Music notes: Taylor Swift, Elton John and more

Taylor Swift‘s The Tortured Poets Department has scored the biggest opening of an album in the U.K. in seven years, according to the Official Charts Company. The record is her 12th #1 album and her biggest opening ever in the U.K. It also set a new U.K. record for the amount of vinyl sales in a week by any album in the 21st century. She surpassed her own album, Midnights, to achieve the recognition.

Elton John will be one of the guest stars on Stampede Vol. 1, a duets album by South African alt-country artist Orville Peck. Peck, who is openly gay and always performs wearing some sort of mask, will sing with Elton on a remake of Elton’s classic “Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting).” Other guests on the album include country icon Willie Nelson, Miley Cyrus‘ sister Noah Cyrus and roots rocker Nathaniel Rateliff.

Singer and actress Vanessa Williams has just released the first single and video from what will be her first pop album in 15 years. It’s called “Legs (Keep Dancing),” and the song’s title was inspired by the late Diahann Carroll‘s memoir The Legs Are The Last To Go. Vanessa’s album will be out later this year; she’s currently getting ready to play Miranda Priestly in Elton John’s new musical The Devil Wears Prada, opening this fall in London’s West End. Vanessa’s biggest U.S. hit is her 1992 #1, “Save the Best for Last.”