"Stay Beautiful" was released by the Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers on July 29, 1991 and was the first single to be released from the debut album Generation Terrorists.
All formats included "R.P. McMurphy" with CD and 12" adding "Soul Contamination". The title of "R.P. McMurphy" is based on the protagonist of Ken Kesey's 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (which was subsequently made into a film). The single only just crept into the UK charts, reaching number forty on August 10, 1991. It was re-issued six years later but failed again to make the top 40, reaching number 52 on September 13, 1997.
The title track was previously entitled Generation Terrorists and originally featured the lyrics "Why don't you just fuck off" in the chorus, which was cut to just "Why don't you just..." (gap) in this version. It has since become the fans' base custom to shout the original lyric out loud when the band still occasionally perform the song live.
The video contains Richey's right eye being splashed with paint, and a somewhat amusing space octopus at the end; references to themes and events in Alan Moore's Watchmen.
The title of 'Stay Beautiful' was used by Renault for a television advertisement for a car and there is also a bar/club night in London named "Stay Beautiful" in reference to the song. During his solo tour, Manic's bassist Nicky Wire performed there.
Famous quotes containing the words stay, beautiful, street and/or preachers:
“In this troublesome world, we are never quite satisfied. When you were here, I thought you hindered me some in attending to business; but now, having nothing but business—no variety—it has grown exceedingly tasteless to me. I hate to sit down and direct documents, and I hate to stay in this old room by myself.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever painted. Not because you’re beautiful but because I’m in love with you. Hopelessly in love with you.”
—Muriel Box (b. 1905)
“If I should go out of church whenever I hear a false statement I could never stay there five minutes. But why come out? The street is as false as the church, and when I get to my house, or to my manners, or to my speech, I have not got away from the lie.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It is an evil world. The fires of hatred and violence burn fiercely. Evil is powerful, the devil covers a darkened earth with his black wings. And soon the end of the world is expected. But mankind does not repent, the church struggles, and the preachers and poets warn and lament in vain.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)