The song will now be attributed to Petty after the rocker pointed out similarities between 'Stay With Me' and 'I Won't Back Down.'
Sam Smith had one of the biggest hits of 2014 with “Stay with Me” and it looks like Tom Petty will reap some of the profits of its success.
The guys behind “I Won’t Back Down,” Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, have been added as songwriters to “Stay with Me,” a rep for the British crooner confirmed to ET.
The news comes after reports surfaced over the weekend in The Sun that Smith was allegedly paying royalties to Petty when the rocker’s camp pointed out the similarities between the choruses of “I Won’t Back Down” and Smith’s three-time Grammy nominated song “Stay with Me.”
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“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,” Smith’s rep said in an email.
His rep added, “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.”
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Watch the above video to see if you can hear similarities between the two songs and let us know in the comments below if you think they should have added Petty and Lynne to the song.
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