additional recording (4)
- Robert Ellis Orrall – production & background vocals (1, 5, 6), additional recording (1)
- Chris Rowe – mixing, shaker, synthpad, organ & guitar (1), digital editing (6)
- Gary Burnette – guitars (1, 6), bass (1)
- Chad Carlson – recording (2, 4), mixing (2), additional recording (4)
- Wanda Vick – mandolin (5, 6), banjo (6)
- Caitlin Evanson – fiddle & harmony vocals (2)
- Paul Sidoti – electric guitar & harmony vocals (2)
- Tony Harrell – keyboards (5, 6)
- Dan Dugmore – steel (5, 6)
- Ken Lewis – drums (1)
- Rusty Danmyer – steel (1)
- Eric Richardson – recording (1)
- Ben Clark – banjo (2)
- Al Wilson – drums (2)
- Amos Heller – bass (2)
- Grant Mickelson – electric guitar (2)
- Chuck Ainlay – mixing (4)
- Scott Kidd – mixing (4)
- Steve Short – engineering (4)
- Nick Buda – drums (4)
- Eric Darken – percussion (4)
- Rob Hajacos – fiddle (4)
- Jeff Hyde – banjo (4)
- Tim Marks – bass (4)
- Scotty Sanders – steel (4)
- John Willis – mandolin (4)
- Angelo – production (5)
- Jamie Tate – mixing (5)
- A.J. Derrick – recording (5)
- Steve Bryant – bass (5)
- Dennis Holt – drums (5)
- Troy Lancaster – electric guitar (5)
- Lorraine Morrison – background vocals (5)
- Curt Ryle – acoustic guitar (5)
- Ben Fowler – mixing (6)
- Jason Lefan – engineering (6)
- Allen Ditto – recording (6)
- Clarke Schleicher – recording (6)
- Mike Brignardello – bass (6)
- Shannon Forrest – drums (6)
- Liana Manis – background vocals (6)
Charts
edit
Weekly chartsedit
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Year-end chartsedit
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References
edit- ^ Albums Amazon
- ^ a b c d e f "Wal-Mart 'Eyes' New Taylor Swift Project". Great American Country. July 15, 2008. Archived from the original on July 19, 2008. Retrieved January 6, 2010.
- ^ "Beautiful Eyes > Overview". Allmusic. Macrovision Corporation. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
- ^ "Beautiful Eyes (Wal-Mart Exclusive) (Includes DVD)". Walmart.com. Wal-Mart. Archived from the original on March 8, 2009. Retrieved January 6, 2010.
- ^ Stafford, Charity. "Beautiful Eyes – Taylor Swift". AllMusic. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
- ^ Hasty, Katie (July 23, 2008). "Nas Dethrones Lil Wayne Atop Billboard 200". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. Retrieved January 8, 2010.
- ^ "Taylor Swift - Beautiful Eyes (EP)". aCharts.us. Archived from the original on November 24, 2010. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
- ^ a b "Beautiful Eyes - Taylor Swift". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. Retrieved January 8, 2010.
- ^ "Taylor Swift Bumps Herself Out of No. 1 Slot". CMT News. Viacom. July 26, 2008. Archived from the original on August 19, 2010. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
- ^ "Taylor Swift owns top of country chart". Great American Country. Scripps Networks Interactive. July 23, 2008. Archived from the original on July 31, 2008. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
- ^ "Top Country Albums - Week of August 9, 2008". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. August 9, 2008. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
- ^ Trust, Gary (July 14, 2019). "Ask Billboard: Taylor Swift's Career Sales & Streaming Totals, From 'Tim McGraw' to 'You Need to Calm Down'". Billboard. Archived from the original on July 15, 2019. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
- ^ "I Heart ? > Overview". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved June 14, 2010.
- ^ "NAMM Kicks Off Annual Summer Trade Show in Nashville". Namm.org. Nashville, Tennessee: The NAMM Show. July 24, 2004. Archived from the original on June 17, 2019. Retrieved January 6, 2010.
- ^ "Taylor Swift - Beautiful Eyes (Exclusive Performance)". Stripped. Iheartradio.com. Archived from the original on October 23, 2010. Retrieved January 6, 2010.
- ^ Swift, Taylor (2008). Beautiful Eyes (CD liner notes). Big Machine. BMRATS0140.
- ^ "Taylor Swift Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
- ^ "Taylor Swift Chart History (Top Country Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
- ^ "Top Billboard 200 Albums – Year-End 2008". Billboard. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
- ^ "Top Country Albums – Year-End 2008". Billboard. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
External links
edit- Beautiful Eyes at Taylor Swift official site: includes lyrics of all tracks.