"Stay with Me" is a song by English singer
Sam Smith from Smith's debut studio album In the Lonely Hour (2014). It was released in the United States on 14 April 2014 and in the United Kingdom on 18 May 2014. "Stay with Me" is a
gospel-inspired
ballad that details the protagonist pleading with their
one-night stand not to leave them.[1] The song was written by Smith,
James Napier, and
William Phillips, with
Tom Petty and
Jeff Lynne later receiving co-writer credits due to the song's noted melodic similarity to Petty's single "
I Won't Back Down".
In an interview with NME, 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").[4] Phillips started playing with three chords on the piano, and Napier quickly provided a drum pattern, and according to Smith, "the song just flowed out of us so naturally," and the song was written in thirty to forty minutes. After finishing the song, Smith started to layer vocals about twenty times, singing in different parts of the studio and harmonizing. The result sounded like a gospel choir, but all from Smith's own voice, and this demo was then used in the released song.[4][5]
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."[4] The song won the Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year, and in their 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."[6]
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".[10] Petty clarified that he did not believe Smith intentionally 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."[11] According to Smith, they had never heard "I Won't Back Down" before writing "Stay with Me",[12][13] but they acknowledged the similarity after listening to the song, and said that the likeness was "a complete coincidence".[14][15] 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 contribution to the work, as is usual for writers of
sampled or interpolated work.[16]
According to Musicnotes.com, "Stay with Me" is written in the key of
C major (an accidental-free key signature) and is composed in
common time, and played at a
tempo of 84
beats per minute.[17]
"Stay with Me" was written by Smith, James Napier, William Phillips, with additional credits to Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne. 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,[18] while
Stereogum's Tom Breihan called it "a soft-focus piano-soul ballad".[19]
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 their "soulful voice" made the singer left in "defeat by fleeting fling". She gave the song four out of five stars.[20] Joe Gross from Rolling Stone gave the song a mixed review, awarding it three of five stars.[21] 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."[22] Sarah Milton of The Upcoming lauded the song, calling it "electrifying with its blunt honesty and exquisite gospel influence."[23]
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."[24] Variance Magazine named the song its 2014 Song of Summer.[25] The song was placed at number twelve on Rolling Stone's 50 Best Songs of 2014 list.[26] 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 one, making it Smith's third number one. The song became the eighth best-selling song of 2014 in the UK,[27] and the seventh overall when streaming is included.[28] On the
Billboard Hot 100, the song peaked at number two for two weeks, making it Smith's first top ten song in the US as a lead artist and their second-highest charting single after "
Unholy" (2022). It was held off from the top spot by
MAGIC!'s "
Rude." As of the week of 2 May 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.[29] As of June 2015, The song has sold 4.1 million copies in the US.[30] 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 five on the chart date 16 June 2014.[31] 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.[32] The video shows Smith 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.[33] "Stay with Me" received nominations at the
MTV Video Music Awards for
Best Male Video and Artist to Watch.[34] As of September 2019, the video has received over 1.0 billion views.
In November 2017, US country singer
Coffey Anderson released it as part of his Sad Love Songs series accompanied by a music video directed by Terry W.[46]
In 2018, American R&B group
The Temptations covered the song in their 2018 album, "All The Time". English folk group
Bear’s Den covered the song for the Sunday Sessions.
US R&B artist
Mary J. Blige performed alongside Smith in a live version of the song also in Los Angeles at the
57th Annual Grammy Awards. Blige provided her vocals in the second verse in place of Smith. The performance is on the artist's
Vevo channel.[51]
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. † Streaming-only figures based on certification alone.
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ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Change the chart to CZ – RADIO – TOP 100 and insert 201428 into search. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
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ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Change the chart to CZ – SINGLES DIGITAL – TOP 100 and insert 201450 into search. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
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ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: insert 201445 into search. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
^"
ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Singles Digital Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select SINGLES DIGITAL - TOP 100 and insert 201446 into search. Retrieved 13 September 2014.