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All You Had To Do Was Stay

1989 (2014) | 1989 (Taylor's Version) [2023]

“All You Had To Do Was Stay” got the meaningful track five spot on Taylor’s fifth studio album 1989 (2014). In the song, she realizes that no matter what she does, she can’t seem to make a former love stay. This particular guy’s indecision (breaking up and then wanting to get back together) put the final nail in their relationship’s coffin. The re-recording of the song, “All You Had To Do Was Stay (Taylor’s Version)”, will be released on October 27, 2023.

Of note, “All You Had To Do Was Stay” was the fifth song to contribute to Taylor’s “Track Fives”, her tradition of placing the most “emotional and vulnerable” ballad of the album as the fifth song on the tracklist.

Background

Inspired by pop music of the 1980s and its experimentation with synthesizers, drum pads, and overlapped vocals, Taylor decided to move away from the signature country styles of her previous releases and incorporate a straightforward pop production for 1989. The recording process began in mid-2013 concurrently with the start of Taylor’s “The RED Tour” in support of her fourth studio album, RED (2012). Taylor announced in February 2014 that she was again working with Max Martin and Shellback, with whom she had collaborated on three songs for RED. The two produced seven of the thirteen tracks for the album’s standard edition; Martin also served as executive producer with Taylor.

Lyrical Theme

“All You Had To Do Was Stay” was one of the first songs Taylor wrote for 1989. It was originally a piano ballad. In an interview with TIME in November 2014, she explained that she had come up with the high-pitched chorus in a dream:

«There’s a song on my album called 'All You Had To Do Was Stay.' I was having this dream, that was actually one of those embarrassing dreams, where you’re mortified in the dream, you’re like humiliated. In the dream, my ex had come to the door to beg for me to talk to him or whatever, and I opened up the door and I went to go say, 'Hi,' or 'What are you doing here?' or something — something normal — but all that came out was this high-pitched singing that said, 'Stay!' It was almost operatic. So I wrote this song, and I used that sound in the song. Weird, right? I woke up from the dream, saying the weird part into my phone, figuring I had to include it in something because it was just too strange not to. In pop, it’s fun to play around with little weird noises like that.»

Taylor Swift

Live Performances

“All You Had To Do Was Stay” was initially part of Taylor’s setlist for “The 1989 World Tour” (2015). However, a few shows into the tour she cut the song to make time for her many surprise guest appearances. On the last leg of the tour, she once again added “All You Had To Do Was Stay” to the setlist. It is therefore featured in the concert movie The 1989 World Tour Live (2015). Taylor also sang the song acoustically on piano at a private concert at the Grammy Museum in October 2015, although footage of that performance was never released. “All You Had To Do Was Stay” was the first surprise song during Taylor’s show on June 10, 2023, in Detroit on her “The Eras Tour“.

Critical Reception

Rolling Stone namend “All You Had To Do Was Stay” one of the best pop songs of the 2010’s decade: “A 1989 banger that could have made an excellent single – it sounds a bit like “Out of the Woods,” except with a livelier chorus and a stormier range of electro-Tay sound effects.”

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
People like you always want back
The love they gave away
People like me want to believe you
When you say you’ve changed
The more I think about it now
The less I know
All I know is that you drove us off the road

[Chorus]
Stay
Hey – all you had to do was stay
Had me in the palm of your hand
Then
Why’d you have to go and lock me out
When I let you in?
Stay
Hey – now you say you want it back
Now that it’s just too late
Well, it could’ve been easy
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay

[Verse 2]
Here you are now
Calling me up
But I don’t know what to say
I’ve been picking up the pieces of the mess you made
People like you always want back
The love they pushed aside
But people like me are gone forever
When you say goodbye

[Chorus]
Stay
Hey – all you had to do was stay
Had me in the palm of your hand
Then why’d you have to go and lock me out
When I let you in?
Stay
Hey – now you say you want it back
Now that it’s just too late
Well, it could’ve been easy
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay (Stay, stay, stay, stay)

[Bridge]
Let me remind you…
This was what you wanted
You ended it
You were all I wanted
But not like this…
Not like this
No, not like this
Oh, all you had to do was –

[Final Chorus]
Hey – all you had to do was stay
Had me in the palm of your hand
Then why’d you have to go and lock me out
When I let you in?
Stay
Hey – now you say you want it back
Now that it’s just too late (All you had to do was stay)
Well, it could’ve been easy
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay