"Please Don't Let Me Go" is a song by British singer

Olly Murs Oliver Stanley Murs (born 14 May 1984) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence after participating on the sixth series of the television talent show ''The X Factor'' in 2009, where he finished as runn ...

. Written by Murs,

Claude Kelly Claude Kelly (born December 27, 1980)Shirley Halperin and Bob Love"THR Names Music's 35 Top Hitmakers,"''The Hollywood Reporter'', February 6, 2013. is an American record producer, songwriter, and singer. A four-time Grammy Award nominee, and h ...

and

Steve Robson Steve Robson (born 1969) is an English songwriter and record producer who has sold in excess of 138 million records around the world. He has written and produced 12 No. 1 UK/US singles, 38 No. 1 UK/US albums and a further 41 top 5 UK/US albums ...

, the song served as the

lead single A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. A similar term, "debut ...

from the ''

X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for '' Pop Idol'' (2001–200 ...

'' runner-up's eponymous debut album and it was his debut single. The song was released as a digital download in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

on 29 August 2010, where it debuted at number-one on the singles chart; also peaking at number five in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. The song was nominated at the

2011 BRIT Awards Brit Awards 2011 was the 31st edition of the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music show, the Brit Awards. The awards ceremony was held on Tuesday 15 February 2011 at The O2 Arena in London for the first time in its history, moving f ...

for Best British Single, but lost out to

Tinie Tempah Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu (born 7 November 1988), better known by his stage name Tinie (formerly Tinie Tempah), is a British rapper and singer. He has been signed to Parlophone since 2009, now a subsidiary of Warner Music Group. He created his ...

for his song " Pass Out".

Background

In 2009, Murs was runner-up in the sixth series of singing competition ''

The X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for '' Pop Idol'' (2001–200 ...

'', following which he was offered a joint record deal with

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...

and

Syco Music Syco Music, originally S Records, was a division of Syco Entertainment which operated from 2002 until 2020. The label was founded by British entrepreneur, record executive and media personality Simon Cowell, who was formerly employed at Bertels ...

in February 2010. Work then began on his debut album and, inspired by a demo scouted out by his A&R team of a reggae-influenced pop song called "Feel Free" by an unknown writer from Australia (this was actually nearly the title of Murs' debut album), it was decided to make Murs' material for the first album of a ska/reggae influence throughout. "Please Don't Let Me Go" was written by Murs along with

and

in one of the first writing sessions for the album. They have continued to work with Murs on all his following albums since. The pop song is about a minor relationship Murs was in where he ended up feeling something for the other person. Murs commented: "Sadly she kept giving me the impression that she didn't like me as much, and ultimately it didn't work out, so that's where the idea of me singing 'Please Don't Let Me Go' came from." Murs said he was excited to be releasing the single, stating that it was important to him that it was an original song, and that he wanted it to be different from his performances on ''The X Factor''. The song premiered on Capital FM on 2 July 2010.

Music video

The music video for "Please Don't Let Me Go" premiered on 23 July 2010. It was filmed on location at a house near

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, England, and the county town of Berkshire. It is the United Kingdom's largest town, with a combined population of 355,596. Most of Reading built-up area, its built-up area lies within the Borough ...

. The video shows Murs pursuing a young girl who is playing hard-to-get at a large party. When he starts to lose hope, she then pursues him and the video culminates with both of them dancing into the night. The woman playing the female subject of the song was chosen personally by Murs. The owner of the house also appeared as an extra in the video. As Murs was well known for his dancing on ''The X Factor'', he wanted a video in which he did not dance, to make it more about the song.

Critical reception

Nick Levine from

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its initial launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television pro ...

described "Please Don't Let Me Go" as "a lovely summery

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

-tinged pop tune that bobs along in a thoroughly hummable and not un-

Will Young William Robert Young (born 20 January 1979) is an English singer, songwriter and actor. He came to prominence after winning the 2002 inaugural series of the ITV talent contest '' Pop Idol'', making him the first winner of the worldwide '' Ido ...

