Originally written in the key of D flat, the song was the band's first sentimental ballad. In the song, the subject pleads for a second chance. Shortly after the song's one-week run at number one, the group broke up and Harry Wayne Casey began a solo career.
The song was part of a double-sided single; the flip slide "I Betcha Didn't Know That" was released to R&B stations and reached number 25 on the R&B chart.[2]
Chart performance
The song was the first No. 1 hit of the 1980s on the Billboard Hot 100.[3] It was also an international chart hit, reaching No. 1 in Australia and Canada and charting in Belgium (No. 8), West Germany (No. 20), Ireland (No. 5), the Netherlands (No. 7), New Zealand (No. 3), Norway (No. 4) and the UK (No. 3).
The song was a number-one hit on the Australian ARIA Charts, the band's sixth and final number-one hit in Canada on the RPM national chart as well as their fifth and final number-one hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.[3]
Italian Eurodance group Double You recorded a cover version of "Please Don't Go" in 1992. Produced by Roberto Zanetti, the song was released in January, earning multiple gold and platinum status and becoming a hit in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia. The record was also moderately successful in North America (top ten maxi sales), Israel (#12) and in the UK (#2 on the Cool Cuts Chart).
Double You's version of "Please Don't Go" was later adopted as closing theme by Gianni Boncompagni for his TV Show Non è la RAI in 1992.
In 2005, Double You released "Please Don't Go 2005" on Triple B Records in collaboration with artist Don Cartel. The single hit the Dutch Mega Top 100 chart at No. 40 and the Pepsi Chart at No. 38.
A sound-alike cover of Double You's arrangement was released as the debut single by the British group KWS and hit number one on the UK Singles Chart for five weeks in May 1992 and reached number six on the US Billboard Hot 100 in October that year.[51] In Germany, the song reached No. 7 but disappeared out of the German Singles Chart the following week due to legal issues with Double You, who covered the song before. Due to this fall, "Please Don't Go" is the song with the highest position that dropped out of the country's singles chart the following week.[citation needed]
It was recorded and released after record company Network Records failed to secure UK distribution rights for the Double You version. KWS band member Chris King heard the Double You version in a club in early 1992, and, bringing together the other KWS members to form the band, decided to cover it "like the Love Affair covered Robert Knight's 'Everlasting Love' or David Parton covered Stevie Wonder's 'Isn't She Lovely'."[52] The similarity between the versions resulted in Network paying compensation to Roberto Zanetti, Double You's producer, following three years of legal action.[53]
The KWS version was dedicated in honour of Nottingham Forest (European football) defender Des Walker, who was on the verge of signing for Italian team Sampdoria.[52] It was also a double A-side with "Game Boy"; King recalled: "We wanted something new and Game Boy was my son's favourite games console at the time. There were various mixes on the 12-inch single with silly names like "Afternoon of the Rhino", which had been the title of a northern soul single by Mike Post."[52]
Release
The single was featured in a news story by a local TV station in Nottingham, the UK. BBC Radio 1 soon made it "Record of the Week" and it climbed from number 30 in the UK Singles Chart to number nine and then in its third week to number one, which is when the group first performed it on Top of the Pops.[52] They performed it five times on the show, one week upsetting Elton John by using Dressing Room 1, relegating John to Dressing Room 2.[54]
Joseph McCombs of AllMusic was mixed in his retrospective assessment of the KWS cover, writing that: "The bright vocals, synth bleeps, and predictable house groove that drove 'Please Don't Go' to the top of the charts wear thin quickly."[61]Larry Flick from Billboard described the song as a "house-induced cover" and noted further that the beats "are hard enough to fill dancefloors, but are brightened by radio-friendly vocals and slick synths."[62] Amy Linden from Entertainment Weekly gave it a B−, adding that the song "is loaded with Hi-NRG beats, shake-your-groove-thing vibes, and a couple of originals straight out of Saturday Night Fever. All you need are the disco ball and a white suit."[63]
In 2017, BuzzFeed listed the song at number 52 in their list of "The 101 Greatest Dance Songs Of the '90s".[64]
Tom Ewing of Freaky Trigger wrote in his 3/10 review of the cover: "It's hard to muster much love for 'Please Don’t Go' – a barely adequate trot through a good song" and "It's a good example, though, of one of the nineties least-regarded, most revival-immune style, the generic dance cover version. [...] 'Please Don’t Go' isn't quite as deathly as the king of the dance cover version, Undercover's formica take on 'Baker Street', but it’s never memorable. That this nullity got five weeks at the top [of the UK charts] says more about the immobile singles chart than any double-digit run."[65] Ewing considers "Game Boy", the other song in the double A-side release, to be as close as the UK Singles Chart came to a hardcore number one, but nonetheless concedes that: "As 'ardkore goes, it's poor, a collection of five years of weary dance tropes in search of even one good hook – Beltram-style hoover noises, house piano, cut-up vocal samples, a dubby bassline, none of them sticking around long enough to make an impact."[65]
The song was originally planned to be released in the United Kingdom as the second single from Now You're Gone – The Album[90] on June 23, 2008.[citation needed] However, the release was cancelled due to technical difficulties and "All I Ever Wanted" took its place[91] on June 30. It had much more success than originally thought as the single reached number 2 in the UK charts.[citation needed] However, despite rumours that this would be the third single in the United Kingdom, "Angel in the Night" was released instead and was premiered on BBC Radio 1 on August 22, 2008, during Scott Mills's "Friday Floor Fillers".[citation needed]
^ abPennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Tammi. ISBN978-951-1-21053-5.
^"1992 Year-End Sales Charts"(PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 9, no. 51/52. December 19, 1992. p. 17. OCLC29800226. Retrieved September 17, 2021 – via American Radio History.
