“All You Had To Do Was Stay” discusses a crumbling relationship that falls apart due to a lover’s indecision. It’s part of Swift’s famous “track five” pattern — through the years, her fans have pointed out her tendency to make the most emotional song on the album the fifth track.
A big theme in Swift’s romantic songs is the prospect of a lover staying with her — see“Stay Stay Stay,"“New Year’s Day,” and “The Archer,” another track five.
Written By: Adam Feeney, Louis Bell & Taylor Swift
Produced By: Christopher Rowe & Taylor Swift
[Intro]
(Hey, hey, hey)
(Hey, hey, hey)
(Hey, hey, hey)
(Hey, hey, hey)
[Verse 1]
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
[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, could've been easy
All you had to do was (Stay)
[Post-Chorus]
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, callin' me up
But I don't know what to say
I've been pickin' 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, could've been easy
All you had to do was (Stay)
[Post-Chorus]
All you had to do was (Stay)
All you had to do was (Stay)
All you had to do was (Stay, stay, stay, stay)
[Bridge]
Let me remind you
This was what you wanted (Oh, oh, oh-oh-oh)
You ended it
You were all I wanted (Oh, oh, oh-oh-oh)
But not like this
Not like this, not like this
Oh, all you had to do was
[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, could've been easy
All you had to do was
(Stay; Ah) 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; Ah) 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)
[Post-Chorus]
(Ah) All you had to do was (Stay; Oh)
All you had to do was (Stay)
All you had to do was (Stay; Ooh)
All you had to do was (Stay)
STOLEN
VERSION
Written By: Adam Feeney, Louis Bell & Taylor Swift
Produced By: Mattman & Robin, Shellback & Max Martin
LYRICS
[Intro]
(Hey, hey, hey)
(Hey, hey, hey)
(Hey, hey, hey)
(Hey, hey, hey)
[Verse 1]
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
[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, could've been easy
All you had to do was (Stay)
[Post-Chorus]
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 pickin' 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, could've been easy
All you had to do was (Stay)
[Post-Chorus]
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 (Oh, oh, oh-oh-oh)
You ended it
You were all I wanted (Oh, oh, oh-oh-oh)
But not like this
Not like this, not like this
Oh, all you had to do was
[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, 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 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)
[Post-Chorus]
All you had to do was (Stay, oh)
All you had to do was (Stay)
All you had to do was (Stay, ooh)
All you had to do was (Stay)
This song was inspired by a weird dream that I had. It was one of those dreams where you have sort of social embarassment happen and you can’t stop it because you’re in a sleepstate. But basically, this dream was about, I was trying to talk to someone, a very important person to me at the time and all that would come out of my mouth instead of normal words was this very high-pitched saying “Stay.” No matter what I was trying to say, that was the only sound that would come out of my mouth. I woke up incredibly weirded out and decided that I was going to write it into a song. And I’d already been working on this one sound, so it ended up being the perfect kind of weird vocal part that really completed this song that I am so stocked about.
— Via Yahoo! Live.
In an interview with Ryan Adams, Swift explained that she came up with the high-pitched chorus of the song in a dream.
I had a dream that my ex showed up at my door, knocked on the door, and I opened it up and I was about ready to launch into, like, the perfect thing to say, and instead, all that would come out of my mouth was that high-pitched chorus of people singing “stay!”
