Stay (Shakespears Sister song)

"Stay"
Single by Shakespears Sister
from the album Hormonally Yours
B-side	"The Trouble with Andre"
Released	25 January 1992
Format	7" single, CD single, cassette
Recorded	1991
Genre	Pop, rock
Length	3:50 (album version) 3:45 (7" edit)
Label	London
Writer(s)	Siobhan Fahey Marcella Detroit Jean Guiot
Producer	Shakespear's Sister, Chris Thomas
Shakespears Sister singles chronology
"Goodbye Cruel World" (1991) "Stay" (1992) "I Don't Care" (1992)

"Stay" is a million plus selling 1992 single from British-based pop/rock/synth act Shakespears Sister. It was the second single release from their second album Hormonally Yours and is the duo's biggest hit. It topped the charts in various countries in 1992, including a six-week stint (on four separate occasions) in Shakespears Sister member Siobhan Fahey's birth place, Ireland. "Stay" reached No. 4 in the United States; one of the few British acts to dent the US Top 5 stateside in 1992. "Stay" was also the biggest-selling single by a British act in the UK in 1992. It is one of the longest running UK number ones in UK chart history (8 weeks), and the longest by an all-female group or duo. Top 10 success was emulated in the majority of the countries where it was released. The song is regarded as a classic and iconic track.

To prove its longevity, in early November 2010, "Stay" re-entered the charts in the UK, Ireland and the European Hot 100 Singles. A Halloween eve performance of the track by The X Factor contestant Cher Lloyd exposed "Stay" to a new audience who downloaded it. The track re-entered the UK Singles Chart at no.12 and no.10 on the Irish Chart.

This single was the only Shakespears Sister song that featured Siobhan Fahey less prominently on vocals than Marcella Detroit, with Detroit singing the verses and lead chorus and Fahey singing the song's dramatic bridge. Detroit is noted for singing in whistle register before the last chorus of the song, going up to a high F (F6).

Music video

The award-winning Sophie Muller directed the promo video for the single, the concept of which was inspired by the film Cat Women of the Moon. The video featured Detroit and Fahey fighting over a comatose man (played by Dave Evans, former boyfriend of Fahey's Bananarama bandmate Keren Woodward^{[citation needed]}).

The video won Best Video at the 1993 Music Week Awards and Brit Awards, and was the subject of a spoof by comediennes French & Saunders. The epic promo was featured in the Top 100 Music Videos of all time by Channel 4 [3]. Archive footage of this video, and a parody, was used in the novelty Christmas song "Mr Blobby".

The video starts with a view of a calm night sky. A shooting star passes over a full moon and the song begins. The camera pans back into a large dark room. Detroit playing the lover is seen caretaking her man - played by Dave Evans - who is comatose and near death. Detroit sings her verse of the song. At the climax of the song, Fahey, playing a vampish angel of death, appears at the top of a staircase, wearing a sparkling catsuit. She sings her verse of the song and dances around in front of a bright light. Detroit tries her best to get the man to wake up, while Death slowly makes her way down the stairs to claim the man's soul. The two women begin fighting over the man, making it literally and figuratively a fight between life (Detroit) and death (Fahey). During their struggle, the man suddenly wakes up. Detroit embraces him. Death - disgusted by this - having failed to seduce him into her realm, walks back up the staircase to the light, presumably being the stairway to Heaven. It was rumored that Fahey had to wait on the set for 12 hours before filming her part, and killed the time by drinking vodka, which made it hard for her to balance.[[4]]

Track listings and packaging

London released the single in a special two-part Digipak sleeve. The first part came in the fold-out cardboard Digipak which featured lyrics and a picture on the inside of Fahey and Detroit from the promo-video. This CD featured "Stay" on tracks one and two and "The Trouble With Andre" on track three. The second CD, issued a week later, featured four tracks, including a compilation of various tracks from the album (to aid its promotion). This CD came in a slip-card case and was a picture disc which fitted into the Digipak. Overseas issues were not in the form of a Digipak and consisted of the standard CD case with the same three tracks on all issues.

CD maxi single

1. "Stay" (7" edit (though not listed as such) ) — (3:45)
2. "Stay" (album version) — (3:48)
3. "The Trouble With Andre" (album version) — (4:44)
4. "Excerpts from the forthcoming album, Hormonally Yours" — (6:02)

7" CD & cassette single

1. "Stay" (radio mix) - (3:45)
2. "The Trouble With Andre" - (4:44)

An acoustic version of "Stay" can be found on the album Long Live the Queens!.

