Sam Smith's Top 20 Official biggest songs in the UK: Ranked and revealed

Sam Smith has evolved.

Since emerging in 2012 as a semi-mysterious vocalist on Disclosure's first real UK chart hit, the imperious and influential Latch, one of the best electro-house tracks of the last decade, Sam became one of a legion of British vocalists (also including Jess Glynne and RAYE) to get their first big, commercial break on a dance track, giving them the necessary push and platform to pursue a successful solo career. 

And that solo career has evolved and shifted over the years too, watching Sam grow in real to their music. There was 2014's perennial heartbreak textbook In The Lonely Hour and 2017's hymn-inflected The Thrill Of It All, whose hits (Stay With Me, Like I Can and Too Good At Goodbyes among them) positioned Sam as peer to Adele, one of the best chroniclers of love and loss in the modern age. 

But as Sam changed, so did their music. With the brave decision to come out as non-binary in 2019 (Sam now goes by they/them pronouns), their music has slowly but surely let the light in; mixing their signature vocals with more intense and high-throttle club music, taken from and informed by queer culture.

MORE: Sam Smith's Official Charts history in full

This MO was first introduced, quite slyly in places, in 2020's Love Goes, but it's in their fourth studio album, Gloria, that Sam really lets rip, using collaborations with Kim Petras, Jessie Reyez and Calvin Harris to mirror their new-found inner confidence into the outer world.

To celebrate, we're revealing Sam's best-selling singles on the UK's Official Singles Chart for the first time, with the wider Top 20 full of hits, from the luxurious disco tune Diamonds (15), their most recent and boundary-breaking Number 1 single Unholy with Kim Petras (13) and the aforementioned Latch, the song that started it all (6).

Before we reveal the Top 20 in full, here's a closer look at the Top 5.

5. La La La (with Naughty Boy)
Released: 2013
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 1
Total UK chart units: 1.7 million

Having already broke out with Disclosure's first big hit Latch, Sam teamed up with producer-of-the-moment Naughty Boy, who was trialing a solo career of his own, with La La La, which did what Latch could not and secured the Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart - Sam's then-first chart topper, although they've now added a shiny seven to their total of eight.

La La La also holds the distinction of being a pure million-seller in the UK, ranking as one of the best physical-selling singles of all time on the UK chart.

4. Promises (with Calvin Harris)
Released: 2018
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 1
Total UK chart units: 1.9 million

As recent Gloria single I'm Not Here To Make Friends prove, Sam and Calvin Harris seem to have an innate understanding of each other's music. Promises returns Sam to the buoyant house-pop they started their career with.

What seemed then as a triumphant return to the dancefloor can now be seen as Sam's first tentative steps to exploring a thrilling new soundscape to base their identity in, and for Calvin, Promises and its follow-up One Kiss with Dua Lipa provided one of the best one-two punches in a single run in recent memory.

Better still, Promises ranks as Sam's overall most-streamed track in the UK, with a total of over 229 million streams, as well as their most-streamed video, with the club-set visuals raking in over 42 million video streams.

3. Too Good At Goodbyes
Released: 2017
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 1
Total UK chart units: 1.9 million

Too Good At Goodbyes came at a pivotal point in Sam's career. They'd reaped the rewards with their debut era and even won an Oscar for their work on the James Bond theme Writing's On The Wall from Spectre.

This new track, the first from The Thrill Of It All, re-centered Sam in the heartbreak anthems in which they'd made their name and returned them to Number 1, shifting over 1.9 million UK chart units in total to date. 

2. I'm Not The Only One
Released: 2014
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 3
Total UK chart units: 2 million

Another track from Sam's debut album In The Lonely Hour, I'm Not The Only One followed in the wake of Number 1 singles Money On My Mind and Stay With Me, and although it didn't quite reach the summit, it did reach Number 3 on the Official Singles Chart and shifted over 2 million UK chart units.

It's memorable music video casts Glee's Dianna Agron as a bride who has a very sneaking suspicion that her new husband (Chris Messina, best known from The Mindy Project) has been unfaithful.

1. Stay With Me
Released: 2013
Official Singles Chart peak: Number 1
Total UK chart units: 2.8 million

Could it have been anything else?

Stay With Me is perhaps Sam's classic signature song, sound tracking Sam's journey home in the morning after a one-night stand (it's music video memorably uses a single tracking shot of Sam walking back home). 

The biggest hit from In The Lonely Hour, Stay With Me set Sam on the path to true musical superstardom both at home and in the States, where the track's Darkchild remix received the Grammy Awards for Song and Record of the Year, while it was also nominated for the BRIT Award for Best British Single, eventually losing out to Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars' Uptown Funk.

Overall, Stay With Me reigns supreme as Sam's biggest-ever track in the UK, raking in over 2.8 million chart units in total, including 228 million combined streams. 

Sam Smith's Official Top 20 biggest songs in the UK

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