Our favorite redhead Brit singer song writer Ed Sheeran known for such hits as the "A team", "Lego House" and even by his collaboration with country-pop star Taylor Swift's "Everything Has Changed", had been handpicked by Peter Jackson- who he had met before in New Zealand-to provide his voice for the soundtrack of the follow up to the Hobbit, the sequel The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, . Jackson had only heard of Sheeran through his daughter Katie. She introduced the singers music to her father sometime early 2013 when he's hits "Drunk", "You Need Me, I Don't Need You" amongst his other hit where played regularly on the airwaves.
Sheeran readily acquiesced having been a huge fan of the series, (having read The Hobbit first of all the other Tolkien books.) and Jackson's as well.
Though originally Jackson had wanted Sheeran to record the preexisting end credit song of the movie, The Desolation of Smaug. His daughter however, once again thankfully stepping in, recommended that they maximize, make full use of Sheeran's writing and composing abilities.
Sheeran did not disappoint after his first initial viewing, he then stepped into a room and started writing and recording right away.
Sheeran wanting to raise the bar-to reach the standard set by the previous movies went all out. Though not by any means an accomplished violinist Sheran undertook the overdubbing the violin part himself. He later said about the producing process, "I got the chance to produce and play all the instruments on it apart from the cello (... and I) managed to learn (the) violin for a day" The executive Pete Cobbin from Abbey Road Studios, who saw to the mixing of the other musical scores for the The Desolation of Smaug by Howard Shore, was present at Park Road during that time, he mixed "I See Fire", Jackson was present to oversee the process during the entire time.
"I See Fire" first made it to the UK Singles Chart placing at number 13 and on its sixth week, eventually reaching the top spot in New Zealand making this Sheeran's first number-one single in the country. On 5 November 2013 the song was released as a digital download with its music video being released the same day. The song was nominated for a Satellite Award for Best Original Song.
Water Tower Music and Decca Records released "I See Fire" on iTunes, last 5 November 2013. On 10 December 2013. It was then released in an album format entitled The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
