Maurice Williams, writer and lead singer of ‘Stay,’ dead at 86
NEW YORK — Maurice Williams, a rhythm and blues singer and composer whose backing group the Zodiacs became one of music’s biggest one-shot acts with the classic ballad “Stay,” has died. He was 86.
Williams died on August 6, the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame announced. No further details have been released.
Williams, a writer and performer since childhood, had already been in several harmony groups when he began a studio session with the Zodiacs in 1960.
Towards the end, they unexpectedly made history with their recording of “Stay,” which Williams had hastily made as a teenager a few years earlier.
Over his fellow vocalists’ hard-hitting chants of “Stay!”, Williams carried much of the song, pleading with an unnamed girl. Halfway through, he stepped back, handing the lead to Shane Gaston and one of rock’s most unforgettable falsetto screams — “OH, WON’T YOU STAY, JUST A LITTLE BIT LONGER!.”
The song lasted just 1 minute and 30 seconds, making it one of the shortest hits of the rock era. It reached number one on the Billboard pop chart in 1960 and was the group’s only major success.
But it was covered early on by the Hollies and the Four Seasons, among others, and remained a beloved oldie, best known when Jackson Browne sang it live for his 1977 album “Running On Empty.”
“Stay” was also performed by Browne, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and others at the 1979 “No Nukes” concert at Madison Square Garden and appeared in its original version on the 1987 blockbuster “Dirty Dancing” soundtrack.
The song was inspired by a teenage crush, Mary Shropshire.
“(Mary) was the one I tried to convince to stay a little longer,” Williams told the North Carolina publication Our State in 2012. “Of course, she couldn’t.”
Williams’ career was otherwise a story of disappointment. He wrote another falsetto showcase, “Little Darlin,” and recorded it in 1957 with the Gladiolas. But the song became a hit instead for a white group, the Diamonds. In 1965, Williams and the Zodiacs recorded a promising ballad, “May I.” But their label, Vee-Jay, went bankrupt just as the song was coming out, and “May I” later became a hit for another white group, Bill Deal & the Rhondels.
Like many stars of the early rock era, Williams became a fixture on oldies tours and tributes, while also making the albums “Let This Night Last” and “Back to Basics.” In the mid-’60s, he settled in Charlotte, North Carolina, and in 2010 was elected to the state’s Hall of Fame. Survivors include his wife, Emily.
Williams was born in Lancaster, South Carolina, and sang with relatives in church growing up. He was a teenager when he formed a gospel group, the Junior Harmonizers, which became the Royal Charms when they branched out into secular music, and then the Zodiacs in honor of a Ford automobile they used on the road. Meanwhile, he was a prolific writer and needed little time to finish what became his signature hit.
“It took me about 30 minutes to write ‘Stay,’ then I threw it away,” he later told www.classicsbands.com. “We were looking for songs to record like Maurice Williams and The Zodiacs. I was at my girlfriend’s house playing the tape of songs I had written, and her little sister said, ‘Please do the song with the high voice in it.’ I knew she meant ‘Stay.’ She was about 12 years old, and I said to myself, ‘She’s the age of buying records,’ and the rest is history. I thank God for her.”