"Stay" is the debut single from

Bernard Butler Bernard Joseph Butler (born 1 May 1970) is an English musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the first guitarist with Suede, until his departure in 1994. He has been hailed by some critics as the greatest guitarist of his ...

released in January 1998. It is the

lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release str ...

taken from the album '' People Move On'' and charted at number 12 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top ...

Background

The song begins with a gentle acoustic guitar, which leads into Butler's vocals. Drums, electric guitar, keyboards and backing vocals all get introduced gradually, before coming together in one last climax and quiet coda.Raggett, Ned. "Stay single review" AllMusic. Butler has said that "Stay" is not a love song but a song about change. "The process of change is hard but you've got to do it. It's about when you know you've got to do something but there's an element of risk. It's about when I first went to France to record. A lot of the lyrics come from a conversation with Elisa, my wife. I wrote them on the train over to France." The music video for the title song was directed by David Mould, whose directing credits include Suede's " Trash", the first single released after Butler's departure. B-side "Hotel Splendide" features backing vocals from

Edwyn Collins Edwyn Stephen Collins (born 23 August 1959) is a Scottish musician, producer and record label owner from Edinburgh, Scotland. Collins was the lead singer for the 1980s post-punk band Orange Juice, which he co-founded. After the group split in ...

Critical reception

Reception to Butler's debut single was very positive. Ned Raggett of AllMusic wrote: "The title track is one of the more self-consciously grandiose things out there, but its big advantage is that it builds rather than overwhelms." '' Select'' praised the song's composition, writing: "a classic rock collage: descending chords a la "

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", " Whatever", " The Changingman", an impassioned

middle eight The 32- bar form, also known as the AABA song form, American popular song form and the ballad form, is a song structure commonly found in Tin Pan Alley songs and other American popular music, especially in the first half of the 20th century. ...

that sounds almost gospel-esque, a huge arrangement, and plaintive lyrics, sufficiently simple to need no deciphering whatsoever." Caspar Llewellyn Smith of ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' called the song "epic stuff, progressing from acoustic balladry to a monumental wall of sound." He felt that the song "abandons the traditional verse-chorus-verse structure that established Suede as early Britpop frontrunners, but the tension between the layers of guitar effects and a simple piano motif gives the song its own dynamism." British music charts commentator

James Masterton James Masterton (born 2 September 1973) is a music writer and columnist, his work focusing on the UK Singles Chart having been an online fixture on various sites since the 1990s. Masterton is also a producer for talkSPORT, and has worked on air ...

wrote: "The quality of the record is undeniable even if he will forever be more famous for his guitar playing than his singing. Sounding like a close relation of

George Michael George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the most significant cultural icons of the MTV generation and is one of the best-selling music ...

Praying For Time "Praying for Time" is a song written and performed by British singer and songwriter George Michael, released on Epic Records in the United Kingdom and Columbia Records in the United States in 1990. It was the first single from his second studio ...

, the single builds up into a dramatic climax that borders on the epic. Easily one of the most outstanding singles of the year to date (and even after three weeks that is no idle claim)." The single charted at number 12 on the

, selling 60,000 copies.

Single track listings

References

{{Bernard Butler 1998 singles Songs written by Bernard Butler Creation Records singles 1998 songs