NEW YORK -- Maurice Williams, a rhythm and blues singer and composer who with his backing group the Zodiacs became one of music's great one-shot acts with the classic ballad "Stay," has died. He was 86. Williams died Aug.
6, according to an announcement from the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, which did not immediately provide further details. A writer and performer since childhood, Williams had been in various harmony groups when he and the Zodiacs began a studio session in 1960. They unexpectedly made history near the end with their recording of "Stay," which Williams had dashed off as a teenager a few years earlier.
Over hard chants of "Stay!" by his fellow vocalists, Williams carried much of the song and its plea to an unnamed girl. Midway, he stepped back and gave the lead to Shane Gaston and one of rock's most unforgettable falsetto shouts — "OH, WON'T YOU STAY, JUST A LITTLE BIT LONGER!." Barely over 1 minute, 30 seconds, among the shortest chart-toppers of the rock era, the song hit No.
1 on the Billboard pop chart in 1960 and was the group's only major success. But it was covered by the Hollies and the Four Seasons among others early on and endured as a favorite oldie, known best from when Jackson Browne sang it live for his 1977 "Running On Empty" album. "Stay" also was performed by Browne, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty and others at the 1979 "No Nukes" concert at Madison Square Garden and appeared in its original version on the blockbuster "Dirty Dancing" so.