Inspired by a boy who was unpopular with her family and friends, Swift wrote the song using William Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet as a reference point.

Following a 2019 dispute regarding the ownership of Swift's back catalog, she re-recorded the song and released it as "Love Story (Taylor's Version)" in February 2021.

[9] Answering fan questions on Time in April 2009, Swift said the song was inspired by a boy whom she never dated and was one of the most romantic pieces she had written.

[13] Although inspired by Romeo and Juliet, Swift felt the play could have been "the best love story ever told" had it not been for Shakespeare's tragic ending in which the two characters die.

[17] The engineer Chad Carlson recorded the track using Pro Tools and Justin Niebank mixed it using a Solid State Logic 9080 K series console and Genelec 1032 studio monitors.

[17] The pop-radio version has an opening beat that was generated using Apple Logic's Ultrabeat, and the electric guitars were created with Amplitube Stomp I/O.

[22] "Love Story" is a midtempo country pop song[23][24] that is driven by acoustic instruments including banjo, fiddle, mandolin, and guitar.

[1] In the refrains, which alter slightly as the song progresses to accompany the narrative, Juliet pleads for her love interest to appear, "Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone / I'll be waiting / All there's left to do is run.

[32] According to the media-and-film scholar Iris H. Tuan, Hawthrone's "scarlet letter" imagery represents the female protagonist Hester Prynne's sin and adultery, whereas Swift's use symbolizes the forbidden love between Romeo and Juliet.

[34] The final refrain is narrated from Romeo's perspective and tells of his marriage proposal to Juliet after he has sought her father's approval, "I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress.

"[35] Whereas Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet are secretly married without their parents' approval and both commit suicide, the characters in "Love Story" depart from that ending.

[36] According to Tuan, by projecting her feelings and fantasy on a Romeo and Juliet-inspired narrative, Swift created a song that strongly resonates with an audience of teenage girls and young women.

[40] In Fearless reviews, many critics complimented the production; Sean Daly from the St. Petersburg Times,[41] Rob Sheffield from Blender[42] and Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic selected the track as an album highlight.

[43] Deborah Evans Price of Billboard praised the "swirling, dreamy" production and said Swift's success in the country-music market "could only gain momentum".

[38] Others including The Boston Globe's James Reed[30] and USA Today's Elysa Gardner deemed "Love Story" an example of Swift's songwriting abilities at a young age; the latter appreciated the song for earnestly portraying teenage feelings "rather than [being] a mouthpiece for a bunch of older pros' collective notion of adolescent yearning".

[23] In a Slant Magazine review, Jonathan Keefe was impressed by Swift's melodic songwriting for creating "massive pop hooks" but found the references to Romeo and Juliet "point-missing" and The Scarlet Letter "inexplicable".

[61] It became the first song to top both the country-radio and pop-radio charts and surpassed the number-three-peaking "You're Still the One" (1998) by Shania Twain as the highest-charting country crossover to pop radio.

[71] It peaked within the top five of singles charts in Japan (three),[72] and the wider English-speaking world: the United Kingdom (two),[73] Ireland (three),[74] New Zealand (three),[75] Canada (four),[76] and Scotland (five).

[91] Swift was inspired by historical eras such as the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Regency to make a period-piece-styled video with a timeless narrative that "could happen in the 1700s, 1800s, or 2008".

[91] She spent six months searching for the male lead and upon recommendation from an acquaintance chose Justin Gaston, a fashion model who was competing in the television series Nashville Star.

[96] The video starts with Swift wearing a black sweater and jeans; she walks through a college campus and sees Gaston reading under a tree.

[91] Spin wrote that the video appears to have been filmed on an "HBO-looking budget" with "elaborate, pseudo-medieval set pieces"; according to the magazine, rather than alluding to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the narrative resembles "Rapunzel", especially the part in which Swift's character waits for her lover atop a castle.

[97] According to Glamour, Swift's fashion in the video reinforces the lyrical theme, "[She] literally wore a medieval ball gown while playing the Juliet to an actor's Romeo.

The song's performances began with backup dancers dressed in Victorian clothing, dancing to Pachelbel's Canon as a castle backdrop was projected onto the stage.

[132] The song was part of Swift's performance at BBC Radio 1's Teen Awards in October 2012; she appeared in a white dress before changing into silver hot pants and a sheer black top.

[138][139] Commenting on the 1989 World Tour rearrangement, Jane Song from Paste said "Love Story" "will continue to be one of [Swift's] calling cards".

[146] In August 2020, an unofficial house remix of "Love Story" by the American DJ Disco Lines went viral on the video-sharing platform TikTok.

[215] The re-recording's instruments are sharper and more distinct, with clearer sounds of the banjo, cymbals, and fiddle; stronger drums; a more-clearly defined bass; less-harsh electric guitars; and lowered harmonies in the mix.

[212][216] Reviews from Rolling Stone's Simon Vozick-Levinson and Los Angeles Times's Mikael Wood dubbed the re-recording an update of a "classic" song about teenage sentiments.

[212][218] Mark Savage from BBC News said Swift's improved vocals retain the teenage feelings,[213] but The Atlantic's Shirley Li and NME's Hannah Mylrea said they were more powerful, which introduces a sense of wistfulness and therefore loses the earnestness of the 2008 version.