Songoftheday 6/24/18 - Babe I love you so I want you to know, that I'm going to miss your love the minute you walk out that door...

"Please Don't Go" - KWS
from the album KWS (Please Don't Go) (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #6 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 16

Today's song of the day comes from the British dance music trio K.W.S., whose moniker comes from the names of its members, Chris King, Winston Williams, and lead singer Delroy St. Joseph. King brought them together to produce a single remake of a song that hit #1 in the U.S. back in 1979. "Please Don't Go", written by Harry Wayne "KC" Casey and Richard Finch, was the last big hit for disco giants KC & The Sunshine Band, and one of the very rare cases of a full-on "ballad" in that genre (as opposed to a ballad that breaks into a floorfiller, like Donna Summer's "Dim All The Lights"), as it became the first #1 hit of the 1980s in Billboard magazine...

In the beginning of 1992, Italohouse act Double You? released an uptempo version of the song in Europe which became an international smash, topping the charts in Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands, and even reached the Dance Club Play chart in America at #25, but was having issues with getting released in the UK...

Taking advantage of that, King, Williams, and St. Joseph recreated the production of the Double You? track, with the latter's vocals sounding quite like Rick Astley's giving it an edge in familiarity, and British, and then American success resulted, as well as a lawsuit, which ended up in KWS paying off the Double You producers...

"Please Don't Go" became KWS' first and only pop hit in the U.S., reaching the top ten in October of 1992 and spending a half of a year on the Hot 100 chart. Internationally, the record became a huge success in the UK, topping their singles chart for five weeks, as well as making the top ten in Australia (#2), Finland (#2), Greece (#2), Ireland (#3), Germany (#7), Sweden (#8), and New Zealand (#9) (in Canada it stalled down at #27 for a week).

The trio's next single was another remake, this time of the proto-disco classic "Rock Your Baby" (a record that Casey and Finch also wrote, but didn't perform). While the single, with a similar production to "Please Don't Go", climbed all the way to #8 in England and #6 in Ireland, it blanked in the U.S. A third release from their debut (and only) album was a cover of the Trammps' "Hold Back The Night" featuring the older group, which hit #30 in the UK and #20 in Ireland. Even though St. Joseph departed, they continued to try their hand releasing more remakes, with a take on Rufus & Chaka Khan's "Ain't Nobody", featuring Gwen Dickey from Rose Royce, returning them to the British top-40 in 1994 at #21. That was followed by "The More I Get, The More I Want" with Teddy Pendergrass, so far their last UK top-40 hit, before calling it quits in 1994.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


A different video was made for the British/Irish release, placing the trio in a club setting...

And making a triumphant appearance on Top Of The Pops at it topped the charts there in 1992...

and since it was such a massive success, KWS made a second live (well live to track) appearance on TOTP...

Up tomorrow: Mr. Houston tries to convince you he's faithful.