MULTIMEDIA-ENGLISH
Stay -lyrics video (Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs)
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1:45
Video page URL
https://multimedia-english.com/videos/music/stay-lyrics-video-maurice-williams-the-zodiacs-5634
Description

"Stay" is a doo-wop song recorded by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs.  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 producers 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. Billboard Hot 100 on October 9, 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?".

The original recording of "Stay" remains the shortest single ever to reach the top of the American record charts, at 1 minute 50 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. The song was named as the Greatest Really Short Rock Song of all time by Digital Dream Door.

Transcript

(Stay)
A-a-a-a-ah, just a little bit longer
(Please)
Please, please, please, please
Tell me you're going to

Now, your daddy don't mind
And your mommy don't mind
If we have another dance
Yeah, just one more
One more time

Oh, won't you stay
Just a little bit longer
Please let me hear you
say you will
Say you will

Won't you press your sweet lips
To mine
Won't you say you love me
All of the time

(Stay)
Just a little bit longer
(Please)
Please, please, please, please
Tell me you're going to

Come on, come on, come on and ... stay-yey-yey-yeh
Come on, come on, come on and stay-yey-yey-yeh
Come on, come on, come on and stay, woops! like that
Come on, come on, come on and stay... ah-ha

Explanations

A LITTLE BIT= An emphatic form of "a little".


YOU'RE GOING TO= The particle TO can be used in English as a substitute for an infinitive already mentioned, so this sentence means: YOU'RE GOING TO STAY.


DON'T= (coll.) The correct grammar should be "The promoter doesn't mind", but in very colloquial English we may find DON'T for the third person (he, she, it).


WON'T YOU...?= A polite way of asking a favour. We can use it in the affirmative or in the negative with the same meaning:
- Will you open the window? (= please, open the window)
- Won't you open the window? (= please, open the window)


SAY (THAT) YOU WILL= Say that you will stay (will = want: say that you want to stay / will = future: say that you are going to stay)


PRESS= To push something against something else.


ALL (OF) THE TIME= Always.


 

Meaning

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."