News broke this weekend that UK crooner Sam Smith, and guitar god Tom Petty (as well as collaborator Jeff Lynne) have agreed to divvy up songwriting royalties on Smith's 2014 hit single "Stay With Me." According to British newspaper The Sun, the claim over the dispute was actually settled back in October, after all involved parties quietly agreed to split a 25% share of the songwriting royalties. The tune is nominated for Song of the Year at this year's Grammy Awards and played a substantial hand in establishing Smith's solo career.Following release of Smith's single last April, listeners and musicologists alike turned to the interwebs to shine a light on similarities between "Stay With Me" and Petty's late-80s hit "I Won't Back Down." At first glance, there is a likeness between the chorus of "Stay With Me" and the verses of "I Won't Back Down," there are also nearly identical phrases, pitches, rhythms and chord progressions between the two. As pointed out by Medium, who went as far as to highlight the two productions' sheet music, the issue is pretty hard to overlook, let alone disagree with.
Sam Smith's "Stay With Me"
Tom Petty's "Won't Back Down"According to a statement released by reps from Smith's camp, the artist (as well as co-writers Jamies Napier AKA Jimmy Napes and William Phillips AKA Tourist) weren't acquainted with "I Won't Back Down" when penning their track (the tune was released before any of them were born and peaked on the UK charts at a dim No. 28 in 1989), but regardless have been rather open and agreeable in acknowledging the similarities between the two productions."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." said member's of the artists' team.
Unfortunately for Smith, who found fame after collaborating with Disclosure on their single "Latch," this isn't his only writing credit issue of late. Just last week, Smith, along with Guy and Howard Lawrence of Disclosure, Aluna Francis and George Reid of AlunaGeorge, and Eliza Doolittle were accused of stealing lyrics from songwriter Katie Farrah Sopher, pertaining to their work on Disclosure's album Settle. Unlike the probable coincidence of similarities with Petty's work, Sopher's copyright lawsuit appears to have no merit, at least according to a pair of lawyers we asked about the case and copyright law in the US and UK.For Smith, Napes and Tourist, splitting fees is hardly an admission of guilt, but rather good business. By settling out of court, they avoided a potentially long and nasty legal proceeding and saved some face by acknowledging that their song does share some musical common ground with that of a legendary songwriter. How the notoriously loose-lipped music industry kept this whole deal under wraps until now is perhaps the biggest of all surprises here.Check out Petty's and Smith's various songs below:
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