-like fashion" and said that the music video "is just as quintessentially ''pleasant''". A reviewer for children's news programme ''

Newsround ''Newsround'' (stylised as ''newsround'') is a BBC children's news programme, which has run continuously since 4 April 1972. Originally ''John Craven's Newsround'', it was one of the world's first television news magazines aimed specifically ...

'' rated the song four out of five, stating: "The song is funky, catchy and easy to sing along to. It's quite a mellow, summery sound."

Promotion

Murs promoted the single with live performances on a number of TV shows in the run up to the single's release, including ''

GMTV GMTV (an initialism for Good Morning Television), now legally known as ''ITV Breakfast, ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited'', was the name of the national ITV (TV network), ITV breakfast television contractor/licensee, broadcasting in the Uni ...

'', '' The Michael Ball Show'', '' This Morning'', '' Stephen Mulhern's Magic Numbers'', '' Suck My Pop'' and ''

Live from Studio Five ''Live from Studio Five'' was an early-evening British magazine programme produced by Sky News for Channel 5. It was presented by Kate Walsh and a lineup of co-presenters. It featured interviews and discussions on topical issues, emphasizing sh ...

''. Later performances of the single came during promotion of the ''

'' album in the winter of 2010, at T4 Stars of 2010 and that year's Christmas Day edition of

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its histo ...

. It was also infamously, in an interview with ''Heat'' magazine during promotion for the single, that Murs declared he would strip naked in a photoshoot for them if the single were to reach number one, despite his belief that it would not, as it was being released the same week as

Katy Perry Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. She is one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists in hist ...

's song '' Teenage Dream''. After the single debuted at number one, he then went on to fulfill his promise for the magazine, appearing naked in the 14 September 2010 issue, with a trilby hat covering his modesty.

Track listing

Chart performance

The single made its chart debut on 3 September, where it debuted at number five on the Irish chart. On 5 September, the single debuted at number-one on the UK chart, having sold 93,239 copies. The single spent only one week at the top of the singles chart, having been dethroned by fellow ''X Factor'' contestant

Alexandra Burke Alexandra Imelda Cecelia Ewen Burke (born 25 August 1988) is an English singer, songwriter and actress. She won the fifth series of the talent television show ''The X Factor'' in 2008. Following the show, she was signed to Syco Music and releas ...

and her single " Start Without You". Both songs kept " Teenage Dream" by

off the top. "Please Don't Let Me Go" spent three weeks within the top 10 and nine weeks within the top 40. Following the release of Murs' second single "

Thinking of Me "Thinking of Me" is a song by British singer Olly Murs, taken from his debut studio album, ''Olly Murs (album), Olly Murs''. It is written by Murs, Wayne Hector and Steve Robson, and was released as Murs's second single on 19 November 2010. Mur ...

", the single re-entered the top 40 at number thirty-nine; bringing its total weeks spent within the top 40 to ten. Due to downloads, the single's B-side "This One's for the Girls" charted for one week at number 69.Official Charts – "This One's for the Girls"
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Personnel

* Lead vocals –

* Writer – Olly Murs,

* Producer – Future Cut, Steve Robson * Mixer –

Steve Fitzmaurice Stephen Fitzmaurice is an Irish mixer and producer based in London, England. His credits include albums for Depeche Mode, Seal, Sam Smith, Ian Brown, Kylie Minogue, Mónica Naranjo, Sting, Paloma Faith, Olly Murs, The Kooks, Alicia Keys, U2, ...

* Mix Assistant - Darren Heelis

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Olly Murs 2010 songs 2010 debut singles Olly Murs songs UK singles chart number-one singles Songs written by Claude Kelly Songs written by Olly Murs Songs written by Steve Robson Song recordings produced by Steve Robson Syco Music singles