Songfacts®:

• Jackson Browne's "Stay" is a highly modified cover of a #1 hit from 1960 originally recorded by Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs. The original is set at a school dance, with the young man asking his girl to stick around for one more dance and maybe cap it with a smooch. Browne's version takes place at a concert, with the band asking the audience if they'll stick around for one more song. The Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs original goes:
  
  Now your daddy don't mind
  And your mommy don't mind
  
  Browne's version considers the folks who help put on the show:
  
  Now the promoter don't mind
  And the union don't mind
• Browne never recorded a studio version of "Stay," but live versions appear on various albums. The first and most popular release is on his 1977 live album Running On Empty, recorded at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland on August 27, 1977. This was just the second time Browne and his band performed the song. After that performance, they knew they had something special, and Browne started using "Stay" as the closing song at most of his concerts.
• On the Running On Empty album, "Stay" seamlessly follows an original song called "The Load-Out," which is about the road crew responsible for setting up and taking down the equipment at every stop on the tour. The two songs go together and are usually played that way on the radio and when performed live.
• In a radio interview, Jackson Browne explained why he covered this song and what it means to him. "In that reflective mood, I was saying, whatever there is about being out here, it's all made worthwhile by the time that we have on stage, not only to play but to be with the audience," he said. "Then it was simply a matter of demonstrating that by playing a happy song that everybody had heard before. That was a way of standing the encore on its head. It reversed the meaning of the encore. Instead of 'we're leaving and you must call us back,' it's our way of asking the audience to stay because we wanted to keep playing."
• The female vocals on this song are by Rosemary Butler, a backup singer to the stars - she's also worked with Paul McCartney, Linda Ronstadt and Billy Joel. The falsetto solo is by David Lindley, Browne's longtime collaborator who also played lap steel guitar on the track.
• The musicians on "Stay" are best known as session men, but they went on the road for Browne. Along with Browne (piano) and David Lindley (lap steel guitar), they are:
  
  Craig Doerge - Hammond organ
  Leland Sklar - bass
  Russ Kunkel - drums
  Danny Kortchmar - guitar
• "Stay" was released as a single, the second from the Running On Empty album, following the title track. Both songs were hits.
  
  By this time, Jackson Browne had established himself as a brilliantly insightful singer-songwriter, but the Running On Empty album crossed him over to a much wider audience.
• The original version of "Stay" runs just 1:38, making it the shortest song ever to hit #1 on the Hot 100. Browne's cover goes to 3:15.
• Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played this along with Browne and Rosemary Butler at two of the No Nukes Concerts held at Madison Square Garden in 1979. At the September 22 show, Tom Petty also joined them. This version is on the album No Nukes: The Muse Concerts for a Non-Nuclear Future.