Adele has admitted she isn’t a heavy social media user, so is it really so hard to believe that she may actually still cling to this ancient ritual and chose to write about it? In the United Kingdom, its opening week sales were 333,000, comprising 259,000 downloads and a record-breaking 7.32 million streams (with 100 streams equating one sale), according to the Official Charts Company.
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Copycat?… Adele has been accused of ripping off a Tom Waits song.
Both songs deal with the singers calling an ex on the telephone. Another said: “Adele I love you BUT Tom Waits nailed that song on his 73 debut”.
In the Closing Time track, named after the woman who inspired it, Waits sings: “Hello, hello there, is this Martha?”. Additionally, defenders might correctly point out that the setup of a phone call to an old flame is hardly new in music, film or literature. Don’t worry “bout the cost / Cause it’s been 40 years or more, now Martha please recall / Meet me out for coffee, where we’ll talk about it all”.
“It’s also about my fans as well”.
Clearly miffed, one fan took to Twitter to write about their opinion on the comprison, saying: “Adele’s Hello is pretty much another version of Tom Waits’ Martha”.
But fans of Tom Waits think it is too similar to his 1973 cult single Martha, which is about calling a former partner.
Coincidence? Maybe not, as Adele’s producer Greg Kurstin recently revealed that Tom Waits had been an inspiration to her when writing the single.
“I think that was the idea, that we wanted to do something that was very honest about where she was at right now, and she wanted to do somethign that was real and believable”. Ritchie even got involved, posting a photo of the pair on his Instagram account, and asking: “Hello, Adele, is it me you’re looking for?”
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Adele’s representative had no comment.
