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Early Taylor Swift CD Brings Shocking $12K at Auction

Early Taylor Swift CD Brings Shocking $12K at Auction

Do you remember little Taylor Swift? Today’s most popular woman in the world worked her way to that status by writing and recording music in her hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania.

 

Yes. The Christmas tree farm she sings about was real and is in Pennsylvania.

Taylor Swift – Christmas Tree Farm

Taylor Swift: The Early Years

Taylor grew up like many other kids in PA. What might be the difference is that her parents support was like no other. When Taylor started writing and performing music, her parents seemed to do everything they could to get her in front of an audience.

According to Taylor’s father Scott Swift’s co-workers back then, Taylor performed for the office on several occasions including office parties, and he often played her music in the office. Not only that, but Scott was also known to give away Taylor Swift CDs for the holidays.

That gift might be exactly what brought someone $12,000 at a recent auction. The Taylor Swift CD has six songs on it and was used to “shop” around Nashville in the Swift’s quest to get Taylor a record deal.

It Worked!

I remember when Taylor finally landed her deal with Big Machine Records, the president of the label cam to 92.5 XTU in Philadelphia the day before Taylor was scheduled to come and play for us. He told us about this teenaged phenom that everyone else passed on, but he believed she was the next big thing.

And, when I say everyone else passed, I mean everyone. Andrea Swift, Taylor’s mom, once told me that she and Tay spent hours walking from building to building, knocking on doors, and getting rejected. No one but Big Machine was willing to give the young girl from Pennsylvania a chance. And the rest is history.

The $12,000 Taylor Swift CD

The Taylor Swift CD that sold for $12,000 has six songs on it. Only one is an original (meaning it was written by Taylor). Others include There’s Your Trouble from the Chicks, LeAnn Rimes’ One Way Ticket (Because I Can), Olivia Newton-John’s Hopelessly Devoted to You from the movie Grease, and Here You Come Again by Dolly Parton.

 
Andie Summers has been the morning show host on XTU for the past 25 years. She is a two-time CMA Major Market Personality of the Year winner and two-time Gracie Award recipient from the Alliance for Women in Media. As a content creator for XTU, Andie enjoys sharing parenting and travel tips, and loves helping you shop online with Must Haves.

 

10 THINGS TAYLOR SWIFT TOLD ME WHEN SHE WAS A COUNTRY STAR

Taylor Swift makes headlines daily as she continues her U.S. leg of her “Eras Tour,” which includes playing three-sold-out nights at stadiums all over the country every weekend. Last week, Taylor released her Speak Now: Taylor’s Version album, which consists of all new versions of the songs found on her 2010 album Speak Now, along with some additional songs.


 

Back in 2010, when Swift first released Speak Now, she was three years into a country music career that was getting bigger by the day. During that time, I was doing interviews with her as each new album was released at the beginning of her incredible career.

After I interviewed her for the Speak Now album, Swift sent me a personal thank you note for the interview, writing in part on her custom card stock letterhead, “Nancy! You know I love seeing you. I just wanted to remind you with this note.”

She added, “Thanks so much for coming by to talk to me about Speak Now. I can’t wait for you to hear the whole record. Taylor.” I wasn’t alone. I spoke with several of my Nashville counterparts at the time, and they, too, got notes from Swift, all saying something a bit different. She must have written 50 or more notes that week alone.

Swift continues to knock the world out with her new music releases and tour, which will expand worldwide next year. For fun, I gathered some of the early quotes from Taylor before she crossed over to pop.

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

2008 – When she released the song “Love Story”