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 number-one hit of the 1980s on the Billboard Hot 100.[3] It was also an international chart hit—it 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] The song also charted in Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the United Kingdom, and West Germany.
Italian Eurodance group Double You released a cover version of "Please Don't Go" in 1992. Produced by Roberto Zanetti, the song earned multiple gold and platinum status and became a hit in Europe. The record was also moderately successful in North America and in the UK. 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 number 40 and the Pepsi Chart at number 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.[52] 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'."[53] The similarity between the versions resulted in Network paying compensation to Roberto Zanetti, Double You's producer, following three years of legal action.[54]
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.[53] 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."[53]
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.[53] They performed it five times on the show, one week upsetting Elton John by using Dressing Room 1, relegating John to Dressing Room 2.[55]
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."[62]Larry Flick from Billboard magazine 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."[63] 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."[64]
In 2017, BuzzFeed ranked the song number 52 in their list of "The 101 Greatest Dance Songs of the '90s".[65] In 2025, Classic Pop magazine ranked it number 18 in their list of "Top 20 No.1s that owed a debt to the 80s".[66]
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."[67] 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."[67]
The song was originally planned to be released in the United Kingdom as the second single from Now You're Gone – The Album[95] on June 23, 2008.[citation needed] However, the release was cancelled due to technical difficulties and "All I Ever Wanted" took its place[96] 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]
1 2 Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1sted.). Helsinki: Tammi. ISBN978-951-1-21053-5.
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