What are Sam Fender's biggest songs?
10 August 2024, 17:27
With the Tyneside-born singer-songwriter performing at Boardmasters this weekend, Radio X takes a look at the star's most popular tunes to date.
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Sam Fender - essential info:
- Born: 25th April 1994, North Shields, UK
- First single: Play God (March 2017)
- Album Discography: Hypersonic Missiles (September 2019), Seventeen Going Under (October 2021)
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Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under: release date 7th July 2021
The title track from Sam Fender's second album is a moving autobiographical story about how the young musician tried to support his mother while still a teenager and how he came to terms with the stress in later life. The song became a viral hit on TikTok when users began to use the track as a way of coming to terms with their own childhood trauma.
When the song topped Radio X's Best Of British chart in 2022, Sam told us: "It's a song that's very personal to me, about my growing up. But the fact that it's resonated with so many people. It's been a real joy to go out and sing that to people, you know?"
Seventeen Going Under is by far and away Fender's most popular song. It made Number 3 in the UK charts and has been certified triple Platinum by the BPI. The track has been streamed over 229 million times om Spotify and the official video has been watched over 38 million times on YouTube.
Read more: How Sam Fender's Seventeen Going Under became a TikTok hit
Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under (Official Video)
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Sam Fender - Hypersonic Missiles: release date 5th March 2019
“When the bombs drop, darling / Can you say that you've lived your life? / Oh, this is a high time for hypersonic missiles.” The title track from Fender's debut album is based on the apparently real weapons that can travel at Mach 5 (that’s five times the speed of sound).
Sam became aware of them after reading about them in a newspaper, telling Radio X: "Just the fact that it was a bit of jargon in the world that I lived in was kind of terrifying and really exciting. It ended up centred around this character that’s a complete and utter tinfoil-hatter who’s loosely based on myself.”
The song has now been certified double Platinum by the BPi and has been streamed on Spotify over 135 million times, while the official video has been watched over 7.2 million times.
Read more: What inspired Sam Fender to write Hypersonic Missiles?
Watch Sam Fender play Hypersonic Missiles for Radio X at the O2 Ritz Manchester in September 2019:
Sam Fender - Hypersonic Missiles LIVE | Radio X
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Sam Fender - Will We Talk? Release date 2nd July 2019
Sam's big tune about one night stands was first issued as a single in July 2019 and was his second release to be certified Platinum. "It was just a song I wrote about The Cut - this nightclub in Newcastle," Fender told Radio X. "It was around the time when I was 18, going out and there's always a load of heartbreak... Old heartbreak with the one night stands." The song has since had over 102 million plays on Spotify and over 7.4 million views on YouTube.
Sam Fender - Will We Talk? (Official Video)
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Sam Fender - Play God: release date 30th March 2017
Fender's debut single is, in his own words, "set in an alternate dystopian reality that shares similarities with our own world". The track was reissued in January 2019 in the lead up to the release of the musician's debut album and has since been certified Gold by the BPI. On Spotify, Play God has been streamed over 72 million times and the official video has been watch just under 6 million times on YouTube.
Sam Fender - Play God (Radio X Session)
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Sam Fender - Spit Of You: release date 8th October 2021
Another of Fender's brutally honest songs about his own life - this time about his complicated relationship with his father. He says that the song details "how we both struggle as blokes to communicate the way we feel to each other without it becoming a stand-off. It’s about how the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as I get further into my twenties I see so much of myself in him, especially when it comes to being stubborn."
The video for the song features Line Of Duty star Stephen Graham as Sam's fictional father, which helped boost the track to Number 41 in the UK charts. The song has had over 55 million Spotify streams and over 9.4 million YouTube views.
Sam Fender - Spit Of You (Official Video)
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Sam Fender - The Borders: release date 2nd September 2019
Sam claims that this tune is his favourite song on the Hypersonic Missile album - it tells the story of two boys who grew up together, but went their separate ways in later life. The song has been certified Silver by the BPI and has notched up over 51 million listens on Spotify, with over 4.7 million views on YouTube.
Sam Fender - The Borders (Official Video)
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Sam Fender - Getting Started: release date 23rd May 2022
Originally issued on Sam's Seventeen Going Under album, this was the sixth track to be taken from the record, with a live version issued at the end of 2022 to promote his Live From Finsbury Park LP. The song has had over 51 million Spotify streams and over 3.6 million YouTube views.
Sam Fender - Getting Started (Official Video)
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Sam Fender - Homesick: release date 19th January 2024
American singer Noah Kahan was inspired by Fender's song Seventeen Going Under to write Homesick for his thirs album Stick Season in 2022. Sam repaid the tribute by joining Noah on a version of the song, which peaked at Number 5 in the UK charts in February 2024. Fender says of Kahan: "He's a great lad, a canny chanter and a mean wordsmith." Their version of Homesick has now had over 53 million streams and over 1.7 million video views.
Noah Kahan & Sam Fender - Homesick (Official Lyric Video)
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Sam Fender - Dead Boys: release date 14th August 2018
An intensely personal song from Sam Fender, he says of Dead Boys: "I wrote that song purely as a reaction to losing a mate to suicide, and I didn't want to release it for ages because I didn't want to be seen as capitalising on a tragedy or using suicide as a way to be controversial."
Eventually, he was persuaded to release the song, which led to others opening up about their own experiences. He said of the track: "It's definitely done more good than it did bad." The song has been streamed on Spotify over 41 million times and has over 4 million views on YouTube.
Read more: How Sam Fender's Dead Boys song saved a man's life
Sam Fender Dead Boys (Radio X session)
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Sam Fender - Saturday: release date 28th November 2019
Released as a promo track for the Hypersonic Missiles album, this tribute to the joyous release of the weekend has been streamed over 34 million times on Spotify and the video - featuring Matt King, aka Super Hans from Peep Show - has been watched over 3.1 million times on YouTube.
Sam Fender - Saturday (Official Video)
