<p id=”par-1_48″><a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/taylor-swift/?swcfpc=1″>Taylor Swift</a> is a longtime fan of <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/the-beatles/?swcfpc=1″>The Beatles</a>, and took major inspiration from them when she released her debut album. While their <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/music/”>music</a> may have influenced her songwriting, she specifically sought to emulate them with her CD design. She shared the Beatles-inspired way she engaged with fans.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-taylor-swift-said-the-beatles-inspired-a-creative-choice”>Taylor Swift said the Beatles inspired a creative choice</h2>
<p id=”par-2_39″>For years, Swift has dropped hints <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/taylor-swift-reveals-cardigan-music-video-easter-egg-fans-missed.html/”>and Easter eggs</a> into her music. Her fans use them, sometimes correctly and sometimes not, to predict when new music is coming. Swift said she has been doing this since her first album.</p>
<p id=”par-3_53″>“It’s sort of a tradition that we started a very long time ago,” she said on <em>The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon</em>. “I think the first time that I started dropping sort of cryptic clues in my music what when I was — I was 14 and 15 putting together my first album.”</p>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-1″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/1960s-songs.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”The Beatles wear suits and stand together on a stage.” class=”wp-image-3780485″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>The Beatles | Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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<p id=”par-4_34″>She said she got this idea from The Beatles. Some sources claimed they <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/paul-mccartney-heard-backward-message-the-beatles-sgt-pepper.html/”>included backwards messages</a> on their records. On her first album, Swift put coded messages in the lyrics on the CD jacket.</p>
<p id=”par-5_39″>“They used to play around with secret messages in their records,” she says. “I figured you can’t play a CD backward, but with encoding stuff into the lyrics, I was able to get a similar kind of thing across.”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-she-explained-that-she-also-used-easter-eggs-to-get-fans-to-read-her-lyrics”>She explained that she also used Easter eggs to get fans to read her lyrics</h2>
<p id=”par-6_20″>Swift said that she hoped hiding Easter eggs in her music would encourage fans to <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/taylor-swift-started-dropping-easter-eggs-1-reason.html/”>really listen to her lyrics</a>.</p>
<p id=”par-7_75″>“I wanted to do something that incentivized fans to read the lyrics because my lyrics are what I’m most proud of out of everything that I do, every aspect of my job,” Swift said. “So I really wanted people to read the lyrics. And when I was a kid I used to read through CD booklets and just read the teeny, tiny, print and just obsess over it. And so I wanted to incentivize them.”</p>
<p id=”par-8_15″>She shared the type of early code fans would have found on her first album.</p>
<p id=”par-9_52″>“So in my lyrics, you know, for my first several albums, I would have all lowercase lyrics except for capital letter, capital letter, capital letter, everyone once and a while,” she said. “And if they circled the capital letter and wrote them down it spelled out a secret code, a secret passage.”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-paul-mccartney-gave-taylor-swift-signed-lyrics-from-a-beatles-song”>Paul McCartney gave Taylor Swift signed lyrics from a Beatles song</h2>
<p id=”par-10_46″>Swift eventually had the opportunity to meet Paul McCartney. They even had a conversation for <a href=”https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/paul-mccartney-taylor-swift-musicians-on-musicians-1089058/” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Rolling Stone’s</a> Musicians on Musicians series. Before they began their talk, she asked him to sign her <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/taylor-swift-signed-paul-mccartney-lyrics-classic-song-hanging-bathroom.html/”>favorite Beatles lyric</a>: “Take these broken wings and learn to fly,” from the song “Blackbird.”</p>
<p id=”par-11_31″>“We walk into his office for a chat,” she wrote, “and after I make a nervous request, Paul is kind enough to handwrite my favorite lyric of his and sign it.”</p>
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<iframe title=”Blackbird (Remastered 2009)” width=”925″ height=”694″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/Man4Xw8Xypo?feature=oembed” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<p id=”par-12_15″>Swift said she would value the slip of paper for the <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/paul-mccartney-gave-taylor-swift-gift-cherish-rest-life.html/”>rest of her life</a>.</p>
<p id=”par-13_36″>“He makes a joke about me selling it, and I laugh because it’s something I know I’ll cherish for the rest of my life,” she wrote. “That’s around the time when we start talking about music.”</p>