Sam Smith is a Grammy and Oscar-winning singer and songwriter from London, England. Their first album, In the Lonely Hour, came out in 2014. It went quintuple platinum in the US, and the biggest hit from that album is the song “Stay With Me,” which has over 2 billion streams on Spotify alone. For this episode, in honor of the song’s 10th anniversary, I talked to Sam about how “Stay With Me” was made. I also talked to Sam’s frequent collaborator, Jimmy Napes, who is an award-winning producer and songwriter as well. The two of them tell the story of how the song began, and how it turned into the hit that it became. And then, years later, how it changed again.

You can buy or stream “Stay With Me” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Tourist – co-writer, piano, organ
Earl Harvin – drums, percussion
Simon Hale – strings arranger, conductor
Jodi Milliner – bass
Elvin Smith
“Lay Me Down”
Disclosure
“Latch”
RAK Studios

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Fenne Lily is a singer and songwriter from Dorset, England. She released her first album in 2018, but I didn’t find her music until 2023, when she put out her third album, Big Picture. The album she released in between those two was one that got a little lost in the lockdown, when all her touring plans around it got canceled. All of that plays into the story she tells in this episode, about making her song “Lights Light Up” from that third album. I spoke to Fenne in front of a live audience at WBUR CitySpace, in Boston. Coming up, you’ll hear how the song evolved across different versions of demos and then in the studio, where she recorded it with Grammy-nominated producer Brad Cook.

You can buy or stream “Lights Light Up” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Joe Sherrin – guitar
Kane Eagle – bass
James Luxton – drums
Phil Cook – keys
Lucy Dacus
Saint Cloud – Waxahatchee album

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Crowded House formed in 1985 in Melbourne, Australia. They’ve released eight albums, including their most recent one, Gravity Stairs, which came out last month. But on their very first album, they had a big hit with “Don’t Dream It’s Over.”

Crowded House made “Don’t Dream It’s Over” with Grammy-nominated producer Mitchell Froom, who they went on to work with multiple times. For this episode, I talked to frontman Neil Finn about how the song was first written, and how it developed with his bandmates and collaborators in the studio. And we talked about the profound connection people have had with the song over the years.

You can buy or stream “Don’t Dream It’s Over” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Paul Hester – drums
Nick Seymour – bass
Tim Pierce – guitar
Tim Finn invited Neil to join Split Enz after Phil Judd left the band
Roland Space Echo
Hammond organ
Capitol Studios
Jim Keltnerand Jerry Scheff played on “Now We’re Getting Somewhere”
Crowded House, Sydney Opera House, 1996
Ariana Grande, Manchester, 2017
U2, Las Vegas, 2024

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