From In English 3. This recording was done by Vince Cross for our In English textbook series. We played it as the intro and outro for all our talks on the book., and it was enormously popular.
Stay was written by Maurice Williams (when he was fifteen, in 1953) and recorded by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs in 1960. It was a US #1 hit.
Three years later, The Four Seasons had a #16 hit with their cover version.
In 1964, a version by The Hollies was a UK #8 hit.
Jackson Browne re-did it in 1977 with revised lyrics for Running On Empty and it became his show closer. It was released as a single, US #20, and UK #12. Browne used three singers … himself, David Lindley and Rosemary Butler.
When we decided to use the song, we sent Vince all four versions and suggested that we add a female voice, as Jackson Browne did. Normally, our remit with songs was a close cover of a hit version, this time we had room to play and combine elements from different versions.
We have never put up songs before, but the series is out-of-print and there are pirate versions of the CD all over the net. So we may as well present it ourselves. And it’s pretty good for English learners. The tune sticks and you get wiil / won’t / going to
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