Song 123 - Mercy by Duffy

Released in 2008, Mercy has become Duffy's signature song and has been certified platinum throughout the world. It was the third best selling single of 2008 and received critical success throughout the music industry. It spent five weeks at number one and made Duffy the first Welsh female singer to have a number 1 since the start of the 1980s. There is an upbeat, beehive feel to this song and you could imagine yourself dancing along to it in a 1960s night club.

Written for her debut album, Rockferry, it was one of the later songs to be written with her co-writer, Steve Booker. Duffy apparently knew that was something missing from her album and this was the missing piece. The album Rockferry won Best Vocal Album at the Grammys in 2009, the best album at the Brits  and the 21st best selling album of the 2000s. The song itself is autobiographical and deals with the subject matter of sexual liberty and making sure that you don't do anything you don't want to do.

Hitting the music scene at the same time as Adele, sometimes Duffy is forgotten about as being another of these great soulful singers that appeared at the later end of the last decade; but her lyrical rhythm and soulful voice suggests that there is more to come from Duffy in the years ahead; and if they are not - well lets just be happy to have Mercy to listen to.

Listen to Mercy 
Mercy by Duffy

Written by Amy Ann Duffy & Steve Booker
Released: February 2008
Album: Rockferry

Song 121 - Stay with me by Sam Smith

I feel like a girl interrupted at the moment and I need to say sorry for those who have been enjoying a song a day and haven't got one. Life has been rather complicated in the last few weeks and music has been on an unexpected pause. But hopefully now I'm back to pick up the song a day. Unfortunately I am in a spin as the plan for today was to feature the Oscar Winning Song for 2015 that was announced at last night's Oscar Awards Ceremony, but I've already put Sam Smith's Writing's on the wall into the jukebox during my James Bond section last year so can't repeat the song. It is quite funny as many people didn't particularly think that the song was as strong as the previous Bond films. Sam Smith is only the second artist to pick up the Best Original Song Award with a Bond theme  song, after Adele's Skyfall.

However, it is only fair to give Sam Smith his credit by putting another of his songs into the jukebox and I am going to put his 2014 hit Stay with me into the jukebox. Stay with me is a gospel-inspired ballad with the protagonist pleading with his one-night stand not to leave him. The song was written by Smith, James Napier and William Phillips together with Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, who won the rights of co-writer credits due to the song's similarity of Petty's single I won't back down.

Released from Smith's debut studio album In the Lonely Hour, Stay with me is Smith's most successful single to date and Darkchild's remix version of the single won two Grammy Awards for record for the year and song of the year to go with the Awards for Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Album. 2014 was an epic year for Sam Smith, as he won both the BBC Sound of 2014 and the Brit Critics' Choice Award,  and his album was the second best selling album of the year after Taylor Swift.  For me, his haunting voice range makes the lyrics speak straight to my soul. Whether you like him or not, he is an artist with a very bright future ahead of him.

Listen to the song here:
Stay with me by Sam Smith

Written by Sam Smith, James Napier, William Phillips, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne
Released: May 2014
Album: In the lonely hour

Song 6 - Hometown Glory by Adele

Sometimes you can forget songs and then they take you back to a place and time where you realised how much of you future was shaped in the past. I had just left my job at the bank when Adele's 19 was released and I was given the CD to as best new comer to the company. I think that was also the night that a close work college/friend and I were called a pair of hobbits. Hometown Glory is the last track of the album and there is a strongly independent lyric to someone just listening to the city that they live it. I know that being in the middle of composting my novel; I would use Edinburgh as a place to walk through my prose. A independent woman walking around, seeing the city through the eyes of her characters. I would normally spend my time listening to songs connected to be characters, but this song says something about me and the independent streak inside of me. I think the line that stand out for me "I like it in the city when two worlds collide". Edinburgh maybe a city but it is a village and even if you think two lives are separate; it is amazing how quickly one world connects to another.

When I heard this song today, in the pouring rain on the way to work, I had forgotten how much of an impact this song had over the change of direction in my life and as I am in the process of changing lanes again; I had my vision of standing firm in the direction of my choice.

Adele burst onto our music scene in 2008 after winning the Critic Choice award at the Brits; and her impact on the music scene is already legendary. She has become a household name and I hope that the familiarity of her music doesn't take away from her talent. If you need time with your own soul, this is the song for you

Listen to the track here:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BW9Fzwuf43c

Written by Adele, 2008
Album: 19