"Don't You Wanna Stay" is a song by American singers Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson. It was written by Andy Gibson, Paul Jenkins, and Jason Sellers. It was released On November 29 2010 as the second single from Aldean's fourth studio album My Kinda Party, following Aldean's and Clarkson's performance on the 44th annual Country Music Association Awards on November 10, 2010, due to strong demands of radio stations, and was also included on the deluxe edition of Clarkson's fifth studio album Stronger (2011). The song contains elements of country and pop, and its lyrics speak of the difficulties of finding and maintaining love.
"Don't You Wanna Stay" was met with generally favorable reviews by critics who considered the song as "a classic power ballad". Critics also lauded the interesting combination between Aldean's and Clarkson's voices. The song was a crossover hit, peaking at number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs and at number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also reached the top 40 in Canada. It became Aldean's fifth number one single and Clarkson's first number one single on the Billboard Hot Country Songs and was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Both Aldean and Clarkson performed the song on several occasions, notably on the tenth season of American Idol and at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. Footage from the Country Music Association award performance was used to comprise a music video for "Don't You Wanna Stay", directed by Paul Miller. The song was nominated for "Best Country Duo/Group Performance" at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards, but lost to "Barton Hollow" by The Civil Wars. "Don't You Wanna Stay" was covered by Colton Dixon and Skylar Laine in the eleventh season of American Idol and was performed by Justin Chain and Shelbie Z in the fifth season of The Voice.
Background and release "Don't You Wanna Stay" was written by Andy Gibson, Paul Jenkins and Jason Sellers. According to Sellers, they were at Jenkins' house when they started composing the song. He explained, "We just wanted to write a love song. We had an idea of what we were targeting. We didn’t write it as a duet. We wrote it, and Andy thought about recording it. After we got the song written, we played it for Jason. Jason Aldean's idea for it was to make it a duet." The song is the first duet that Aldean has recorded. In an interview with Nashville.com, Aldean revealed that the song was not originally presented to him as a duet. Nevertheless, he and producer Michael Knox thought the lyrics would work for two people if he could find a female artist as a duet partner. Aldean considered a number of female vocalists to record the song with, especially Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood. However, Clarkson remained as his first choice. He explained,
"We had the song pitched to us and originally it wasn’t a duet. The more I was listening to the thing and learning the song, I realized it set itself up to be a duet if we wanted to go that route. When I called my producer about it he asked who I wanted to sing it with me and I said Kelly Clarkson, but I didn’t think we’d be able to get her. I’ve always been a big fan of hers. I love her voice and I love her style. Long story short, we got her a copy of the song and she loved it. As soon as she started singing, it became obvious it was going to be great."
On November 10, 2010, "Don't You Wanna Stay" was performed live for the first time by Aldean with Clarkson on the 44th Country Music Association Awards. The performance triggered an overwhelming demand from radio stations across the country. As a result, Aldean’s label, Broken Bow Records, made the song available on PLAY MPE. Carson James, the label's Senior Vice President for Promotion responded, "If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my years in the record business, it is always give radio what they want [...] Our entire promotion staff has spent all night fielding calls and returning texts about getting this song, so we decided it best to release it on Play MPE first thing this morning." Myra Dehais of RED Company claimed that the song's rise at adult-radio stations was a result of the company's distribution, saying "This is a proud moment for RED distribution, [...] In crossing a country song over to the adult and pop formats, we can face resistance, since (some) stations have only a slot or two for country music, in order to maintain sonic balance. "Don't You Wanna Stay" was later included on the deluxe edition of Clarkson's fifth studio album, Stronger (2011).
Composition
"Don't You Wanna Stay" is a country pop song with a length of four minutes and sixteen seconds. It incorporates melancholic guitar riff which is accompanied by classical elements such as violin. Mikael Wood of Billboard described the song as "a dramatic, slow building power ballad in the style of Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart"", a view held similar by John Hill of About.com who considered the song as a "classic power ballad", writing "whether you want to call the song country, pop, or something in between doesn't matter because the chorus is so catchy that it doesn't matter if you use an electric guitar or a steel guitar." It is set in common time and has a steady tempo of 72 beats per minute. It is written in the key of G-sharp minor and both Aldean and Clarkson's vocals span two octaves, from A♯3 to G♯5. It follows the chord progression G♯m–E–B. Bob Peacock of Roughstock thought that the structure of the song was interesting with its brief four-line verses and "don't you wanna stay's throughout the chorus. As the chorus of the song starts in, the sound of electric and slide guitars are prominent as Aldean and Clarkson sing, "Don't you wanna hold each other tight / Don't you wanna fall asleep with me tonight?"
