"Please Mr. Please" is the title of a popular song from 1975 (see 1975 in music

1975 in music

-January–April:*January 2 - New York City U.S. District Court Judge Richard Owen rules that former Beatle John Lennon and his lawyers can have access to Department of Immigration files pertaining to his deportation case....

) by the Australian

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 singer Olivia Newton-John

Olivia Newton-John

Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...

. The song was written by Bruce Welch

Bruce Welch

Bruce Welch OBE, is an English guitarist, songwriter, producer and singer, best known as a member of The Shadows.-Biography:...

 and John Rostill

John Rostill

John Henry Rostill was an English bassist and composer, recruited by The Shadows to replace Brian Locking.-Biography:...

, both members of British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 pop singer Cliff Richard

Cliff Richard

Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....

's backing band, The Shadows

The Shadows

The Shadows are a British pop group with a total of 69 UK hit-charted singles: 35 as 'The Shadows' and 34 as 'Cliff Richard and the Shadows', from the 1950s to the 2000s. Cliff Richard in casual conversation with the British rock press frequently refers to the Shadows by their nickname: 'The Shads'...

. Welch had originally recorded the song himself in 1974 with no success. The song appears on Newton-John's album, Have You Never Been Mellow

Have You Never Been Mellow

Have You Never Been Mellow was an album by Olivia Newton-John, released in 1975.-Reception:Both the title single and the album rose to the top of their respective U.S. charts . The title song and its follow-up, "Please Mr...

.

Released as a single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 in 1975, "Please Mr. Please" reached the Top 10 on three major Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

charts in the U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 that year. On the pop chart

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

, the song peaked at #3 in August 1975, remaining in the Top 40 for 12 weeks: Newton-John's fifth consecutive Top Ten hit, "Please Mr. Please" would also mark Newton-John's last appearance in the Top Ten for a three year period. On the country chart

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

, the song reached #5, while on the adult contemporary chart

Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks

The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...

, the song spent three weeks at #1. The single was a certified Gold record by the RIAA.

"Please Mr. Please" has been rendered in Czech as "Nechci Už Víc" recorded by Helena Blehárová and in Finnish as "Viistoista Siis" recorded by Taiska

Taiska

Taiska or Hannele Kauppinen, née Suominen is a Finnish singer of popular music. She is mostly known for her evergreen hit "Mombasa" . Following the death of both her mothers in 1969 Taiska went into a spiral of deep depression which lead to her newest hit, "I miss my moms"...

.

Song story

The song begins as an apparent tribute to the jukebox and how one can listen to a lot of great music for a small price. But instead of continuing along those lines, the song picks up on how some songs on the jukebox can trigger bad memories. This happens when the protagonist — at a tavern with friends, trying to get over a just-broken relationship — sees another customer at the jukebox, trying to play "B-17," which is coded to a song the woman does not want to hear.

The song, she cries, was one of the now-broken relationship. The song now triggers such bad memories to the point that she never wants to hear the song again. The refrain sees the woman begging the "button-pushin' cowboy" not to play the undesirable song.

Chart performance

Chart (1975)	Peak position
Australian Kent Music Report	35
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	1
Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary Tracks	1
Canadian RPM Top Singles	1
Recording Industry Association of New Zealand	7
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles	5
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	3