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Music

Look, We're Not Pointing Fingers, but Sam Smith's "Stay With Me" Sounds a Lot Like Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down"

The Sun reports that Sam Smith has actually been paying Tom Petty royalties.
Ryan Bassil
London, GB

Triangular-headed popstar Sam Smith released "Stay With Me" back in March, 2014, and since then it's been unavoidable—on the airwaves, blasted through Tesco Metros, subconsciously hummed as pillows are cuddled and limp, sad looking condoms are thrown in the wastebin. It seemed like a smart bit of songwriting—Smith's needy vocals begging someone not to leave, because having someone in your bed is better than not.

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On closer inspection though, it appears the song's been lifted from someone else.

Just have a listen to the kings of heartbreak, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and their track "I Won't Back Down" below:

Sure, Tom Petty's cocksure lyrics are replaced with Smith's nausea-ridden couplets, but the melody is very similar—as are the chords and the structure. In fact they're so similar, the Sun report, that "Sam owes Petty cash for his song". See what they did there.

The Sun state that the pair settled out of court back in October and that Sam Smith has been sharing royalties with Petty since.

Interestingly, the track was co-penned with Jimmy Napes who was at the center of another story last week after it was claimed the hits he wrote with popular electronic duo Disclosure were stolen from a notebook.

Follow Ryan on Twitter: @RyanBassil