East 17's Tony Mortimer reveals the heartbreaking story behind 'Stay Another Day'
6 December 2024, 10:32
Songwriter and East 17 legend Tony Mortimer has opened up about the sad reason 'Stay Another Day' was written.
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East 17 star Tony Mortimer has revealed the heartbreaking story behind his hit song 'Stay Another Day'.
During an interview on Heart 90s, the 54-year-old disclosed that the Christmas number one was inspired by the death of his brother Ollie, who passed away in 1989.
Speaking to Kevin Hughes, Tony explained what the songwriting process was like back in the 90s, and the strain tat was put on songwriters to deliver a hit.
The singer stated: "There was a lot of pressure to write songs, and I don’t know, if I write a song I might not write one for another four or five weeks back then."
He continued: "But then all of a sudden you’re told you’ve got to go in ‘right we need six songs, we need ten songs’. You know you have to do it.
"So I was just trying to pull inspiration out of anywhere and I thought well, my brother’s death, that really affected me so I’m going to use that as an inspiration.
"I’m going to put it on the album, no one is going to know about it and it’s going to be a little quiet song between me and him and then it turned out to be one of the biggest Christmas songs of that year."
Tony then confirmed that the song wasn't mean to be a festive favourite, saying: "People started hearing it, management and the record company, and they went ‘that’s Christmas number one’.
"It had nothing to do with Christmas. It was written in August and they all said it’s a Christmas number one and they saw something I didn’t."
Watch Tony Mortimer talk about 'Stay Another Day' here:
Why East 17's 'Stay Another Day' was never meant to be a Christmas Number 1
The song topped the UK charts in 1994, as well as going to number one in Denmark, Ireland, and Sweden.
However it wasn't an easy race to the top spot, as the band faced competition from Mariah Carey's 'All I Want for Christmas Is You', which was released in the same year.
Luckily for the boys they were able to keep Mariah off the top spot, with 'All I Want for Christmas Is You' peaking at number two in 1994.
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To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the track, Tony is re-releasing 'Stay Another Day' on vinyl on December 13th.
He has partnered with music therapy charity Nordoff and Robbins, with £1 from every item purchased going to the charity.
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