The song was written by Williams in 1953 when he was 15 years old. He had been trying to convince his date not to go home at 10 o'clock as she was supposed to. He lost the argument, but as he was to relate years later, "Like a flood, the words just came to me." In 1960, the song was put on a demo by Williams and his band, the Zodiacs, but it attracted no interest until a ten-year-old heard it and impressed the band members with her positive reaction to the tune. The band's producer, Phil Gernhard, took it along with some other demos to New York City and played them for all the major record producers that they could access. Finally, Al Silver of Herald Records became interested, but insisted that the song be re-recorded as the demo's recording levels were too low. They also said that one line, "Let's have another smoke" would have to be removed in order for the song to be played on commercial radio. After the group recorded the tune again, it was released by Herald Records and was picked up by CKLW. It entered the U.S. BillboardHot 100 on October 3, 1960 and reached the number one spot on November 21, 1960. It was dislodged a week later by Elvis Presley's "Are You Lonesome Tonight?". On the Herald recording, Williams sang lead and Henry Gaston sang the falsetto chorus. The original recording of "Stay" remains the shortest single ever to reach the top of the American record charts, at 1 minute 36 seconds in length. By 1990, it had sold more than 8 million copies. It received a new lease of popularity after being featured on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.
' version was first released on their June 1963 album The 4 Seasons Sing Ain't That a Shame and 11 Others; it was later released as a single in December 1963. Vee Jay originally released it as the B-side of "Peanuts" in December, but when disc jockeys started to "turn the single over" to play "Stay" on the air, the record company superseded the single with a new one with "Stay" as the A-side and "Goodnight My Love" as the new B-side. It peaked at number 16 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in April.
Jackson Browne version
A version of the song with revised lyrics is the last track on Jackson Browne's 1977 album Running on Empty. The song, which follows on the heels of Browne's "The Load-Out" begs the audience to stay for an encore and includes an extensive playout. It includes backing contributions from David Lindley and Rosemary Butler. Billboard Magazine described this version as "spirited and gospel-like." Browne, Butler and Lindley each contribute a similar verse in turn in ascending vocal ranges. It was released as a single and reached number 20 in the U.S. as well as number 12 in the UK.
"Stay" was the third and final single from Cyndi Lauper's 2003 album At Last. It was a promo-only single, released only in the U.S., Australia and France. The video that accompanied it is rarely seen but is commercially available as a special feature on the DVD, Live at Last. The single peaked at #64 on the French Singles Chart.
The song was recorded in 1968 by Jan & Dean for release on their album Carnival of Sound but the album was not released until 2010.
Singer-songwriter Andrew Gold recorded a version of "Stay" for his 1976 album What's Wrong with This Picture?.
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band recorded a version with Jackson Browne for the No Nukes album in September 1979.
In 1980, Austrian singer Georg Danzer wrote a German text to the Jackson Browne medley "The Load Out"/"Stay". It was performed live on the album Direkt as "Roadie Song".
Italo disco duo Marx & Spencer released their version in 1983.
Lyrics from the song were interpolated on reggae artist Buju Banton's song "Hush Baby Hush" on his 1995 album 'Til Shiloh.
The recording of the song by British pop group Dreamhouse was first released as a single in 1995, then again in 1998.
