MUMBAI: British singer, Sam Smith, who rose to fame with the 2014 hit- ‘Stay With Me’, will be sharing the track’s royalties with veteran musician Tom Petty. Not long after the single was released last year, many listeners noticed it sounded similar to the 1989 hit ‘I Won’t Back Down’, which Petty wrote with Jeff Lynne.
In a statement, a representative for Smith said that the 22 year-old hitmaker was unfamiliar with ‘I Won’t Back Down’ when writing ‘Stay With Me’. However, he did admit a coincidental likeness when he heard Petty’s track. Smith, along with two other ‘Stay With Me’ writers- William Phillips and James Napier, are said to have reached an amicable and immediate agreement with both, Petty and Lynne.
In an out of court settlement last October, Petty and Lynne have been given co-writing credits on ‘Stay With Me’. The two will also be getting a 12.5 per cent share of songwriting royalties from Smith’s chart topping track, which has brought the singer Grammy nominations and has also sold almost four million copies worldwide.
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The full statement by Smith’s representative reads, “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. Although the likeness was a complete coincidence, all involved came to an immediate and amicable agreement in which Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne are now credited as co-writers of Stay With Me along with Sam Smith, James Napier and William Phillips.”
