In the extended live version of Stay there appears to be at least two other people taking turns singing the refrain, “Oh, won’t you staaaayyyy, just a little bit longer…”
One voice appears to be that of a female and the other of some guy doing it in falsetto.
I swear I’ve heard that guys voice on at least one other song doing basically the same sounding falsetto, but I can’t remember that song. Bonus if you can come up with that answer as well.
Who are the people besides JB that sing the refrain in the song Stay, and for the bonus, has that other guy done a similar act in another song?
How about that … a quick check of the credits confirms that it was Lindley.
For years, I thought that was really songwriter Maurice Williams guesting on Browne’s “Stay”. That’s what I thought the crowd noise was for – I had this mental image of Williams walking in from stage left
Williams was a member of the Zodiacs, who first recorded the song in the 50s.
That would be Rosemary Butler, a popular back-up singer at the time. She performed with Jackson Browne, The Doobie Brothers, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt… she seemed to be credited on every album I bought in the 70’s and 80’s.
It was many years till I finally realized that was David Lindley singing and playing steel guitar on Stay. I’ve been a Lindley fan for ages and have seen him at least 4 or 5 times. It was one of those :smack: moments, of course that’s David Lindley’s mad steel guitar skilz!
I’ve seen Jackson Browne a couple of times around town for various benefit concerts. It’s probably been 10 years though. Indeed, according to this site:
Yeah, I think that’s the one. I hear it on the radio all the time, I don’t have the album. It’s definitely live and by extended I mean that they play The Load Out and Stay together, live.
Does anyone know if Lindley has done falsetto on any other works? This is clearly bugging me…
Where’ve you heard this? There was a little crowd noise before he sang so it must have been when he approached the microphone right? The whole shtick sounded pretty rehearsed.
A friend of mine opened for him once and she was invited to sing Stay with him during his set. I insist that my Jackson Browne story (linked) is way better than her Jackson Browne story.
If you like David Lindley, check out his mid-1960s band Kaleidoscope. They were truly a groundbreaking band, mixing elements of psychedelia, middle eastern and folk music. They made four albums, of which the first two (Side Trips and A Beacon From Mars) are real mind-melters. Very unique music that actually still holds up today, unlike many of their contemporaries. To me, it’s by far the best stuff that guy ever did.
The only thing I can think of that sounds similar to the falsetto on ‘Stay’ would be Supertramp’s ‘Goodbye Stranger’, but I’m sure that’s not David Lindley singing on that one.
