Songfacts®:

• This tender acoustic ditty is written from the perspective of someone in desperate need of some good luck as "Lord knows, it would be the first time" that they had any!
• This has been covered by an eclectic range of artists including The Dream Academy, Muse, Amanda Palmer, Franz Ferdinand, Hootie & the Blowfish, OK Go and Deftones.
• In 2011, Slow Moving Millie's cover of this song featured in a Christmas commercial for the British department store, John Lewis. The Smiths' decision to allow their song to be used in an advertisement sparked controversy among many fans, though front man, Morrissey said he was "very happy" with the result. Guitarist, Johnny Marr, added: "Writing 'Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want' one Friday in '84 is one of the best memories of my life. This ad has not sullied that memory one bit."
• This features in the films Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Never Been Kissed and (500) Days of Summer.
• This was the B-side to "William, It Was Really Nothing," and later featured on the 1984 compilation album, Hatful of Hollow. In 1987, Morrissey told Melody Maker that he regretted not releasing it as a single in its own right: "Hiding it away on a B-side was sinful. I feel sad about it now although we did include it on Hatful Of Hollow by way of semi-repentance. When we first played it to Rough Trade, they kept asking, 'Where's the rest of the song?' But to me, it's like a very brief punch in the face. Lengthening the song would, to my mind, have simply been explaining the blindingly obvious."
• Morrissey was not impressed when the song was used without his permission to advertise Gordon Ramsay's TV program Christmas Cookalong Live. The devout animal activist and vegetarian settled his dispute with the UK commercial TV network Channel 4 and donated the $14,800 he received to fund an organization that campaigns against foie gras and its distributors.
• It was Johnny Marr's turn to be outraged when he got wind that "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want" was used at a Donald Trump South Dakota Republican rally in 2023. "I never in a million years would've thought this could come to pass," he tweeted. "Consider this s--t shut right down right now."
• The Smiths' producer John Porter feels "Please, Please" stands out in their catalog for its stripped-back, mostly acoustic arrangement. "I was very conscious that their records could sound quite similar to non-fans," he told Mojo magazine, "and I liked how different this was."
• Porter contributed mandolin to the track, incorporating a few note changes suggested by Johnny Marr. The sparse arrangement gave Morrissey more room vocally. "I think the song really suited Morrisey's voice," Porter said. "Sometimes his lyrics could sound a bit shoehorned in, but this was much more sparse."