Four years after the song was released, "Cruel Summer" officially hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart after Swifties showed their dedication in streaming the lyrical masterpiece in 2023 to prepare for Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour.
"Cruel Summer" co-songwriter St. Vincent is now looking back on the origins of the song, and how many thought that it would be an instant hit at the time.
Vincent Recalls Writing 'Cruel Summer' with Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff
St. Vincent, formally known as Annie Clark, co-wrote "Cruel Summer" with Jack Antonoff and Swift in 2019 for the latter's Lover.
In a People magazine interview, Clark raved about Swift and talked about the process of writing the sleeper hit.
"She's just so incredibly intelligent and so hardworking. That's a given," she said about the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter. "I am so incredibly blown away and amazed by Taylor's fans because they are just a force of nature. They took a song that was, what? Almost four records ago now, that was not a single off a record. They were like, "No, this song's a hit.'" Then, by force of will, they made that song a worldwide hit."
When Taylor Swift started The Eras Tour in 2023, the song experienced a resurgence in streaming and downloads as it collectively became a highlight of her era-spanning concert in the United States.
Antonoff, who was both credited as a songwriter and producer for the song, revealed in a Jimmy Fallon interview in 2023 that the song was his and Swift's most favorite song in Lover.
"I'm loving where the music business is going because it just melted down into nothing but what people like. And you can talk your crap about this or that, but the fans are God. What they say goes and all this," Antonoff told Fallon about the song's resurgence.
Taylor Swift' Cruel Summer' Released As a Single in 2023
Republic Records, Swift's label, recognized the song's performance both in streaming and downloads and its renewed impact on pop culture.
They then released the song as a single to US contemporary hit radio in June 2023. The eventual release was met with much more commercial success, finally reaching the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, among many other song charts.
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