Lyrically, the song narrates the difficulties of finding and maintaining love. Cristin Maher of Taste of Country contended that the song exemplifies the desire some people have when they want to make the move from a physical relationship to an emotional relationship, which is represented by the song lyrics "Let’s take it slow, I don’t want to move too fast / I don’t wanna just make love, I wanna make love last." Gibson, one of the writers of the song, stated that the song does not contain a lot of flowery lyrics or sentiment. He added, "It’s just straight up what somebody would say to somebody they’d want to be with."
Critical reception The song has received generally positive reviews from music critics. Allison Stewart of The Washington Post called the song "great and gooey", saying that it sounded like "Bryan Adams teaming with Heart in 1984 for a contribution to some alternate universe Footloose soundtrack." Blake Boldt of Engine 145 gave the song a “thumbs-up”, calling it "a dramatic affair that demonstrates how pop and country can intersect with each other and offer decent results." He concluded his review with, "'Don't You Wanna Stay' would be a suitable fit for a Foreigner or Whitesnake album, and, though nowhere near a classic, it’s an instant entrant into the 'guilty pleasure' category." Reviewing the album for Billboard, Gary Graff described the song as being part of an "array of such bittersweet, emotionally ambivalent goodbye songs". Bobby Peacock of Roughstock gave the song three-and-a-half stars out of five and praised both Aldean and Clarkson's fine voices, "making for an interesting combination: Jason's rough, slightly nasal voice against Kelly's cleaner, forceful tone." In a different perspective, Kevin John Coyne of Country Universe gave the song a "C" grade, lambasting the song for its musical element, writing "the sheer volume of noise that invades the track with the first chorus takes us straight into Monster Ballads territory." He concluded his review by emphasizing that "this isn’t country music. It just isn’t."
Gary Trust of Billboard noted that the success of "Don't You Wanna Stay" as a crossover adult-radio hit was due to several reasons; Bob Neumann of WSJT, an adult contemporary radio station, posited that "country and adult stations share listeners [...] so audience may have already been familiar with the song based on its original life at country radio." Mike Mullaney of WBMX radio station opined that the song's own merits had propelled its crossover, saying
"Sure, it's a great country song. But, at its core, it's just a great song. It has a lot of the same qualities of Lady Antebellum's 'Need You Now': great lyrics and melody, while each of these singers has amazing emotional resonance in their voices [...] Aldean has a country delivery, but our audience likes country hits. Having Kelly on the track was a big help in initially getting our attention but, ultimately, the song is just a hit."
On March 5, 2013, Billboard ranked the song at number 40 in its list of Top 100 American Idol Hits of All Time. Additionally, it appeared at number 14 of Clarkson's Top 15 Biggest Billboard Hot 100 hits through the week ending April 29, 2017. On the other hand, Sterling Whitaker of The Boot put "Don't You Wanna Stay" at number six on his list of Top 10 Jason Aldean Songs. Laura McClellan of Taste of Country ranked the song at number three of Aldean's Top 10 songs, citing it as "the biggest reason the industry is beginning to recognize Aldean with award nominations." Chuck Dauphin of Billboard ranked the song atop his list of Jason Aldean's 10 Best Songs and described it as "a ballad that one doesn’t get tired of hearing – and that’s not something you see everyday." He also put the song at number 25 in his list of Top 50 Country Love Songs of All Time.
Awards and nomination At the 2011 CMT Music Awards, "Don't You Wanna Stay" was nominated for "Collaborative Video of the Year," but lost to Justin Bieber's "That Should Be Me" featuring Rascal Flatts (2010). "Don't You Wanna Stay" received nominations for two awards at the 45th Country Music Association Awards. The song received a nomination for the "Musical Event of the Year" and won the award; it was also nominated for the "Single of the Year" but lost to The Band Perry's "If I Die Young" (2010). At the 54th Grammy Awards, the song received a nomination for "Best Country Duo/Group Performance" but lost to The Civil Wars' "Barton Hollow" (2011). "Don't You Wanna Stay" won two awards of "Single by a Vocal Collaboration" and "Music Video by a Duo/Group/Collaboration" at the 2011 American Country Awards. The song won the awards of "Single of the Year" and "Vocal Event of the Year" at the 47th Academy of Country Music.
Commercial performance Following the album release of My Kinda Party, "Don't You Wanna Stay" debuted at number 59 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs as well as at number 93 on the Billboard Hot 100 on the week ending November 20, 2010. On its second week on Billboard Hot 100, the song jumped to number 56 after the singers' performance at the Country Music Association awards. The song reached a new peak of number 31 in its 24th week on the chart after Aldean and Clarkson performed the song on American Idol, selling 59,000 paid downloads that week according to Nielsen SoundScan. "Don't You Wanna Stay" also debuted at number 17 and number 39 on Adult Contemporary and Adult Pop Songs charts respectively. In July 2011, the song leapt into the top ten positions of Adult Contemporary (11-8) and Adult Pop Songs (11-9). The ascent prompted the song to re-enter the Billboard Hot 100 at number 48 in its 27th week on the chart.