Please Mr Please by Olivia Newton John

Please Mr. Please

1975

Olivia Newton John

I'm one of those rebel fans who doesn't consider 'I Honestly Love You' his favorite ONJ tune. I Honestly Love You is a beautiful and soulful ballad, and it aims right at your soul...but then again, all of Liv's music is classically awesome, IMHO. However, if I consider 'I Honestly Love You' a, say, 9.8, this one's the '10'. It's just...well...fun!

All of us have been there...you're absolutely in love with the absolute perfect gal/guy, and there's a song that you consider 'your' song...then you break up and every time you turn on a radio/start you car/walk into a bar or club you hear that song. The very song that you never ever want to hear again.

Liv took that concept and ran with it when she covered this one (Yep...'Please Mr. Please' is a cover!) And when she covered it she scored her fifth consecutive Billboard Hot 100 hit (#3), fifth consecutive Gold (Or better) selling hit, and forth cross-over hit scoring on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Country charts. (#5 on the Country charts). This would be her last Top 10 hit for three years, until she hit it big on the Big Screen in 'Grease'

Long held rumor has it Liv actually inspired the song she'd end up covering. 'Please Mr Please' was penned by John Rostill and Liv's former fiancee' Bruce Welch, for Bruce Welch...right after the two of them broke up. Think he may have been thinkin' about someone specific when he wrote it???

Welch recorded it...and went nowhere with it. Really, has anyone ever even heard the Bruce Welch version? Anyone? Anyone? Thought not! (Unfortunate, actually, because his version really is good!)

So they handed it of to Liv and she recorded it and MCA released it hot on the heels of 'Have You Never Been Mellow' hitting #1. This one was about as pure country as you can get! Listen to it, and just try to find any 'Pop' artifact at all. It's a country song! And ya know what?

We didn't care. Liv's sweet mellow voice was soulfully pleading 'Please Mr, Pleasssse....Don't Play BEEE-EEEEE-Seventeeen...' on radios tuned to the Mega-Top 40 stations of the era all summer long, cracking the top ten and peaking at #3 in August of '75 (And beating it's Country chart position by 2 points while it was at it). Young ladies would sing along to the chorus in bikini-clad groups poolside, sometimes singing it in pretty decent sounding harmony, and you could just about bet you'd hear it at least once an hour on Richmond's 'Q-94'. 'Please Mr Please' would hang around the top 40 for a total of 12 weeks...and in the hearts and minds of Liv's fans for 38 years. From what I've heard it's still a Jukebox favorite in some country bars.

Wish it'd show up on the Oldies stations more often, because you almost never hear it anymore. Be kinda nice to hear that twangy instrumental opening and know Liv was getting ready to tell us about that Jukebox, and the song that's weighing heavy on her mind.

So Enjoy! Please Mr Please, by Olivia Newton John. And you absolutely know you sang along with this one!

Da first Bonus...A live performance from 1982. Liv ownin' it live! (Just wish the audio didn't cut it short by a couple of seconds at the end!)

Da third Bonus! Liv singing Please Mr Please live in Sept 2012...accompanied by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. She only sang the first verse here, but she still rocked it!

And on this one, a fourth bonus! The Bruce Welch version of 'Please Mr Please'