Stitches

Shawn Mendes was 16 years old when "Stitches" first appeared on iTunes, dropped quietly on March 16, 2015 as a pre-order bonus track for his debut album, Handwritten. Two months later, Republic Records sent it to radio as the album's second official single, and that is when things got loud. The song climbed to number four on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Mendes his first top 10 hit in the States. It also hit number one on the Mainstream Top 40 airplay chart, making it his first track to top that list.

The reach went well beyond America. "Stitches" landed in the top 10 of the Canadian Hot 100, peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart and the Scottish chart, and topped Slovenia's SloTop50. Germany, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand all placed it in their top 5. The track was nominated for Choice Music Single: Male Artist at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards.

Built on a simple acoustic guitar figure and a snapping pop beat, the song runs on the kind of hurt that sounds almost cheerful. It is a breakup anthem dressed up as something you could hum in the car, and that tension between the lyric and the melody is a big part of why it stuck around. [edit]