Background
Swift became inspired to write "You Belong with Me" after she overheard a male friend of hers speaking to his girlfriend through a phone call. He acted defensive as his girlfriend yelled at him, and said to her, "No, baby...I had to get off the phone really quickly... I tried to call you right back... Of course I love you. More than anything! Baby, I’m so sorry." Out of the sympathy she felt towards him in the situation, Swift developed a concept for a song. In a writing session with co-writer Liz Rose, Swift explained the situation along with her idea and conceived the song's opening line, "You’re on the phone with your girlfriend / she’s upset / she's going off about something that you said." Together, they developed a story line, which described Swift being in love with the male friend and her having the desire for him to breakup with his current girlfriend for her. Swift described the song's concept as "basically about wanting someone who is with this girl who doesn't appreciate him at all. Basically like 'girl-next-door-itis.' You like this guy who you have for your whole life, and you know him better than she does but somehow the popular girl gets the guy every time." Swift recalled, "It was really fun for us to write the line, 'She wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts'." "You Belong with Me" was first released as a promotional single from Fearless on November 4, 2008 as part of Countdown to Fearless, an exclusive campaign by the iTunes Store; the song was then released as the third single from Fearless on April 21, 2009.
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