Taylor Swift Wiki
Register
Advertisement

For information on the song, visit Beautiful Eyes (song).

Beautiful Eyes is the second extended play released by American country-pop recording artist Taylor Swift. The EP was released on July 15, 2008, through Big Machine Records exclusively to Walmart stores in the United States and online. The limited release EP has a primarily country pop sound and features alternate versions of tracks from her debut album, Taylor Swift (2006), and two original tracks, "Beautiful Eyes" and "I Heart?", songs which she had previously written; a DVD, featuring music videos of singles from Taylor Swift, is also included on the physical release of the EP.

Beautiful Eyes peaked at number nine on the U.S. Billboard 200 and atop Billboard's Top Country Albums chart, succeeding her self-titled debut album. "I Heart ?" was released as a promotional single in June 2008. The EP was not heavily promoted, though, Swift has performed the title track at different venues.

Background[]

A young female with curly blond hair faces down at an acoustic guitar made of koa wood while a large microphone is placed close to her. She is wearing patterned, red dress.

Swift performing the acoustic version of her hit "Teardrops On My Guitar", which is featured on Beautiful Eyes.

Swift received much success with the release of her self-titled debut album Taylor Swift (2006), and began working on her second studio album, Fearless (2008), 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."[1]

Beautiful Eyes is musically oriented to country pop and contemporary music.[2] 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 never before released songs, "Beautiful Eyes" and "I Heart ?", which she wrote in 2003.[1] 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.[1] The album was only made available through American Walmart stores and Walmart's website.[3] Furthermore, it was made a limited release because Swift only allowed Big Machine Records to manufacture a certain amount of copies of the EP.[1] 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."[1]

Chart performance[]

On the week ending August 2, 2008, Beautiful Eyes debuted at number nine on the Billboard 200 due to sales of 45,000 copies.[4][5] The EP spent a total of twenty weeks on the Billboard 200.[6] 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).[7][8] The following week, the EP slipped to number two[9] and, in total, it spent twenty eight weeks on Top Country Albums.[6]

Promotion[]

"I Heart ?" was released as promotional single from Beautiful Eyes on June 23, 2008.[10] 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.[1] 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.[11] 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 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.[12]

Track listing[]

The packaging of the physical release of Beautiful Eyes includes two discs.

CD
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Beautiful Eyes"Taylor Swift2:59
2."Should've Said No (Alternate Version)"Swift3:45
3."Teardrops On My Guitar (Acoustic Version)"Swift, Liz Rose2:56
4."Picture to Burn (Radio Edit)"Swift, Rose2:55
5."I'm Only Me When I'm With You"Swift, Robert Ellis Orrall, Angelo Petraglia3:33
6."I Heart ?"Swift3:17
Total length:19:25
DVD
No.TitleLength
1."Beautiful Eyes"2:57
2."Picture to Burn"3:32
3."I'm Only Me When I'm With You"3:39
4."Tim McGraw"3:52
5."Teardrops On My Guitar"3:38
6."The Making of 'Picture to Burn' Music Video"22:06
7."Great American Country New Artist Interview"14:45
8."Should've Said No (Live at the Academy of Country Music)"4:33
Total length:59:02

Booklet[]

Photoshoot[]

Charts and procession[]

Charts[]

Chart (2008) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard 200[6] 9
U.S. Top Country Albums[6] 1

Personnel[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "Wal-Mart "Eyes" New Taylor Swift Project". Great American Country. Scripps Networks Interactive. July 15, 2008. http://www.gactv.com/gac/nw_headlines/article/0,3034,GAC_26063_5903580_,00.html. Retrieved January 6, 2010.
  2. "allmusic {{{Beautiful Eyes > Overview}}}". Allmusic. Macrovision Corporation. http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:d9fixzukldae. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
  3. "Beautiful Eyes (Wal-Mart Exclusive) (Includes DVD)". Walmart.com. Wal-Mart. Archived from the original on January 6, 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5maqCqRJq. Retrieved January 6, 2010.
  4. Hasty, Katie (July 23, 2008). "Nas Dethrones Lil Wayne Atop Billboard 200". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003830496#/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003830496. Retrieved January 8, 2010.
  5. "Taylor Swift - Beautiful Eyes (EP)". aCharts.us. http://acharts.us/album/36908. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "Beautiful Eyes - Taylor Swift". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. http://www.billboard.com/#/album/taylor-swift/beautiful-eyes-ep/1169522. Retrieved January 8, 2010.
  7. "Taylor Swift Bumps Herself Out of No. 1 Slot". CMT News. Viacom. July 26, 2008. http://www.cmt.com/news/country-music/1591603/taylor-swift-bumps-herself-out-of-no-1-slot.jhtml. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
  8. "Taylor Swift owns top of country chart". Great American Country. Scripps Networks Interactive. July 23, 2008. http://www.countrystandardtime.com/news/newsitem.asp?xid=1947. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
  9. "Top Country Albums - Week of August 9, 2008". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. August 9, 2008. http://www.billboard.com/#/charts/country-albums?chartDate=2008-08-09. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
  10. "allmusic {{{I Heart ? > Overview}}}". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:0bfwxz8sldae. Retrieved June 14, 2010.
  11. "NAMM Kicks Off Annual Summer Trade Show in Nashville". Namm.org. Nashville, Tennessee: The NAMM Show. July 24, 2004. http://www.namm.org/news/press-releases/namm-kicks-annual-summer-trade-show-nashville. Retrieved January 6, 2010.
  12. "Taylor Swift - Beautiful Eyes (Exclusive Performance)". Stripped. Iheartradio.com. http://www.iheartradio.com/mediaplayer/?station=IHM-IP&action=stripped&item=13962. Retrieved January 6, 2010.
Beautiful Eyes
"Beautiful Eyes" • "Should've Said No" (alternate version) • "Teardrops on My Guitar" (acoustic version) • "Picture to Burn" (radio edit) • "I'm Only Me When I'm With You" • "I Heart ?"
Advertisement