Stay (Shakespears Sister song)

"Stay"
Single by Shakespears Sister
from the album Hormonally Yours
B-side	"The Trouble with Andre"
Released	13 January 1992 (1992-01-13)
Format	CD single, 7" single, cassette
Recorded	1991
Genre	Pop rock
Length	3:50 (album version) 3:45 (7" edit)
Label	London
Writer(s)	Siobhan Fahey, Marcella Detroit and David A. Stewart
Producer(s)	Shakespear's Sister, Alan Moulder, Chris Thomas
Shakespears Sister singles chronology
"Goodbye Cruel World" (1991) "Stay" (1992) "I Don't Care" (1992)

"Stay" is a song by UK based pop act Shakespears Sister, released by London Records in January 1992 as the second single from their album Hormonally Yours. Upon release, the single became the duo's first and only No. 1 single in numerous territories, including the UK, where it topped the UK Singles Chart for eight consecutive weeks;^[1] the longest UK No. 1 reign for any girl band, and was the fourth biggest selling single of 1992. The single also held the No. 1 position for six weeks in Ireland, and No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US.^[2]

At the 1993 Brit Awards "Stay" won the award for Best British Video.^[3] In November 2010, The X Factor contestant Cher Lloyd performed the song on series 7 of the show. Following this, the original version re-entered the UK, Ireland and the European Hot 100 Singles charts.

"Stay" 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). The piano, synth and bass guitar were performed by Ian Maidman, and the drums by Steve Ferrera, both musicians whose contributions featured throughout the 'Hormonally Yours' album.

Music video

Background and development

Sophie Muller directed the promo video for the single, the concept of which was inspired by the film Cat Women of the Moon.^[4] The video featured Detroit and Fahey fighting over a comatose man (played by Dave Evans, former boyfriend of Fahey's Bananarama bandmate Keren Woodward).^[5]

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.^[6]

Synopsis

In some rare versions the beginning quotes a variation of the opening of William Shakespeare's Macbeth: The original quote of the play ("When shall we three meet again") is changed to "When shall we two meet again", referring to the story told in the video. (^[7]) 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 hospital room. Detroit is seen tending to her lover, played by Evans, who is in a coma and on the verge of death, while singing to him not to leave her. At the bridge of the song, a portal opens and the angel of death, played by Fahey, appears at the top of a staircase, wearing a sparkling catsuit. She dances around in front of a bright light whilst mocking Detroit with a verse that she cannot save her lover and the best she can hope for is to return safely to her own world. Detroit tries her best to wake the man up, while Death slowly makes her way down the stairs to claim his 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 finally wakes up, he and Detroit embrace while Death, having failed to seduce him into her realm, walks away in disgust and goes back up the staircase to the light, presumably being the stairway to Heaven.^[8]

There is some dispute however, due to the desperately possessive lyrics sung by Detroit in the verses, that Fahey is in fact a metaphor for the voice of reason as seen from an unreasonable (Detroit's) point of view. Fahey attempting to save the man and deliver some much-needed advice to Detroit to snap out of it, let him have his life back, and go "back to her own world", but in her desperate state of mind, is only able to see Fahey as an evil force trying to take away her dying lover. In reality he is only dying metaphorically, stifled by Detroit's possessive love, but despite her attempts, Fahey fails to tap into the potential last vestiges of Detroit's sanity, leaving him in her clutches.

It has been rumoured that Fahey, having 12 hours to kill, drank an excessive amount of vodka before filming her scenes for the video, (hence the awkward staggering and wild-eyed smirks).

Track listing

Charts and certifications

Appearances in other media

• 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.
• Abbey Clancy used the song for her dance routine on the Halloween episode of "Strictly Come Dancing" series 11 in 2013.

Cover versions

• In 1999, Italian pop stars Mina and Piero Pelù recorded a billingual duet cover of the song as "Stay With Me (Stay)" in for Mina's album Olio.
• In 2001, a hi-NRG/eurodance cover of the song by Déjà Vu featuring Tasmin was released through Almighty Records. An audio sample can be heard on the Almighty Records website.^[33]
• In 2002, pop band Sweetbox covered the song "Stay" with Jade Villalon on vocals, for their album Jade.
• In 2004, German dark wave group Blutengel (Blood Angel) recorded a version on their Demon Kiss album.
• In 2005, German goth metal band Mandrake covered the song for their album The Balance of Blue.
• In 2006, British extreme metal band Cradle of Filth covered the song. The song was included on their 2008 special edition release of Thornography.
• In 2011, German singer Thomas Anders (formerly of Modern Talking) and musician Jörn-Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen covered the song for their collaborative album Two.
• British pop singer 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 some editions of her debut album, Sticks + Stones from 2011.
• In 2011, "Stay" was covered by the operatic pop group Il Divo on their album Wicked Game in Spanish as "Stay (Ven a Mi)".
• In 2013, former Shakespears Sister band member Marcella Detroit covered the song on her 2013 album, The Vehicle.
• In 2014, Australian singer Delta Goodrem covered the song as a B-side to her single, "Love Thy Will Be Done".

Parodies

• 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".
• 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.
• In 1993 a parody of the video featured in the video to Mr Blobby where it is Mr Blobby not the man lying on the bed which he then falls off.

References

External links

• Full lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics