Is Sam Smith About To Equal Or Surpass The Beatles?
In the Lonely Hour singer Sam Smith must occasionally pinch himself to check that the last 12 months have not been a dream. Since winning the Critics’ Choice Awards at the 2014 Brit Awards, Smith’s career has taken off in a huge way. In just 12 months, Smith has been nominated for no fewer than 50 music industry awards and has bagged 20 of them, including four Grammys and two Brit awards.
During 2014, Smith was the only artist who managed to sell one million copies of an album on both sides of the Atlantic. According to the Belfast Telegraph, it now seems that “Stay with Me” star Smith is about to equal a feat that has not achieved since the Beatles in 1963. Sam’s debut album has been in the top five of the official chart for 50 weeks out of the 52 weeks since it was released.
According to the Official Charts Company, you have to go back over half a century to find a release that has surpassed Smith’s record for a debut album. The Beatles achieved a top five place for 51 of 52 weeks after the release of their 1963 debut disc Please Please Me.
Amazingly, the only other act to rival the feat achieved by Smith and the Beatles was Simon and Garfunkel’s 1970 classic album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, which maintained a top five slot for all 52 weeks in the year after its release. The album also managed 84 weeks in the top five. Unlike Smith, however, that album was not a debut.
Smith was delighted to hear the news that he was in such exclusive company, saying that “this statistic genuinely makes me feel very weird, but also insanely happy and just so thankful to everyone who has purchased the album. Not so lonely any more.”
The latest success will undoubtedly prove to be a boost for Sam Smith, who has had a troubled few months. Smith reached an out-of-court settlement with Tom petty over his hit single “Stay with Me.” Smith was accused of plagiarism over similarities between his song and Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.” Smith subsequently awarded 12.5 percent of the royalties from his hit to Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, who co-wrote their 1989 hit.
Smith has recently run into further troubles after suffering a career-threatening vocal hemorrhage. Sam is currently recovering from surgery to repair the injury to his vocal chords and has cancelled a list of high-profile appearances at festivals and shows as a result of the surgery. It is expected that Smith needs six weeks of total vocal rest to allow his vocal chords to heal without scarring.
By achieving 50 weeks out of 52 since his debut album was released, Sam Smith cannot equal the Beatles record, but as runner-up to the Fab Four, he is certainly in very good company.
[Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images]
