Sam Smith shells out some Petty cash

Poor Sam Smith. There he was, on top of the world with Stay With Me racking up the hits. Then, his manager calls. There's a slight problem.

In this case, the problem turns out to be that Stay With Me sounds like Tom Petty's 1989 hit I Won't Back Down. Sounds like? Make that almost identical, as most people who have compared the music for both songs have noted.

Smith maintains that the likeness was a "complete coincidence" but agreed to "an immediate and amicable agreement", which will see Petty and co-writer Jeff Lynn credited as co-writers of Stay With Me along with Smith, James Napier and William Phillips.

Ker-ching for Petty and Lynn, scarleh for Smith and co, and more proof that where there’s a hit, there’s a writ.

Naturally, it's not the first time that a newly minted hit resembles a song of an earlier vintage. Look at the brouhaha between Marvin Gaye's estate and Robin Thicke over Blurred Lines and Got To Give It Up.

Many who heard Fun's Some Nights could have sworn that they were listening to Simon & Garfunkel's Cecilia from 40 years earlier. Would U2's Beautiful Day have worked as well without, uhm, borrowing from A-ha's The Sun Always Shines On TV?

There's nothing new in this. Go back to the 1960s and you'll find The Kinks going WTF? when The Doors came out with Hello I Love You, a song which sounded as if it had moved in with All Day and All of the Night. At least Sam Smith has some august company in the dock. Jim Carroll