Little Things
(by:One Direction)
"
Little Things" is a song by English-Irish
boy band One Direction, released in November 2012 as the second single from their second studio album
Take Me Home. It was produced by
Jake Gosling. In February 2012, One Direction stated interest in working with
Ed Sheeran
for their second studio album and in June 2012, Sheeran disclosed that
One Direction would be recording two of his songs. Sheeran co-wrote
"Little Things" with Fiona Bevan when he was 17 and subsequently lost
it. Bevan found it in 2012 as Sheeran was in studio with One Direction,
resulting in the group recording it. "Little Things" is a
pop,
folk ballad, about the insistence that flaws are what make a person unique.
The track received a mixed reception from contemporary
music critics,
many of whom felt that the song is not tailored to them. Commercially,
the track became the group's second number-one hit in the United
Kingdom, while reaching the top ten in Australia, Ireland, and New
Zealand. The song's accompanying
black-and-white music video was directed by
Vaughan Arnell
and premiered on 2 November 2012. One Direction performed "Little
Things" in a series of live appearances, including at the 2012
Royal Variety Performance, in the presence of
Queen Elizabeth II.
Background
The song was written by British singer-songwriters
Ed Sheeran and Fiona Bevan, and produced by
Jake Gosling.
[1]
In February 2012, One Direction stated interest in working with Sheeran
for their second studio album, after he gave them the song "
Moments" for their debut studio album.
[2] In April 2012, Sheeran confirmed in an interview with
Dose.ca
that they were in contact: "I've got two songs that their manager
emailed me for — old songs that were meant to go on my last album — a
big stadium anthem. So I'm going to put them towards them and see if
they like them, I wouldn't necessarily do that with any other bands."
[3] In June 2012, Sheeran disclosed that One Direction would be recording two of his songs. He told the
Daily Star:
"I wrote a couple of songs when I was 17 that One Direction want for
their next album. I'm going into the studio in August to produce the
tracks for them. I won't feature on the tracks though. There's
definitely a divide in genre."
[4]
In September 2012, Sheeran told
SB.TV,
"I wrote the next One Direction single, Little Things. That's coming
out soon I think. I wrote that [song] around four years ago and they
asked for it so they got it[..] but yeah no featuring."
[5] In October 2012, Sheeran acknowledged Bevan's songwriting credit in an interview with British radio network
Capital FM:
"The great thing about it is I wrote that song 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 favourite lines that I've ever written in a
song."
[6] On 15 October 2012,
Louis Tomlinson confirmed via social networking website
Twitter that "Little Things" would serve as the second single of their second studio album
Take Me Home.
[7] On 29 October 2012, "Little Things" received its worldwide airplay debut on
BBC Radio 1 at 8:17
GMT.
[8]
Composition and lyrics
"Little Things" is a mid-
tempo pop,
folk ballad which runs for 3:39 (3 minutes, 39 seconds).
[1][9] Written in the
key of
G major,
[10] the
beat is set in
common time and moves at a moderate 110
beats per minute.
[10] One Direction's
vocal range in the song span from the note of A
3 to D
5.
[10] Instrumentation includes
guitar strings,
piano lines and
vocals.
[10] The song utilises an
acoustic guitar riff and a rotation of lead vocals.
[11][12] The song's lyrics chronical the insistence that flaws are what make a person unique.
[12] In a September 2012 interview with
MTV News, Sheeran quipped that the song "is about the best things about someone, kind of like the things you wouldn't expect."
[13]
He described "Little Things" as an "appreciation song," and concluded:
"Seventeen-year-old Ed just wrote a lot of love songs, so expect to hear
a lot of love songs on their album, I guess. I had a wicked girlfriend
at 17. She was great. Actually my
+ album is pretty much about her. So she spawned off a lot of songs."
[13]
Critical response
"Little Things" received mixed reviews from
music critics. Grady Smith for
Entertainment Weekly
perceived the song to be problematic toward the boy band's core
audience aged approximately 8 to 12. Smith conceded that there are
"girls currently enduring middle school, who may very well be feeling
insecure about their bodies. In that case, it seems terribly misguided
to tap into that insecurity with 'Little Things' and ask girls to find
their validation in One Direction’s blanket affection".
[14] Melinda Newman of
HitFix
acknowledged, "We don’t need for you to point out that it’s those
things that make you love us. We just want you to pretend they don’t
exist and that you don’t see them. Now all you've done is make us more
self-conscious."
[15] While Bill Lamb of
About.com
asserted that One Direction is marketed "so strongly" at pre-teens it
does seem as if they are sending a message they want young girls to hear
clearly", he lauded the "beautiful" sound of "Little Things".
[12] Lamb further complimented the rotation of lead vocals.
[12] Rolling Stone
writer Jon Dolan cited lyrics: "You still have to squeeze into your
jeans, but you're perfect to me," contradicting "Hey, buddy, you're a
millionaire: Buy her some loose jeans."
