“Stay” by Shakespear's Sister

"Stay" was the second single from Shakespear's Sister's second album, Hormonally Yours, issued by London Records in January 1992, and it's pop at its most gloriously overwrought: a slow-burning plea that swells into full gothic melodrama. Siobhan Fahey and Marcella Detroit wrote it with Dave Stewart, who hid his credit behind the pen name Jean Guiot.

Britain couldn't get enough of it. The single sat at the top of the UK chart for eight straight weeks and finished 1992 as the country's fourth-biggest seller, went to number one in Sweden and in Fahey's native Ireland, and climbed to number four on the Billboard Hot 100. Sophie Muller's video, which borrowed its look from the 1953 B-movie Cat-Women of the Moon, took British Video of the Year at the 1993 Brits.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.