Sam Smith Will Pay Tom Petty Royalties For “Stay With Me”

Published on January 26, 2015.

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Young British crooner Sam Smith sky-rocketed to the top of charts last year with his hit “Stay With Me” for which he earned three Grammy nominations.

Since then his career stardom has only increased with more hits and even more Grammy nominations as leads the pack with six this year.

Smith recently hit a bit of a snag concerning his single “Stay With Me,” as it recently became a copyright issue due to the song’s likeness with Tom Petty’s 1989 single “I Won’t Back Down.”

“Recently the publishers for the song ‘I Won’t Back Down,’ written by Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, contacted the publishers for ‘Stay With Me,’ written by Sam Smith, James Napier and William Phillips, about similarities heard in the melodies of the choruses of the two compositions. Not previously familiar with the 1989 Petty/Lynne song, the writers of ‘Stay With Me’ listened to ‘I Won’t Back Down’ and acknowledged the similarity,” a representative for Smith told Rolling Stone.

After noting the similarity, the brief issue has already been settled as Petty and Lynne have now been listed as co-writers of Smith’s song and will receive royalties from here on out, “Although the likeness was a complete coincidence, all involved came to an immediate amicable agreement,” the rep added.

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