[16] Robert Copsey of
Digital Spy
felt that "Little Things" shows "minor signs of growth" for the group,
"even if it's not the greatest addition to their singles catalogue."
[11] Kate Wills of
The Independent criticised the ballad for apparently being "too saccharine for anyone who doesn't practice kissing on the back of their hand."
[17] Amy Sciarretto of
Pop Crush
gave the song four out of five stars, characterising it as "a sweet
song" which ultimately "lets their individual vocal styles shine, and
they can sidestep that nonsense about being puppets who sing
studio-created and overly treated songs."
[18] Alexis Petridis for
The Guardian
opined that "Little Things" is "noticeably more sophisticated lyrically
and emotionally than anything else on the album" and named the track's
lyricism "touching".
[19] Jon Caramanica of
The New York Times assessed that Sheeran's songwriting reads as "unusually lumpy" in the hands of "such a polished group".
[9]
Commercial performance
The track debuted at number one on the
UK Singles Chart on 18 November 2012, becoming One Direction's second number-one hit in the United Kingdom.
[20]
With the album and the single both debuting simultaneously at number
one in the UK, One Direction became the youngest act in British chart
history to achieve the feat.
[21] The song debuted on the
Billboard Hot 100 at number 41, selling 91,000 copies in its first week.
[22]
Music video
The music video for "Little Things" was directed by
Vaughan Arnell and shot in
black-and-white.
[23] Tomlinson disclosed that an accompanying
music video for "Little Things" was in production on 15 October 2012.
[7] The same day, Horan tweeted that it was "going good."
[24] The next day,
Zayn Malik confirmed that they had finished filming the video.
[25] The official video was uploaded to their
Vevo account on
YouTube on 2 November 2012.
Live performances
They performed the song along with "
Live While We're Young" on
The X Factor USA (8 November),
[26] and "Little Things" solely on
The X Factor UK (11 November).
[27] The band performed "Little Things", "
What Makes You Beautiful", "Live While We're Young", and "Kiss You" on
The Today Show at the
Rockefeller Center (13 November), to a record breaking crowd estimated at 15,000.
[28] They performed "Live While We're Young" and "Little Things" at the
BBC's
Children in Need 2012 telethon (16 November).
[29] In addition, they performed "Little Things" on British television series
Surprise, Surprise (17 November),
[30] at the 2012
Royal Variety Performance (19 November), in the presence of
Queen Elizabeth II,
[31] and on
The X Factor Australia (20 November).
[32] "Little Things" was included in the
set list of the group's headlining sold-out show at
Madison Square Garden (3 December).
[33]
Track listing
- "Little Things" – 3:39
Charts and certifications
Weekly charts
|
Certifications
[edit] Year-end charts
|
References
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- ^ Leah Collins (27 April 2012). "Ed Sheeran Adds North America to His Sights". Dose.ca (Postmedia Network Inc.). http://www.dose.ca/music/Sheeran+Adds+North+America+Sights/6531222/story.html. Retrieved 2012-06-27.
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- ^ "ED SHEERAN ON WRITING NEW ONE DIRECTION SINGLE 'LITTLE THINGS'". Sugarscape. 20 September 2012. http://www.sugarscape.com/tags/louis-tomlinson/775833/ed-sheeran-writing-new-one-direction-single-little-things. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
- ^ Lewis Corner (25 October 2012). "One Direction new single contains my favorite lyrics, says Ed Sheeran". Digital Spy. Hearst Magazines UK. http://www.digitalspy.com/music/news/a433343/one-direction-new-single-contains-my-favorite-lyrics-says-ed-sheeran.html. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
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- ^ Alan Jones (19 November 2012). "Official Charts Analysis: One Direction youngest ever act to score No.1 Album and Single simultaneously". Music Week (United Kingdom: Intent Media). http://www.musicweek.com/businessanalysis/read/official-charts-analysis-one-direction-youngest-ever-act-to-hit-no-1-in-albums-and-singles-lists/052592. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
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- ^ Amelia Proud (13 November 2012). "A
Brit of history: One Direction draw record breaking 15,000 crowd to
Today show appearance in New York... and announce 3-D movie". Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2232376/One-Direction-draw-record-breaking-15-000-crowd-Today-appearance-New-York--announce-3-D-movie.html. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
- ^ "Children in Need total passes £23m". Belfast Telegraph. 16 November 2012. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/uk/children-in-need-total-passes-14m-16238988.html. Retrieved 16 November 2012.
- ^ "Dave Berry Tasks One Direction To Pose As Wax Models To Surprise Fans - Video". Capital FM (Global Radio). 17 November 2012. http://www.capitalfm.com/artists/one-direction/news/surprise-surprise-waxworks/. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
- ^ "Royal Variety Performance 2012: One Direction and Girls Aloud sing for The Queen". The Daily Telegraph (Telegraph Media Group). 20 November 2012. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/queen-elizabeth-II/9690193/Royal-Variety-Performance-2012-One-Direction-and-Girls-Aloud-sing-for-The-Queen.html. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
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