"Please, Please, Please" is a 1956 single by James Brown & the Famous Flames. The single was the group's first professional recording, and their first hit single. The song was the first result of Brown & the Flames' record contract with Cincinnati, Ohio based King Records. James Brown, known variously as: Soul Brother Number One, the Godfather of Soul, Mr. ... February is the second month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A gramophone record, (also phonograph record - often simply record) is an analog sound recording medium: a flat disc rotating at a constant angular velocity, with inscribed spiral grooves in which a stylus or needle rides. ... For alternate uses, see Number 45. ... Cincinnati is a city in southwestern Ohio, United States that lies on the Ohio River and is the county seat of Hamilton CountyGR6. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Musical genres are categories which contain music which share a certain style or which have certain elements in common. ... For other uses, see Soul music (disambiguation). ... A record label is a brand created by companies that specialize in manufacturing, distributing and promoting audio and video recordings, on various formats including compact discs, LPs, DVD-Audio, SACDs, and cassettes. ... King Records is the name of at least two different record labels. ... In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) is (among many other tasks) primarily responsible for completing a master recording so that it is fit for mass production and commercial release. ... Top 40 is a radio format based on frequent repetition of songs from a constantly-updated list of the forty best-selling singles. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1958 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... James Brown, known variously as: Soul Brother Number One, the Godfather of Soul, Mr. ... Cincinnati is a city in southwestern Ohio, United States that lies on the Ohio River and is the county seat of Hamilton CountyGR6. ... King Records is the name of at least two different record labels. ...

Heavily rooted in southern gospel music sensibility, "Please, Please, Please", written by James Brown and Johnny Terry, features the 23-year-old Brown as a heartbroken man begging his woman not to leave him. Bobby Byrd and the rest of The Famous Flames backs up Brown's lamenting with vocal harmony that helps support his impassioned performance. The Southern United States or the South constitute a distinctive region covering a large portion of the United States. ... Gospel music may refer either to the religious music that first came out of African-American churches in the 1930s or, more loosely, to both black gospel music and to the religious music composed and sung by white southern Christian artists. ... The longest-serving member of James Browns band, Byrd also produced a slew of funk tracks which have been sampled by, among others, Public Enemy, Ice Cube, LL Cool J and A Tribe Called Quest. ...

"Please, Please, Please" was a million-selling record, hitting #5 on the R&B singles chart, but did not sell well to pop audiences, and peaked at #105 on the pop singles chart. A Please, Please, Please album was released in late 1958, after Brown scored a second hit single in "Try Me". The song remains one of James Brown's signature songs; the entertainer often refers to himself as "Mr. 'Please, Please, Please'". The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart, formerly known as Top Soul Singles, Top Black Singles, and Top R&B Singles (before the hip-hop term was added in the late 1990s), lists the most popular songs, calculated weekly by airplay and sales, in traditionally African American venues... Popular music is music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and mostly distributed commercially. ... The Billboard Hot 100 is the main U.S. singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. ... 1958 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Credits

• Lead vocals by James Brown
• Background vocals by The Famous Flames
• Written by James Brown and Johnny Terry
• Produced by Ralph Bass