East 17’s Stay Another Day could be set to regain its Christmas Number 1 title after 26 years.
The classic hit famously beat Mariah Carey’s festive classic All I Want For Christmas Is You to the top of the charts back in 1994 – and a new version of the track is hoping to replicate the success.
Super-group Boyz On Block, featuring Another Level’s Dane Bowers, Boyzone’s Shane Lynch, 5ive’s Abz Love and Phats and Small’s Ben Ofoedu, have recorded their own rendition of the tune, which is released November 20th.
The foursome even got the seal of approval from the East 17 star Tony Mortimer, who features on the record on piano, and gushed of the new recording: “I love it. I think it’s a brilliant version.
“I didn’t think Stay would be a single let alone achieve what it did and still have people into it 26 years later. It’s very humbling,” he told The Sun. “I’m a huge fan of all the boys individually and I was really excited to hear their version collectively.
“I was honoured I could play the piano on it and Abz’s lead vocal has just blown me away.”
Tony, who won an Ivor Novello songwriting award for the track, wrote it about his brother Ollie’s suicide as well as the final 24 hours of a friend’s father’s life.
The band also tapped local church gospel choir The Tabs from Lewisham, south-east London for the recording and recreated the famous East 17 all-white outfits from the iconic music video.
However, Dane insisted the group put their own spin on the tune, adding: “We deliberately didn’t want to get all dressed up. We didn’t want to do the fake snow. We wanted to make it as casual as we could.
“I think the way it’s been recorded is different, you can tell that it’s a newer version. For me, I think Abz’s verse is pretty much how the verse should have been sung. He kills it.”
And while Tony’s a massive fan, Ben revealed they’ve yet to get the blessing of approval from the rest of the group, sharing: “The rest of the East 17 boys don’t know we’ve done it!”
Pre-order Stay Another Day here.
