no body, no crime

Taylor revealed to EW where the idea for the song came from, and how she got the group — which consists of sisters Este, Danielle, and Alana Haim — involved.

“Working with the HAIM sisters on ‘no body, no crime’ was pretty hilarious because it came about after I wrote a pretty dark murder mystery song and had named the character Este, because she’s the friend I have who would be stoked to be in a song like that. I had finished the song and was nailing down some lyric details and texted her, ‘You’re not going to understand this text for a few days but… which chain restaurant do you like best?’ and I named a few. She chose Olive Garden and a few days later I sent her the song and asked if they would sing on it. It was an immediate ‘YES.'” — Taylor Swift

The popular Italian chain appears in the lyrics of the song: Este wasn’t there/ Tuesday night at Olive Garden.

Though they’d been friends for years and even toured together, Taylor and the HAIM sisters had never before collaborated on a song together. “We can’t figure out why we hadn’t collaborated sooner. We’ve toured together, played live together, choreographed dances like we’re at summer camp, but it took a song about avenging your friend’s murder to give us the idea to take this step,” Taylor explained, adding, “Long story short, I’m the 4th HAIM sister now, confirmed.” They have since collaborated a second time, on a remix of HAIM’s song “Gasoline“.

Producer Aaron Dessner told Rolling Stone in December, 2020, how the song came together:

“Taylor wrote that one alone and sent me a voice memo of her playing guitar — she wrote it on this rubber-bridge guitar that I got for her. It’s the same kind I play on ‘invisible string.’ So she wrote ‘no body, no crime’ and sent me a voice memo of it, and then I started building on that. And then Taylor had specific ideas from the beginning about references and how she wanted it to feel, and that she wanted the HAIM sisters to sing on it. We had them record the song with Ariel Reichshaid, they sent that from L.A., and then we put it together when Taylor was here [at Long Pond]. They’re an incredible band, and it was another situation where we were like, ‘Well, this happened.’ It felt like this weird little rock & roll history anecdote.” — Aaron Dessner

Despite not being a single upon release, “no body, no crime” debuted at no. 34 on the US making HAIM’s first entry and top-forty on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song also debuted at no. 2 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, marking Taylor’s second top 10 of 2020, following “betty“, and HAIM’s first appearance on the chart. “no body, no crime” is scheduled to be released to country radio on January 11, 2021 as the second single from the album.