Come Back to Stay

"Come Back to Stay" was the Irish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1966, performed in English by Dickie Rock. The song was written by a 22-year old panel beater from Dublin named Rowland Soper. It was "his first serious attempt at song writing" and according to Rowland, "took him 10 minutes to write."[1] 1966 would be the second year Dickie competed in the Irish National Song Contest and he would compete two more times, but did not make it to the Eurovision again [2]

"Come Back to Stay"
Eurovision Song Contest 1966 entry
Country	Ireland
Artist(s)	Dickie Rock
Language	English
Composer(s)	Rowland Soper
Lyricist(s)	Rowland Soper
Conductor	Noel Kelehan
Finals performance
Final result	4th
Final points	14
Entry chronology
◄ "Walking the Streets in the Rain" (1965)
"If I Could Choose" (1967) ►

The song is a ballad, with Rock pleading with a former lover to return to him. He tells her that he is lonely without her and promises that "[he]'ll be true / and that [he]'ll never make [her] blue", as well as telling her how special she was to him.

This entry was the first ever Eurovision song to be conducted by Noel Kelehan. 28 more would follow, the last one being "Is Always Over Now?" by Dawn Martin in 1998. Because on its debut in 1965 RTÉ had not sent its own conductor to the Eurovision Song Contest, Kelehan was to become both the first and the last Irish conductor in the Eurovision Song Contest. The Birmingham contest in 1998 was the last to date to be accompanied by a live orchestra.

It was performed seventeenth on the night, following the Netherlands' Milly Scott with "Fernando en Filippo" and preceding the United Kingdom's Kenneth McKellar with "A Man Without Love". At the close of voting, it had received 14 points, and tied for 4th place in a field of 18 countries.

It was succeeded as Irish representative at the 1967 contest by Sean Dunphy with "If I Could Choose".

The song is noted for its similarities to "Unchained Melody".