Yes it was just an album track before, it only took off because he released the Olivia version.

All the viral trends use the Olivia section of the song and I've seen people completely ignore Sam's contributions to the track online so safe to say without Olivia it would've never taken off

Just now, gasman449 said:

All the viral trends use the Olivia section of the song and I've seen people completely ignore Sam's contributions to the track online so safe to say without Olivia it would've never taken off

the intro guitar riff is also viral, I see loads of vids saying it’s already a nostalgic sound and it’ll play in 15 years to remind people of now, and I’m also seeing loads of people trying to recreate it on their own guitars

29 minutes ago, conorw said:

the intro guitar riff is also viral, I see loads of vids saying it’s already a nostalgic sound and it’ll play in 15 years to remind people of now, and I’m also seeing loads of people trying to recreate it on their own guitars

Laughable that people are thinking it's the Sweet Child O' Mine of these times

1 hour ago, ChrisJK said:

Speaking as a Sam Fender fan (who still very much loves Rein Me In)...

Wouldn't the song just have disappeared months ago if he hadn't chucked Olivia Dean on it?

I don’t think without a feature it would have done much being the 6th release off of a big selling album.

It charted at #86 the week before the Olivia duet dropped.

'Rein Me In' was in the ideal place to ride the wave of Olivia's big breakthrough, which has been ongoing through most of its time in the chart.

At the same time, by not being on Olivia's latest album, it didn't have a spike in streams that week, which is the point at which 'Man I Need' and 'Nice To Each Other' both peaked and subsequently declined over the following 3 weeks, sending them to ACR. 'The Hardest Part' similarly benefitted - according to Alan Jones' sales report for the last week in August it had a reset to SCR then, and it looks to have stayed on SCR right up until last week, despite only being in Olivia's top 3 tracks to chart in the last 4 of those weeks.

In the last couple of months, 'Rein Me In' has gone on another level in prominence - whether through virality or the snowball effect of coasting to its first week at #1 (with its main competition on ACR) coupled with the absence of another of Olivia's own new songs to carry the momentum from 'Man I Need' and 'So Easy'. It's a good song, but it has certainly been positioned in the right place at the right times to have had the longevity it has had.

I remember Sam saying how he wanted to collab with Olivia, and gave her the choice of a song from the album she'd like to do with him. So the whole thing could easily have been different!

Edited April 9Apr 9 by Jessie Where