Sam Smith Scores Rare 'Double Number 1' With Album And New Single
By Ed Biggs in Music / Festivals on 17 March 2015
The British soul sensation has achieved the rare feat of having the UK's Number One Album and Single at the same time, following his Red Nose Day performance.
Sam Smith has scored a rare ‘double Number 1’ in the UK’s Official Charts this week. His recent single ‘Lay Me Down’ sits atop the UK Singles Chart and his debut LP In The Lonely Hour has returned to the summit of the Official Albums Chart as well.
A re-recording of ‘Lay Me Down’ as a duet with soul singer John Legend was released as the official Comic Relief / Red Nose Day single for 2015, and his live performance of it on Friday night helped it achieve sales of 105,000. The song dislodged last week’s Number One ‘King’, by newcomers Years & Years.
Sam Smith sits atop both the UK Albums and Singles chart
The original version of ‘Lay Me Down’ was the first single to be released from his multi-platinum album – unbelievably, that was way back in February of 2013. The newest version has become Smith’s fourth Number One single in the UK, after ‘Money On My Mind’, ‘Stay With Me’ and his hook-up single with Naughty Boy ‘La La La’.
More: Sam Smith and John Legend duet for Comic Relief’s version of ‘Lay Me Down’
As for In The Lonely Hour, it’s been selling in huge numbers since its release in June 2014, racking up over 1.7 million units in the UK and nearly 4 million around the world. The success of ‘Lay Me Down’ has unquestionably had a knock-on effect in sales for the album, though the new re-recording does not feature on it.
It’s the sixth time that In The Lonely Hour has enjoyed a spell at the top of the Official Albums Chart, and only three albums have spent more non-consecutive periods at Number One. Simon & Garfunkel’s classic Bridge Over Troubled Water spent eight different occasions at the top, followed by Adele’s 21 and Emeli Sande’s Our Version of Events which both managed seven.
Incredibly, it even managed to fend off the significant challenge of Madonna’s latest disc Rebel Heart. Her thirteenth studio album, featuring the new single ‘Living For Love’, had been leading the pack for almost the entire week, but was beaten by a mere 12,000 copies over the weekend.
It’s the continuation of a richly deserved period of success for Smith, which doesn’t look like it’s going to come to an end for a while yet. In reaction to the news, he tweeted “I am in complete shock. A double number one!!!! Music is my therapy and I'm so overwhelmed mine can be yours. I'll never forget this moment x”.
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