"Stay with Me" is a song by English singerSam Smith from their debut studio albumIn 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 agospel-inspiredballad that details the narrator pleading with theirone-night stand not to leave them.[1] The song was written by Smith,James Napier, andWilliam Phillips, withTom Petty andJeff 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 withNME, Smith said that the song was written in a studio inOld Street with James Napier (Jimmy Napes) andWilliam 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]
On 22 August 2024, a new version of the song with Japanese American singer-songwriterHikaru Utada was released to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Smith's albumIn The Lonely Hour.[10]
In January 2015, it was revealed that a settlement had been reached withTom Petty's publishing company to add Petty andJeff 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".[11] 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."[12] According to Smith, they had never heard "I Won't Back Down" before writing "Stay with Me",[13][14] but they acknowledged the similarity after listening to the song, and said that the likeness was "a complete coincidence".[15][16] Petty and Lynne, however, were not eligible for a Grammy as the Recording Academy considered "Stay with Me" to have beeninterpolated 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 ofsampled or interpolated work.[17]
According to Musicnotes.com, "Stay with Me" is written in the key ofC major (a key signature without sharps nor flats) and is composed incommon time, and played at atempo of 84beats per minute.[18]
"Stay with Me" was written by Smith, James Napier, William Phillips, with additional credits to Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne. According to Erine Keane ofSalon, "Stay with Me" combines a "contemporary drumbeat",blue-eyed soul singing, and arefrain sung in agospel style,[19] whileStereogum's Tom Breihan called it "a soft-focus piano-soul ballad".[20] Smith described the writing process and the meaning of the song:[21]
"It was Jimmy who came up with the idea of 'Stay with Me'. Immediately got me thinking of a one-night stand, and my views on that. The lyric came from us just vibing. It's 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 whole song came out then. It happened so simply that it felt like it wasn't even us writing it. It felt like it completely came through, like something greater was happening."
For thetenth anniversary edition ofIn the Lonely Hour set to be released on 2 August 2024, Smith re-recorded the song. It includes a lyric change from "But I still need love 'cause I'm just a man" to "But I still need love, baby understand". The change, which Smith described as "really important to [them]", was made in light of their coming out as non-binary in 2019.[22]
"Stay with Me" received generally positive reviews frommusic critics. Amy Davidson fromDigital 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.[23] Joe Gross fromRolling Stone gave the song a mixed review, awarding it three of five stars.[24] Isabel Pearson ofNouse 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."[25] Sarah Milton ofThe Upcoming lauded the song, calling it "electrifying with its blunt honesty and exquisite gospel influence."[26]
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."[27] Variance Magazine named the song its 2014 Song of Summer.[28] The song was placed at number twelve onRolling Stone's 50 Best Songs of 2014 list.[29] In January 2015, "Stay with Me" was ranked at number 15 onThe Village Voice's annual year-endPazz & Jop critics' poll.
In theUK 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,[30] and the seventh overall when streaming is included.[31] On theBillboard 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 byMAGIC!'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.[32] As of June 2015, The song has sold 4.1 million copies in the US.[33] In Canada, "Stay with Me" topped theCanadian Hot 100 for seven consecutive weeks. In Australia, the song debuted at number 22 on theARIA Singles Chart on the chart dated 5 May 2014 and later peaked at number five on the chart date 16 June 2014.[34] The song also reached top 10 status in over twelve countries worldwide, becoming Smith's most successful single to date.
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.[35] The video shows Smith coming out of a house and walking down a street inDe Beauvoir Town, London, sitting in a room performing the song, and performing the song in a church with a choir. It was directed byJamie Thraves.[36] "Stay with Me" received nominations at theMTV Video Music Awards forBest Male Video and Artist to Watch.[37] As of April 2025, the video has received over 1.2 billion views.
In November 2017, US country singerCoffey Anderson released it as part of his Sad Love Songs series accompanied by a music video directed by Terry W.[50]
In 2018, American R&B groupThe Temptations covered the song in their 2018 album, "All The Time". English folk groupBear's Den covered the song for the Sunday Sessions.
US R&B artistMary J. Blige performed alongside Smith in a live version of the song also in Los Angeles at the57th Annual Grammy Awards. Blige provided her vocals in the second verse in place of Smith. The performance is on the artist'sVevo channel.[55]
* 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.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic.Note: Select 28. týden 2014 in the date selector. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic.Note: Select 50. týden 2014 in the date selector. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
^"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.
^"מדיה פורסט – המצעד הבינלאומי השבועי – Week 25 – 15/06 – 21/06/2025" [Media Forest – International Weekly Chart – Week 25 – 15/06 – 21/06/2025] (Select the year 2025 and the option "25 15-06-25 21-06-25" from the stretched lists, then click "שירים מובילים - רדיו - בינלאומי" to see the chart.) (in Hebrew).Media Forest. 22 June 2025. Retrieved22 June 2025.
