Taylor Swift’s ‘Toy Story’ song debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard charts

VPM | By Stephen Thompson

Published June 19, 2026 at 8:34 PM EDT

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Songs from Pixar movies have won big at the Grammys and the Oscars, but there’s one thing they have never done until now. Stephen Thompson of NPR Music has the story.

STEPHEN THOMPSON, BYLINE: When you think about songs from Pixar movies, you might think of Randy Newman and a song that’s become a standard – “You’ve Got A Friend In Me” from “Toy Story.”

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND IN ME”)

RANDY NEWMAN: (Singing) You’ve got a friend in me. You’ve got a friend in me.

THOMPSON: Or maybe you think of “Remember Me” from “Coco,” which won the Oscar for best original song.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “REMEMBER ME”)

BENJAMIN BRATT: (As Ernesto de la Cruz, singing) Remember me. Remember me. Though I have to say goodbye, remember me. Remember me.

THOMPSON: This week, Pixar accomplishes something it’s never done before. It’s got a song at the very top of the Billboard Hot 100. “I Knew It, I Knew You” is by a familiar chart-topper by the name of Taylor Swift. She wrote the song and recorded it to roll over the closing credits of the new Pixar sequel “Toy Story 5.”

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “I KNEW IT, I KNEW YOU”)

TAYLOR SWIFT: (Singing) But I knew it, I knew you. I knew it, I knew you.

THOMPSON: This week, just in time for “Toy Story 5’s” release, “I Knew It, I Knew You” debuts at No. 1, a familiar spot for Taylor Swift. It’s her 15th song to top the chart, putting Swift behind only the Beatles and Mariah Carey for most in a career. And it’s her 70th song to hit the Top 10, putting her behind only Drake. “I Knew It, I Knew You” isn’t just the first Pixar song to hit No. 1. Pixar and Disney merged in 2006, so it’s also only the third song from a Disney movie ever to top the Hot 100. The first, “A Whole New World” from 1992’s “Aladdin,” was sung by Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “A WHOLE NEW WORLD”)

REGINA BELLE: (Singing) A whole new world.

PEABO BRYSON: (Singing) A whole new world. A new fantastic…

THOMPSON: Then nearly three decades later, the cast of “Encanto” scored a massive viral hit with “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.”

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WE DON’T TALK ABOUT BRUNO”)

MAURO CASTILLO AND CAROLINA GAITAN: (As Felix and Pepa Madrigal, singing) We don’t talk about Bruno, no, no, no. We don’t talk about Bruno.

THOMPSON: With Pixar and Disney working hand in hand, both studios can claim the latest chart sensation, not to mention an early Oscar contender. The studios should have known all along that if you’ve got a friend in Taylor Swift, you’re going to top the charts just about every time. Stephen Thompson, NPR Music.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “I KNEW IT, I KNEW YOU”)

SWIFT: (Singing) I knew you through the daze of the blades of the grass in summer. Parachutes for the free fall of being younger. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Stephen Thompson

Stephen Thompson is a host, writer and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist and guest host on All Songs Considered. Thompson also co-hosts the daily NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created with NPR's Linda Holmes in 2010. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)

In 1993, Thompson founded The Onion's entertainment section, The A.V. Club, which he edited — alongside duties as The Onion's copy editor — until December 2004. In the years since, he has provided music- and pop-culture-themed commentaries for NPR programs such as Weekend Edition, All Things Considered and Morning Edition, on which he earned the distinction of becoming the first member of the NPR Music staff ever to sing on an NPR newsmagazine. (Later, the magic of AutoTune transformed him from a 12th-rate David Archuleta into a fourth-rate Cher.) Thompson's entertainment writing has also run in Paste magazine, The Washington Post and The London Guardian.

During his tenure at The Onion, Thompson edited the 2002 book The Tenacity Of The Cockroach: Conversations With Entertainment's Most Enduring Outsiders (Crown) and copy-edited six best-selling comedy books. While there, he also coached The Onion's softball team to a sizzling 21-42 record, and was once outscored 72-0 in a span of 10 innings. Later in life, Thompson redeemed himself by teaming up with the small gaggle of fleet-footed twentysomethings who won the 2008 NPR Relay Race, a triumph he documents in a hard-hitting essay for the book This Is NPR: The First Forty Years (Chronicle).

A 1994 graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Thompson now lives in Silver Spring, Md., with his girlfriend, their three cats and a room full of vintage arcade machines. (He also has two adult children who've headed off to college but still call once in a while.) Thompson's hobbies include watching reality television without shame, eating Pringles until his hand has involuntarily twisted itself into a gnarled claw, using the size of his Twitter following to assess his self-worth, touting the immutable moral superiority of the Green Bay Packers (who returned the favor by making a 22-minute documentary about his life) and maintaining a fierce rivalry with all Midwestern states other than Wisconsin.

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