When was stay another day by east 17 released

For me, it's an incredibly sad song. And I was like 'You ain't releasing that'. Earlier this month, Mortimer opened up about his brother's death and said he had 'no control' over the song once he had recorded it. Speaking on This Morning, the year-old said: "It was a very delicate album track that was never to be released, ever, but people liked it and I said: 'No, you can't release that because it's kind of a personal one'. He went on: "My brother committed suicide a couple of years before and I used that as the muse to write a song about loss.

For me, it was so surreal - of all the songs on the album you chose that one! Earlier this month, Mortimer re-recorded the hit with the Walthamstow Forest Youth Choir to raise awareness for mental health charity Calm.

He said: "Everyone remembers Stay Another Day as a Christmas record, but underneath the white parkas and fake snow is a song about male mental health and a story about my brother who took his own life.

When people are leaving, you always wish you had one more day with them, and that's where the title came from. Mortimer was helped in writing the song by his co-manager Rob Kean and songwriter Dominic Hawken, who had once been Boy George's keyboard player. Despite not being about Christmas, it is usually considered a festive classic. Christmas bells were added towards the end of the song, in order to appeal to the lucrative Christmas singles market.

The song was released in late November, and ended up becoming that year's Christmas number one. Its music video is also very festive, as it sees the boys wearing white furry parkas while it snows in the background. Mortimer later said: "It wasn't meant to be a Christmas single.

I thought they were all mad. The year before, rival boyband Take That just missed out on the Christmas number one after being beaten by Mr Blobby of all things. It spent five weeks at number one in the UK, and was 's third bestseller. It has sold just under a million copies. Girls Aloud recorded a cover version as the B-side to their debut single 'Sound of the Underground' in , which was that year's Christmas number one.

Tony Mortimer later said he was surprised to hear that Girls Aloud had turned it into a love song: "I found it really odd they were singing a song about my dead brother. It should've been left alone for a few years,". See more More Stories of Tina Turner.