Stay This Way

[Intro | solo piano | waltz 3/4 | first-beat emphasis | 80 BPM] [Verse 1] I know the silver in your hair, The wedding ring that changed in size. You set the table, same worn chair, And still you catch me with your eyes. [Chorus] Stay this way, don't change a thing, Let the seasons come and go. I'll take your hand through every spring, It's you I chose, it's you, you know. [Verse 2 | ribbon mic warmth] Your morning hum has slowed just so Our photograph has turned to gold. But when you laugh the porch light shows The girl I loved before we're old. [Chorus | orchestral swell | analog tape compression] Stay this way, don't change a thing, Let the seasons come and go. I'll take your hand through every spring, It's you I chose, it's you, you know. [Bridge | rubato] No promise ever kept the tide from turning gray, No mirror ever stopped a single day. But I don't need you frozen at eighteen, I love you moving through the in-between. [Final Chorus | orchestral swell] Stay this way, don't change a thing, Let the porch light burn 'til dawn. I'll take your hand through every spring, Long after our youth is gone. Stay this way, stay this way. I chose you then, I choose you now.