Please Please

About

Written by Robbie Williams and Stephen Duffy, Please, Please appeared as a B-side to Misunderstood in December 2004. Continuing the introspective tone of the Greatest Hits sessions, the song blends haunting melodies with cryptic lyrics about fear, death and mental turmoil. Williams later joked that it was “one of about fifty songs about dying” written during that period — a reflection of the darker mindset that inspired much of his collaboration with Duffy.

The song opens with eerie, music-box-like instrumentation before Williams begins a hushed, rhythmic vocal: “Scary monsters messing with my head again.” The lyric alternates between humour and dread, imagining ghosts “playing off and on with the lights without permission.” Its chorus — “Please, please, make me a lunatic, but I’m all right” — encapsulates Williams’ fascination with his own instability and the uneasy balance between madness and creativity.

There was a heavy death theme around then. Stephen kept saying, “We’ve got to stop writing songs about dying.” This one slipped through the net.Robbie Williams

Though unsettling, Please, Please reveals Williams’ lyrical depth and vulnerability beneath the irony. Its mix of unsettling imagery and fragile optimism gives it a ghostly charm — an overlooked gem that captures the haunting side of his songwriting partnership with Duffy.