Home » Albums » THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT » Songs on THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT » But Daddy I Love Him

But Daddy I Love Him

THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (2024)

“But Daddy I Love Him” is track six on Taylor’s eleventh studio album, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (2024). It was written by Taylor and Aaron Dessner, who co-produced the track alongside Jack Antonoff. In the song, Taylor is rebelling against the constant scrutiny of her personal life, likening public criticism of her relationships to the attitudes of controlling parental figures.

Background and Development

Taylor announced THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT on February 4, 2024 at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards during her acceptance speech for the “Best Pop Vocal Album” award, which she won for her tenth studio album, Midnights (2022). “But Daddy I Love Him” appears on the album as track six.

According to Taylor, she developed THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT immediately after submitting Midnights, and worked on it for two years. She significantly further developed the album during the first US leg of “The Eras Tour” (2023-2024). During one of “The Eras Tour” shows in Melbourne, she described writing the album was a “lifeline” for her:

«TORTURED POETS is an album that I think, more than any of my albums that I’ve ever made, I needed to make it. It was really a lifeline for me, just the things I was going through, and the things I was writing about. It kind of reminded me of why songwriting is something that actually gets me through my life. And I’ve never had an album where I needed songwriting more than I’d needed it on TORTURED POETS.»

Taylor Swift

Lyrical Theme

Taylor co-wrote the song with frequent collaborator Aaron Dessner. The title “But Daddy I Love Him” directly references the Disney film The Little Mermaid (1989). It is a quote from the rebellious mermaid Ariel, who pleads with her disapproving father, King Triton, when she falls for the human Prince Eric. In Taylor’s case, “But Daddy I Love Him” is the pop-infused big sister to her breakthrough hit “Love Story” (2008), when she grappled with her father‘s disapproval of her boyfriend. This time, the disapproving chorus is a motley crew of naysayers and disappointed fans.

The ‘bad boy’ character in the song has been rumoured to be based on Matty Healy, lead singer of the English band The 1975. Taylor was spotted with him for a brief few months after her split with Joe Alwyn in March 2023. The musician was not deemed a good match for Taylor by the general public for multiple reasons.

On “But Daddy I Love Him,” Taylor lashes out at the crush of scrutiny her association with Healy received from the start. On this particular track, she is done with having to constantly please the public and her fans; done with the expectations and done with the judgment. The song is an embrace of passion, of taking a chance on a “wild boy” who brings a touch of “chaos and revelry” – a stark contrast to the beige predictability some seem to crave for her.

Production

Musically, “But Daddy I Love Him” is an electronica and folk rock ballad with elements of country and rock. Taylor and Aaron Dessner co-produced the track alongside Jack Antonoff. The verses are instrumented by fingerpicked guitars, while the chorus is dynamic, which evokes Taylor’s early country-pop work on her albums Fearless (2008) and Speak Now (2010).

Live Performances

Starting with the European leg, which kicked off in May 2024, Taylor added “But Daddy I Love Him” to the regular setlist for her sixth headlining tour, “The Eras Tour” (2023-2024).

Critical Reception

In a review for the parent album, Helen Brown of The Independent wrote “the force [Swift] brings to ‘But Daddy I Love Him’ is thrilling, as she lassos a few country tropes to charge her horses at online trolls.” Samantha Olson of Cosmopolitan ranked the song fifth in her ranking of the top five best songs from the album. Lindsay Zoladz of The New York Times groups this song as part of a “project [that] remains fixed on her internal world”, described as the “unexpectedly venomous” track about “the “wine moms” and “Sarahs and Hannahs in their Sunday best” who cluck their tongues at our narrator’s dating decisions. (Some might speculate that these are actually shots at her own fans.)” A similar sentiment shared John Wohlmacher of Beats Per Minute who writes that in the song, she “butts heads with overzealous fans” with its “outrageously cheeky and confrontational” lyrics.

Commercial Performance

Following the album’s release, its tracks occupied the Top 9 of the Billboard Global 200; “But Daddy I Love Him” debuted at its peak of No. 7 on the chart, where it extended Taylor’s Top 10 entries to 33. In the United States, the song opened and peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. It along with 13 tracks from the album made Taylor the first artist to monopolize the Top 14 of the Hot 100. In Australia, “But Daddy I Love Him” reached No. 7 on the ARIA Singles Chart and made her the artist with the most entries in a single week with 29. In Canada, the song also peaked at No. 7 on the Canadian Hot 100 and extended Taylor’s record as the female artist with the most Top 10 chart entries to 59.

Elsewhere, “But Daddy I Love Him” reached the Top 10 in New Zealand and Singapore, with peaks of No. 8 and No. 9 respectively. The song also charted within the Top 25 in the Philippines (11), Ireland (12), Malaysia (18), Luxembourg (19), Portugal (20), Denmark (23), South Africa (23), and Belgium (24).

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
I forget how the West was won
I forget if this was ever fun
I just learned these people only raise you to cage you
Sarahs and Hannahs in their Sunday best
Clutching their pearls, sighing “What a mess”
I just learned these people try and save you
…cause they hate you

[Pre-Chorus 1]
Too high a horse
For a simple girl to rise above it
They slammed the door on my whole world
The one thing I wanted

[Chorus]
Now I’m running with my dress unbuttoned
Scrеaming “But Daddy I love him!”
I’m having his baby
No, I’m not, but you should see your faces
I’m telling him to floor it through thе fences
No, I’m not coming to my senses
I know he’s crazy but he’s the one I want

[Verse 2]
Dutiful daughter, all my plans were laid
Tendrils tucked into a woven braid
Growing up precocious sometimes means
Not growing up at all
He was chaos, he was revelry
Bedroom eyes like a remedy
Soon enough, the elders had convened
Down at the city hall

[Pre-Chorus 2]
“Stay away from her”
The saboteurs protested too much
Lord knows the words we never heard
Just screeching tires and true love

[Chorus]
Now I’m running with my dress unbuttoned
Screaming “But Daddy I love him!”
I’m having his baby
No, I’m not, but you should see your faces
I’m telling him to floor it through the fences
No, I’m not coming to my senses
I know he’s crazy but he’s the one I want

[Post-Chorus 1]
I’ll tell you something right now
I’d rather burn my whole life down
Than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning
I’ll tell you something about my good name
It’s mine alone to disgrace
I don’t cater to all these vipers dressed in empath’s clothing

[Bridge]
God save the most judgmental creeps
Who say they want what’s best for me
Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I’ll never see
Thinking it can change the beat
Of my heart when he touches me
And counteract the chemistry
And undo the destiny
You ain’t gotta pray for me
Me and my wild boy
And all this wild joy
If all you want is gray for me
Then it’s just white noise
And it’s just my choice

[Verse 3]
There’s a lot of people in town that I
Bestow upon my fakest smiles
Scandal does funny things to pride
But brings lovers closer
We came back when the heat died down
Went to my parents and they came around
All the wine moms are still holding out
But fuck ’em. It’s over.

[Final Chorus]
Now I’m dancing in my dress in the sun and
Even my daddy just loves him
I’m his lady, and oh my God
You should see your faces
Time, doesn’t it give some perspective
No, you can’t come to the wedding
I know he’s crazy but he’s the one I want

[Post-Chorus 2]
I’ll tell you something right now you ain’t gotta pray for me
Me and my wild boy and all of this wild joy
He was chaos, he was revelry
If all you want is gray for me
Then it’s just white noise, and it’s my choice

[Outro]
Screaming, “But Daddy I love him!”
I’m having his baby
No, I’m not! But you –
Should see your faces
But oh my God you should see your faces