Official versions

1. "Stay" (album version) - (3:50)
2. "Stay" (7" edit) - (3:45)

   5 seconds shorter than the Album Version & contains a "clicking" sound during Marcella's second verse

3. "Stay" (radio mix) - (3:45)

   Same as the 7" edit - labeled differently

4. "Stay" (André Betts 12" remix) - (4:28)

   Remixed by André Betts

5. "Stay" (acoustic version) - (3:47)
6. "Stay" (André Betts remix) - (3:49)

   Remixed by André Betts

Personnel

Shakespear's Sister

• Siobhan Fahey - vocals, guitars & keyboards
• Marcella Detroit - vocals

Additional personnel

• Laurence Dunmore - artwork
• Jean-Baptiste Mondino - photography

Charts and sales

Peak positions

Chart (1992)	Peak position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart	3
Austrian Singles Chart	4
Dutch Mega Top 100	28
French SNEP Singles Chart	40
German Singles Chart	3
Irish Singles Chart	1
New Zealand Singles Chart	5
Norwegian Singles Chart	6
Swedish Singles Chart	1
Swiss Singles Chart	2
UK Singles Chart	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	4
Chart (2010)	Peak position
European Hot 100 Singles	38
Ireland (IRMA)	10
Scotland (Official Charts Company)	11
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)	12
UK Download Chart	12

End of year charts

End of year chart (1992)	Position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	45
UK Singles Chart	4
Irish Singles Chart	3

Certifications

Country	Certification	Date	Sales certified	Total Sales
UK	Gold	1 March 1992	400,000+	600,000+
U.S.	Gold	11 September 1992	500,000+

Chart successions

Preceded by "Goodnight Girl" by Wet Wet Wet	UK number one single 22 February 1992 – 11 April 1992 (8 weeks)	Succeeded by "Deeply Dippy" by Right Said Fred
	Irish IRMA number-one single (first run) 15 February 1992 (1 week)	Succeeded by "One" by U2
Preceded by "One" by U2	Irish IRMA number-one single (second run) 12 March 1992 (1 week)	Succeeded by "Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton
Preceded by "Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton	Irish IRMA number-one single (third run) 26 March 1992 (1 week)	Succeeded by "Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton
	Irish IRMA number-one single (fourth run) 9 April 1992 – 23 April 1992 (3 weeks)	Succeeded by "Deeply Dippy" by Right Said Fred
Preceded by "To Be with You" by Mr. Big	Swedish number-one single 13 May 1992 (2 weeks)	Succeeded by "It's My Life" by Dr. Alban

In popular culture

• The song was used in the closing scenes of the season 4 episode of Ghost Whisperer, "Body of Water".
• Sharron Davies used the song for her dance routine on the seventh week of Dancing On Ice 2010.
• Cher Lloyd sang the song during Halloween Week and again in Week 7 as her 'save me' song when she was in the final showdown on The X Factor, Series 7. The performance earned her a standing ovation from mentor Cheryl Cole. Cher also covered the song for her debut album Sticks + Stones and will be used as a bonus downloadable track when you pre-order the album via Cher's official website.

Cover versions

• French and Saunders did a parody of the song and video in their sketch-show in the early nineties called "Dickens' Daughter". The sketch also parodied other videos by the band, including "I Don't Care" and "Goodbye Cruel World". A line in the parody sung by Dawn French read:- Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king's horses and all the kings men, couldn't put the little tot together again.
• Newman and Baddiel also sent up the song on the 1992 comedy sketch show The Mary Whitehouse Experience. David Baddiel played Marcella Detroit and Rob Newman lampooned Siobhan Fahey; when she opens her mouth to sing the more uptempo bridge of the song the sound of a ship's foghorn is heard instead.
• Cradle of Filth recorded a cover version in 2006, which is featured on their 2008 special edition release of Thornography.
• Pop band Sweetbox covered the song "Stay" and it was released on the Jade album in 2002.
• American rock / hardcore band The Distance recorded a cover version in 2006 that was to be included in the European version of their debut album The Rise, The Fall and Everything in Between, but was left off after they could not get permission to use the song. Their version has appeared on various music sites such as their MySpace and trig.com profiles.
• Italian pop stars Mina and Piero Pelù recorded the song as "Stay with me (Stay)" in 1999 for Mina's album Olio.
• Germanic darkwave group Blutengel (Blood Angel) recorded a version which includes some mispronunciations. It was on their 2004 Demon Kiss album.
• Cher Lloyd performed a live version of the song during Week 4, Series 7 of The X Factor, with Simon Cowell regarding it as the best performance of the series. She performed it again in Week 7 when she was in the final showdown and the judges saved her. A studio recording features as a bonus track on her debut album, Sticks + Stones.
• German pop-duo Anders|Fahrenkrog covered the song "Stay". It is included on their album Two (2011).