Jason Merritt/LP5/Getty Images for TASTaylor Swift‘s been out of the country music game for a while, but she’s still got the magic touch when it comes to penning country hits.
“Better Man,” a song written by Taylor and recorded by the superstar country group Little Big Town, has just reached #1 on the Billboard Country Airplay Chart. “Thanks to Taylor Swift for sending us this beautiful song,” the group’s Karen Fairchild tells Billboard.
Billboard notes that “Better Man” is the first #1 hit on this chart by a single songwriter person — in this case, Taylor — not a team of writers, since June of 2016, when “Humble and Kind,” a song written by Lori McKenna for Tim McGraw, topped the chart. Before that, the last #1 hit penned by one person was 2012’s “Ours,” written by — you guessed it — Taylor Swift.
The last 12 months have seen many pop stars appear on the country charts, either as performers or writers. Meghan Trainor co-wrote a #1 hit for country group Rascal Flatts, for example, and scored another hit with country star Brett Eldredge with the Christmas duet “Baby It’s Cold Outside.”
Meanwhile, Pink duetted with country star Kenny Chesney and hit #1 on the country chart, and Elle King did the same when she sang with country star Dierks Bentley.
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