“Hometown Glory” by Adele

"Hometown Glory" was Adele's debut single, out in the UK on October 22, 2007, and it later found a home on her first album, 19. It was the first song she ever wrote, dashed off in 10 minutes when she was 16, after her mother tried to talk her into leaving West Norwood, her corner of London, for university.

Jim Abbiss produced it and plays glockenspiel, Neil Cowley is on piano and the London Studio Orchestra supplies the strings, with Wil Malone sharing the composing credit. That first release, a limited seven-inch of just 500 copies on Jamie T's Pacemaker Recordings label, didn't chart. Downloads in the week 19 came out finally pushed it into the UK top 40, it was reissued in 2008 as her fourth single, and it later drew a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.