Maurice Williams, who wrote and performed the shortest #1 hit in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 with the 1960 doo-wop classic “Stay,” has died. Ron Henderson, Williams’ former bandmate in the the Zodiacs, confirmed to the New York Times that Williams died on Aug. 6 in the hospital in Charlotte. He was 86.

Williams is best known for “Stay,” which soared to the top of the charts for his own group Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs in 1960 then became a standard performed by artists such as the Four Seasons, the Hollies, Jackson Browne, Cyndi Lauper, and Rufus And Chaka Khan. The original Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs version made a high-profile appearance in the 1987 blockbuster Dirty Dancing, cementing it in the memories of a new generation.

In a 2018 video interview, he explained the song’s origin: “This young lady I was going with, she was over to my house, and this particular night, her brother was supposed to pick her up at 10. So he came, and I said, ‘Well, you can stay a little longer.’ And she said, ‘No, I gotta go.'” Their exchange inspired lyrics such as the refrain, “Oh, won’t you stay, just a little bit longer.” Ironically, at just over 90 seconds, the song did not stick around for long.

Williams was born in 1938 in Lancaster, SC. After getting his start singing in church, he formed a group called the Royal Charms with his high school classmate Earl Gainey at the encouragement of their glee club director. Williams soon began writing his own songs, and at age 16, he took the group to Nashville and landed a record deal with Excello Records. Renamed the Gladiolas at the request of their label head, they scored a hit with “Little Darlin’,” which was soon eclipsed by a cover from Canadian group the Diamonds that later appeared in American Graffiti.

Another name change to the Excellos followed. The group eventually signed to Herald Records and again changed their name to the Zodiacs, which they took from a Ford Zodiac they’d seen in a showroom. Williams presented the label with “Stay,” a song he’d had in his pocket for a while. Label owner Al Silver loved the song but requested that the Zodiacs change the the lyric about having “another smoke” to “another dance” to increase the song’s commercial prospects. The Zodiacs returned to the charts with 1961 hits “I Remember” and “Come Along,” but “Stay” has been their enduring legacy for six decades and counting.