Little Things

Story of Song

Songwriter Ed Sheeran told MTV News: “It was written about the best things about someone, kind of like the things you wouldn’t expect.  You’ll have to hear it, those ‘little things’ include all those seeming imperfections and idiosyncrasies, like the ‘crinkles by your eyes,’ and ‘that you talk in your sleep.’”

Sheeran also explained in an interview with Capital FM: “The great thing about it is I wrote that song about an ex-girlfriend with a girl called Fiona Bevan when I was 17 and we lost the song. I’ve kept in touch with Fiona, we’ve done gigs and stuff and about two months ago she sent me the tune and was like, ‘Oh, do you remember this?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I do remember that’, and I was in the studio with the One Direction boys at the time and I was playing it and they were like, ‘We really like that’. It’s got one of my favorite lines that I’ve ever written in a song: ‘I know you never like the sound of your voice on tape and you never like to know how much you weigh and you still have to squeeze into your jeans but you’re perfect to me.’”

One Direction hadn’t even intended on recording the song when they first hit the studio with Sheeran: “That one actually wasn’t one of “them” we were supposed to be recording. We went in to record a different one of his and he said ‘I’ve written something else if you want to hear it, he wrote it and then played it to us in the session when we were supposed to record something else and we said ‘All right, we want to record that now.’”

Release date

Released December 3, 2012

Songwriter/s

Ed Sheeran – Fiona Bevan

Label

Syco

Chart Rankings

In the UK, ‘Little Things’ became the second number 1 hit for One Direction. It sold over 518.000 copies and was certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). In the US, the single peaked at number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100, sold over a million copies, and was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The song topped the charts in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Scotland, Sweden, and Switzerland. It also reached the top 10 charts in Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Slovakia, and South Korea.

It was certified Double Platinum in Australia and Norway, Platinum in Canada and Gold in Mexico and New Zealand.

Artist’s age on release date

One Direction had been active for 2 years when they released this song.

Cover Versions

Ed Sheeran (Live) – Jordan O’Keefe (Britain’s Got Talent) – Alyssa Shouse & Jonah Marais – Sam Tsui & Kurt Schneider – Madilyn Bailey (acoustic) – Stone Martin (The X Factor USA 2013) – The Vamps – Joseph Vincent – Alex G (acoustic) – Rajiv Dhall & TwentyForSeven – Andrew Garcia – Matt Hunter – MattyBRaps – Rough Copy (The X Factor 2013) – Priscila Brenner – other amateur artists covered this song on Youtube.

Video