25 years since Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories topped the pop chart with ‘Stay’

Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories topped the Billboard pop chart 25 years ago Monday with “Stay (I Missed You.)” The song made Loeb the first artist to reach No. 1 without being signed to any label.

At the time, Loeb was trying to make it as a musician in New York. Her break came when her friend Ethan Hawke showed the song to Ben Stiller, who used it in his movie “Reality Bites.”

Loeb has put out other music since then, but has said that “Stay” is the song people always want to hear. As she told Wondering Sound several years ago, “I have a song that enables me to travel around the world, so I appreciate it.”

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