Stay (Just a Little Bit Longer)

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Stay (Just a Little Bit Longer)
Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs
publication 1960
length 1:39
Genre (s) Doo Wop
Author (s) Maurice Williams
Cover versions
1963 The Hollies
1964 The Four Seasons
1977 Jackson Browne

Stay (Just a Little Bit Longer) is a doo-wop song composed by the American pianist and songwriter Maurice Williams, first recorded by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs and released as a single on Herald Records (Herald 552) in 1960 .

General

Maurice Williams allegedly wrote the song in 1953 at the age of 15 when he tried to persuade a girl to stay longer than her parents allowed her to go on a date. Since she did not stay, he wrote the song, the lyrics of which flowed to him.

In 1960 Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs recorded a demo tape of the song, but it did not attract any attention from local record companies. Only Al Silvers from Herald Records in New York showed interest, but insisted on a new recording, as the technical quality of the demo tape would have been poor. After the release, the song was added to the program by CKLW, an influential radio station. The single was listed on the Billboard Top 100 for the first time on October 3, 1960 and was number 1 for a week on November 21, 1960. The title reached number 3 on the R&B charts.

With a duration of 1 minute and 39 seconds, Stay is the shortest song to ever top the US charts. The song achieved a new surge in popularity in 1987 when it was included in the soundtrack of the dance film Dirty Dancing .

The melody has been brought into the living room of German television audiences since the 1990s - it has been used to highlight spots from the Bitburger brewery to this day .

Cover versions

The title Stay published some successful cover versions, so in 1963 by the Hollies , the recording went into the British charts on 7 December 1963 at number 21, there reached # 8 and could last ten weeks in the Top 20th

In the USA, a cover version of the Four Seasons was released in 1964 on Vee Jay Records (Vee Jay 592), which was placed on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time on February 15, 1964, reached number 16 there and was listed in the top 100 for eleven weeks.

In 1966 the Italian beat band Equipe 84 reached number two in the Italian charts with their cover version Resta . The Italian text was from Mogol .

In 1978 Jackson Browne wrote a new text for the song, asking his audience to stay so the band can continue playing. The falsetto part on this recording was performed by David Lindley , the female part by Rosemary Butler. The single (Asylum 45460) was listed on the Hot 100 for the first time on June 10, 1978, stayed there for 15 weeks and reached number 20 as the top listing.

Cyndi Lauper released the song in 2003 on her album At Last . Georg Danzer wrote a German text for this song, which appeared on the album Direkt .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frank Laufenberg, Ingrid Hake: Rock and Pop Lexicon. Vol. 2: Patti LaBelle-ZZ Top . Düsseldorf / Vienna: Econ Verlag, 1994, p. 1640
  2. ^ Joel Whitburn: Billboard's Top 10 Charts 1958-1995 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc., 1995, p. 50; the record stayed in the Top 100 for 18 weeks, compare Joel Whitburn: Top Pop Singles 1955-1993 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc., 1994, p. 649
  3. ^ Whitburn, Joel: Top 40 R&B and Hip-Hop Hits. 1942-2004. New York, NY: Billboard Books, 2006, p. 626
  4. ↑ The song of the day 115 “Stay” MAURICE WILLIAMS AND THE ZODIACS  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Phonz says black, October 29, 2010@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.phonzsaysblack.com  
  5. ↑ Stephen Nugent, Annie Fowler, Pete Fowler: Chart Log Of American / British Top 20 Hits 1955-1974 . In: Charlie Gillett, Simon Frith (Eds.): Rock File 4 . Frogmore, St. Albans: Panther Books, 1976, p. 195; Compare the chart in the top 30: Dafydd Rees, Barry Lazell, Roger Osborne: 40 Years Of NME Charts . London: Boxtree Ltd., 1992, pp. 134-137
  6. ^ Joel Whitburn: Top Pop Records 1955-1969 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Ltd., 1971, p. 74
  7. ↑ Io ho in mente te / Resta. In: Discografia Nazionale della Canzone Italiana. Discoteca di Stato, accessed July 5, 2017 (Italian).
  8. ↑ Joel Whitburn: The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Hits , 7th revised and expanded edition. New York: Billboard Books, 2000, p. 93
  9. ^ Joel Whitburn: Top Pop Singles 1955-1993 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc., 1994, p. 75