"Stay" is a doo-wop song recorded by Maurice Williams and The Zodiacs. The song was written by Williams in 1953 when he was 15 years old. He had been trying to convince his date not to go home at 10 o'clock as she was supposed to. He lost the argument, but as he was to relate years later, "Like a flood, the words just came to me."

In 1960, the song was put on a demo by Williams and his band, the Zodiacs, but it attracted no interest until a ten-year-old heard it and impressed the band members with her positive reaction to the tune. The band's producers took it along with some other demos to New York City and played them for all the major record producers that they could access. Finally, Al Silvers of Herald Records became interested, but insisted that the song be re-recorded as the demo's recording levels were too low. They also said that one line, "Let's have another smoke" would have to be removed in order for the song to be played on commercial radio. After the group recorded the tune again, it was released by Herald Records and was picked up by CKLW. It entered the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on October 9, 1960 and reached the number one spot on November 21, 1960. It was dislodged a week later by Elvis Presley's "Are You Lonesome Tonight?".

The original recording of "Stay" remains the shortest single ever to reach the top of the American record charts, being only 1 minute and 37 seconds long. By 1990, it had sold more than 8 million copies.

It received a new lease of popularity after being featured on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.

The song was covered by the Hollies (who took it to number eight in the UK Singles Chart) and by the Four Seasons in 1964, whose version peaked at number sixteen in the U.S. Vee Jay originally released the latter as the B-side of "Peanuts" in January, but when disc jockeys started to "turn the single over" to play "Stay" on the air, the record company superseded the single with a new one with "Stay" as the A-side and "Goodnight My Love" as the new B-side.

The song was also covered in 1966 by the Virginia Wolves (Amy Records AMY966 in the USA, Stateside Records SS563 in the UK) augmented by a brass punch that has seen it become a staple tune on the UK Northern Soul scene.

A version of the song with revised lyrics is the last track on Jackson Browne's 1977 album Running on Empty. The song, which follows on the heels of Browne's "The Load-Out" begs the audience to stay for an encore and includes an extensive playout. It includes backing contributions from David Lindley (sometimes attributed mistakenly to Tiny Tim) and from Rosemary Butler. Browne, Butler, and Lindley each contribute a similar verse in turn in ascending vocal ranges. It was released as a single and reached number twenty in the U.S.

Recently, a version of the song has been used to promote travel to and tourism in Wisconsin. In 2005, a version was used to advertise Kellogg's Crunchy Nut Cornflakes.

A dance version of the song by the Italo Disco duo Marx and Spencer(David Marx and Tracy Spencer) was released in 1983.

"Stay" was the third and final single from Cyndi Lauper's 2003 cover album At Last.

It was a promo-only single, released only in the U.S. and Australia. The video that accompanied it is rarely seen but is commercially available as a special feature on the DVD, Live at Last.

In 1980 Austrian singer Georg Danzer wrote a German text to the Jackson Browne medley The Load Out/Stay. It was performed live on the album Direkt as “Roadie Song“.

The British reggae group Dreamhouse released a dancehall version of the song in 1998.