Each Artist Added Four Songs to Historic Sets
(October 2, 2026) – Three legendary artists did in eight days what can be summed up as the kind of musical kismet that chart and history nerds like this blogger can only dream of… creating an article that practically writes itself.
Last Friday (Sept. 25), Taylor Swift added four songs to The Life of a Showgirl – an album that spent 12 weeks at No. 1 beginning last October. The newly expanded edition – dubbed The Encore – is aiming to return to No. 1 on the next Billboard 200, culminating one full year on the chart. The four new songs include “Patient Zero,” which is projected to become the singer’s 16th No. 1 on the Hot 100, plus three other tracks: “Cleveland!” (a celebration of her new marriage and a diss to her haters), “Pink Clouding” and “Babylon.”
Today (Oct. 2), Drake released a deluxe version of his HABIBTI album, subtitled FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), which includes four new songs that originally premiered during his FOMO short film. The four songs are an extended version of HABIBTI’s “Classic” and “Quebec,” along with two collaborations with Don Toliver – “Cold Shoulder” (also featuring Yebba) and “Solar Eclipse,” the latter being Drake’s interpolation of Ella Langley’s record-breaking country anthem, “Choosin’ Texas.” Imagine the irony if “Solar Eclipse” eclipses Ella Langley’s original from the top of the Hot 100 in two weeks.
HABIBTI – part of a trio of albums the Canadian superstar released in May – debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 behind his own ICEMAN. Technically, the No. 2 peak of HABIBTI along with the No. 3 high of its other companion LP, MAID OF HONOUR, ended Drake’s consecutive streak of No. 1s, by his own doing, of course. Renewed interest in HABIBTI, which sits at No. 118 on the Oct. 3 dated chart, could spur a return to the top ten and even get that elusive No. 1 he missed the first time out, thus giving the album’s new subtitle plenty of irony.
Between the supplemental releases by Swift and Drake came another four-set addendum to an album that has a chart-topping legacy. Stevie Wonder issued a four-song EP accompaniment to his iconic Songs in the Key of Life album on its 50th anniversary (Sept. 28). Unlike Drake’s and Taylor’s albums, Stevie’s four previously unheard songs – recorded in 1975/76 during his album’s original sessions – are considered a separate EP from the original package and can be purchased without the rest of the album.
There are historical threads connecting all three 4-song releases. Wonder’s original album became the first by an American to debut at No. 1 on the chart in October 1976 (and only the third overall behind two Elton John LPs), 50 years to the week that Taylor’s album is projected to return to No. 1 thanks to its deluxe edition. Meanwhile, Taylor and Drake each have 15 No. 1 albums, placing them in a tie for the most of any act in the 21st century and the second-most of all acts behind the Beatles (19). If Drake’s HABIBTI (FOMO) jumps to No. 1 (presumably by knocking The Life of a Showgirl – The Encore from the top), it will place Drizzy ahead of Taylor in the category with 16.
Though they have similar chart goals (to catch and pass the Beatles), Taylor and Drake likely released their deluxe editions for different reasons. Swift’s original 12-song album was released during the eligibility period for the upcoming Grammys, while The Encore’s four additions arrived too late to qualify for this cycle. But Grammy eligibility and Grammy campaigning aren’t quite the same thing. By putting The Life of a Showgirl back atop the cultural conversation just as voters are considering the eligible original album and its singles, The Encore gives the year-old project a timely second wind. If The Life of a Showgirl nabs a Grammy for Album of the Year, it will give Taylor her fifth such award – extending her record for the most in that category.
Drake, who isn’t bidding for any future Grammy nods, knows he’s in a neck-and-neck race with Taylor on the Billboard 200 and can’t afford to lose ground. Nine of Swift’s 15 No. 1 albums have come in this decade alone, while Drake has had seven since 2020. Furthermore, Drake was riding a 15-album No. 1 streak before the simultaneous debuts of his latest albums brought that to a halt. But that’s a problem easily solved by deluxe editions, especially in the streaming era. If the strategy works for HABIBTI, then this blogger wouldn’t put it past the very chart-conscious rapper to do the same for MAID OF HONOUR, which has already fallen off the Billboard 200.
But while Grammy and/or Billboard chart history likely drive the two contemporary artists, Stevie’s legacy in both categories with Songs in the Key of Life is sealed. The album won the Album of the Year Grammy in 1977, Wonder’s third win in four years after Fulfillingness’ First Finale (1975) and Innervisions (1974). The Recording Academy inducted SITKOL into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002 and later, the Library of Congress selected it for the National Recording Registry, which preserves recordings recognized for their cultural, historical or aesthetic significance. The album also spent 14 weeks at No. 1 during its original run in 1976/77.
The new EP’s midweek release, plus its separate packaging from the original album, means it likely won’t have as big an impact on the charts today as Drizzy and Taylor’s deluxe sets. The original Songs in the Key of Life hasn’t appeared on the Billboard 200 since March 2015 when it re-entered while Stevie was on a whirlwind tour commemorating the landmark album.
Instead, the four new songs on Stevie’s EP – “It’s Easier,” “My Life Story of Love,” “I Can See the Sun in Late December,” and “I’m Into Livin’” – were personally selected by Wonder from the original recording sessions to commemorate the album’s 50th anniversary. To further commemorate it, the Motown legend recruited two of the album’s original recording and mixing engineers – John Fischbach and Gary O Adante (originally billed as Gary Olazabal on the 1976 album’s liner notes) – to mix the four tracks.
By providing a separate EP, Wonder is celebrating the original album while leaving it completely intact. There’s no reshuffling of the older album’s sequence, no remixing of its original material or odd studio outtakes of its demo sessions. The four new songs – which are all superb, btw – add another set of pieces to a remarkable period of creativity for the “As” singer. Fans can think of the new EP as a “Something’s Extra Extra,” a play on the “Something’s Extra” name he gave to the album’s original four-song bonus EP that contained tunes like “Saturn” and “Ebony Eyes.”
Wonder is also taking this anniversary celebration on the road (again), performing the entire album in its entirety. His Songs in the Key of Life Performances – 50th Anniversary Tour begins in Birmingham, UK this month before reaching the United States (New York City, Chicago, Washington, DC, Detroit, and Los Angeles) beginning in November. If it is anything like the concerts he gave in honor of the album a decade ago, it will be a treat to remember – especially with the bonus of the four newly released songs.
Songs in the Key of Life was already the most epic studio album in Stevie’s catalog and is largely considered among the greatest albums of all time – including by yours truly. That the musical genius can commemorate it by bringing us four songs that embody the same themes of love, joy, spirituality, and life he (and, by extension, we) experienced in 1976 with the 21 original tunes is truly a blessing.
And there’s another bit of symmetry involving the three artists. Stevie emerged from a two-year recording gap with his masterpiece. Drake is emerging from what was essentially a two-year down period following his historic feud with Kendrick Lamar. And some observers are now arguing that Taylor herself could benefit from stepping away for two years before album No. 13.
Whether Taylor takes that two-year break remains to be seen. Meanwhile, Drake – who hinted during a streaming session on Kick that we haven’t heard the last of him yet (“So, all the songs that you guys have been asking [about]. Well, not all of them. Enough of them are coming on (Oct. 2)” – could be readying a deluxe for MAID OF HONOUR.
Whatever happens between Drake and Taylor, let’s hope that, if there are more songs in the SITKOL vault, we don’t have to wait another 50 years to hear them.
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.
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