(Hey hey hey)
(Hey hey hey)
(Hey hey hey)
(Hey hey hey)
People like you always want back the love they gave away
And people like me wanna 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
Stay, hey, all you had to do was stay
Had me in the palm of your hand
Then, why'd you had 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 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
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
Stay, hey, all you had to do was stay
Had me in the palm of your hand
Then, why'd you had 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 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)
Let me remind you this was what you wanted (oh oh oh)
You ended it
You were all I wanted (oh oh oh)
But not like this
Not like this
Not like this
Oh, all you had to do was stay
Hey, all you had to do was stay
Had me in the palm of your hand
Then, why'd you had 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 could've been easy
All you had to do was stay
Hey, all you had to do was stay
Had me in the palm of your hand
Then, why'd you had 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 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 (oh)
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay (ooh)
(Hey hey hey)
(Hey hey hey)
(Hey hey hey)
People like you always want back the love they gave away
And people like me wanna 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
Stay, hey, all you had to do was stay
Had me in the palm of your hand
Then, why'd you had 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 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
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
Stay, hey, all you had to do was stay
Had me in the palm of your hand
Then, why'd you had 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 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)
Let me remind you this was what you wanted (oh oh oh)
You ended it
You were all I wanted (oh oh oh)
But not like this
Not like this
Not like this
Oh, all you had to do was stay
Hey, all you had to do was stay
Had me in the palm of your hand
Then, why'd you had 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 could've been easy
All you had to do was stay
Hey, all you had to do was stay
Had me in the palm of your hand
Then, why'd you had 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 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 (oh)
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay
All you had to do was stay (ooh)
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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.
This particular guy’s indecision (breaking up and then wanting to get back together) put the final nail on the relationship’s coffin.