Stay with Me (Sam Smith song)

Background

In an interview with NME, Sam Smith said that the song was written in a studio in Old Street with James Napier (Jimmy Napes) and William Phillips (also known as "Tourist"). Phillips started playing with three chords on the piano, and Napier quickly provided a drum pattern, and according to Sam Smith, "the song just flowed out of us so naturally," and the song was written in 30 to 40 minutes. After finishing the song, he started to layer his vocal about 20 times, singing in different parts of the studio and harmonizing. The result sounded like a gospel choir, but all from his own voice, and this demo was then used in the released song.

According to Smith, "the song is about the moment in the morning after a one night stand, where the person you are with leaves your house, and you are left by yourself, and it's just a second, where you are just like: 'I wish, I wish'. You don't even love them, you don't really fancy them that much, it's just nice to have someone in the bed next to you." The song won the Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year, and in his acceptance speech for winning the Record of the Year, Smith said that "I want to thank the man who this record is about who I fell in love with last year. Thank you so much for breaking my heart because you got me four Grammys."

On 25 March 2014, the song was played for the first time on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show at 7:30pm. On 29 March, he performed the song live on Saturday Night Live in the United States. On 16 May, he performed the song on The Graham Norton Show. In June, he returned to the United States as part of his tour where he performed the song on Good Morning America, at the Apollo Theater in New York with Mary J. Blige, and David Letterman.

Agreement with Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne

In January 2015, it was revealed that a settlement had been reached with Tom Petty's publishing company to add Petty and Jeff Lynne as co-writers, and that they would receive a 12.5% songwriting credit. Petty's publisher contacted Smith's team after it noticed a likeness between "Stay with Me" and the melody of Petty's 1989 song "I Won't Back Down". Petty clarified that he did not believe Smith plagiarized him, saying "All my years of songwriting have shown me these things can happen. Most times you catch it before it gets out the studio door but in this case it got by. Sam's people were very understanding of our predicament and we easily came to an agreement". According to Smith, he had never heard "I Won't Back Down" before he wrote "Stay with Me", but he acknowledged the similarity after listening to the song, and said that the likeness was "a complete coincidence". Petty and Lynne, however, were not eligible for a Grammy as the Recording Academy considered "Stay with Me" to have been interpolated from "I Won't Back Down" by Napier, Phillips and Smith; instead Petty and Lynne would be given certificates to honor their participation in the work, as is usual for writers of sampled or interpolated work.

Composition

"Stay with Me" was written by Smith, James Napier, William Phillips, with additional credits to Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the song is set in the key of C major in common time with a tempo of 84 beats per minute. Smith's vocals span two octaves from E₃ to E₅ while the song follows a chord progression of Am7–F–C. According to Erine Keane of Salon, "Stay with Me" combines a "contemporary drumbeat", blue-eyed soul singing, and a refrain sung in a gospel style. while Stereogum's Tom Breihan called it "a soft-focus piano-soul ballad".

Critical reception

"Stay with Me" received generally positive reviews from music critics. Amy Davidson from Digital Spy called the song an "emotional crescendo" and said the chorus was "slightly over-sentimental" and felt that his "soulful voice" made the singer left in "defeat by fleeting fling". She gave the song four out of five stars. Joe Gross from Rolling Stone gave the song a mixed review, awarding it three of five stars. Isabel Pearson of Nouse gave the song a positive review during her album review, calling the song a "euphoric, slow building love-song that’s raw and undeniably one of the best tracks on this album." Sarah Milton of The Upcoming lauded the song, calling it "electrifying with its blunt honesty and exquisite gospel influence."

In July 2014, Billboard listed "Stay with Me" as one of the "10 Best Songs of 2014 (so far)" saying that the song is "a fragile ballad that finds its backbone when a gospel choir assists the British singer on the harrowing chorus." Variance Magazine named the song its 2014 Song of Summer. The song was placed at number twelve on Rolling Stone's 50 Best Songs of 2014 list. In January 2015, "Stay with Me" was ranked at number 15 on The Village Voice's annual year-end Pazz & Jop critics' poll.

Commercial performance

In the UK Singles Chart it debuted at number 1, making it Smith's third number one. The song became the eighth best-selling song of 2014 in the UK, and the seventh overall when streaming is included. On the Billboard Hot 100, the song peaked at number 2 for two weeks, making it Smith's first top ten song in the US as a lead artist and his highest charting single to date. It was held off from the top spot by MAGIC!'s "Rude." As of the week of May 2, 2015, "Stay with Me" has spent 21 weeks in the top ten and 54 weeks on the Hot 100. The song was the tenth best-selling song of 2014 in the United States with 3.34 million copies sold in that year. As of June 2015, The song has sold 4.1 million copies in the US. In Canada, "Stay with Me" topped the Canadian Hot 100 for seven consecutive weeks. In Australia, the song debuted at number 22 on the ARIA Singles Chart on the chart dated 5 May 2014 and later peaked at number 5 on the chart date June 16, 2014. The song also reached top 10 status in over twelve countries worldwide, becoming Smith's most successful single to date.

Music video

A music video to accompany the release of "Stay with Me" was first released onto YouTube on 27 March 2014 at a total length of three minutes and twenty-nine seconds. The video shows Sam coming out of a house and walking down a street in De Beauvoir Town, London, sitting in a room performing the song, and performing the song in a church with a choir. It was directed by Jamie Thraves. "Stay with Me" received nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards for Best Male Video and Artist to Watch.

Cover versions

In June 2014, Ed Sheeran covered "Stay with Me" at BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge. He explained his choice saying "It's my favorite song of the last year. I think it’s an instant classic." Florence and the Machine covered it at the Orange Warsaw Festival. In July, Vin Diesel sang it during an interview with Capital FM. In August, Chris Brown posted a video on Instagram in which he sings the song with lyric changes. Eventual winner Josh Kaufman covered the song for his top 12 performance on the sixth season of The Voice US. Reigan Derry performed the song for "Top 10 Hits" themed week on the sixth series of The X Factor Australia, and her performance debuted at number 20 on the ARIA Singles Chart. In September 2014, FKA twigs also covered it at BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge. Also in September, Charli XCX covered it at Live 95.5's Bing Lounge. Luke James also covered the song, which appeared on his 2014 self-titled album. Kelly Clarkson covered the song at her free concert in honor of the new Microsoft store at the SouthPark Mall in Charlotte, North Carolina. Singer Patti LaBelle performed it in November 2014 on her concert tour. Romain Virgo did a reggae cover.

Live performances

Media usage

The song is featured in the television shows Mistresses, Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce, Bad Education, and The Mindy Project.

Actor Marlon Wayans lip synced this song on the show 'Lip Sync Battle'.

In the 2016 animated film Sing, Johnny (voiced by Taron Egerton) sings this song as his audition for the singing competition.

Certifications

Since May 2013 RIAA certifications for digital singles include on-demand audio and/or video song streams in addition to downloads.