I'm Not The Only One

I'm Not The Only One: Creation, Recording, and Chart History

Sam Smith released "I'm Not the Only One" in May 2014 as the third single from the debut studio album In the Lonely Hour. The song had been preceded on the album by "Money on My Mind" and "Stay with Me," the latter of which became a global phenomenon and established Smith as one of the most commercially significant new voices in British pop and soul music. "I'm Not the Only One" arrived in the wake of that success and demonstrated that Smith's emotional range and commercial appeal extended beyond the particular formula of "Stay with Me."

The song was co-written by Sam Smith and Jimmy Napes, the same songwriting partnership responsible for several of the album's most celebrated tracks. Jimmy Napes, whose full name is James Napier, had previously worked with a range of artists in the British pop and R&B landscape, and his collaboration with Smith proved exceptionally fruitful during this period. The two writers worked from a specific emotional premise: the experience of suspecting infidelity within a committed relationship, and the painful process of confronting that suspicion with accumulated evidence while hoping to be proven wrong.

Production on "I'm Not the Only One" was handled by Steve Fitzmaurice, who had previously worked with artists including Eminem and Elton John. The production is notably restrained, built around a simple piano-led arrangement that places Smith's voice at the center of the listening experience. The orchestral elements that appear in the song's latter sections were added to amplify the emotional intensity without overwhelming the fundamental intimacy of the performance. This production philosophy of elegant understatement was characteristic of the In the Lonely Hour album as a whole.

The song first charted on the Billboard Hot 100 on June 21, 2014, debuting at number 69. Its chart trajectory was unusual, involving a period of withdrawal from the chart followed by a sustained climb when the song was released as an official radio single in the United States in the autumn of 2014. It re-entered the chart in late September at number 93, then climbed steadily through October, reaching number 63, then 52. The song ultimately peaked at number 5 on the Hot 100 on the chart dated December 27, 2014, having spent a total of 37 weeks on the chart across its two distinct chart runs.

In the United Kingdom, the song reached number one on the UK Singles Chart, making it one of three top-ten hits from In the Lonely Hour in Smith's home market. The UK success reinforced the commercial depth of the album and demonstrated that Smith was capable of sustaining multiple major-selling singles across an extended release campaign. The song also performed strongly in Australia, Canada, Ireland, and several continental European markets, extending Smith's commercial footprint internationally.

The music video for "I'm Not the Only One," directed by Luke Monaghan, became one of the more discussed music video narratives of 2014. Starring actors Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Diogo Morgado, it depicts a relationship unraveling under the weight of infidelity, told through a series of visual vignettes that parallel the song's lyrical narrative. The video's cinematic quality and its emotionally direct portrayal of relationship breakdown attracted significant attention on YouTube and contributed to the song's continued digital streaming growth.

Grammy recognition for the song came at the 57th Grammy Awards in 2015, where Sam Smith won four awards including Best New Artist and Record of the Year for "Stay with Me." While "I'm Not the Only One" was not the primary recipient of those specific honors, it was part of the same album cycle and contributed to the overall Grammy campaign that made Smith one of the awards' dominant figures that year. The song's success also helped to position In the Lonely Hour among the best-selling debut albums of the 2010s, with global sales eventually exceeding ten million copies across various formats.

The song's chart longevity, spanning two distinct chart runs totaling nearly nine months of Hot 100 presence, reflects both the strength of the material and the sustained promotional effort behind it. Radio programmers embraced it as a companion piece to "Stay with Me," giving it extensive airplay during the second half of 2014 and into 2015. This extended promotional campaign helped transform what might have been a secondary album track into a standalone commercial success with its own distinct audience and emotional legacy.