Please Don't Go by KC and the Sunshine Band
Artist: KC and the Sunshine Band Weeks at #1: 1 week Chart dates: January 5, 1980
About
Harry Wayne “KC” Casey was ‘getting a bit bored with disco’ at the close of the 70s. During recording sessions for Do You Wanna Go Party, he began playing on a piano and ‘all of a sudden’ this song began to take shape. The band was instantly fascinated, stopped what they were doing, and went right to working on “Please Don’t Go” that day. After the lukewarm success of the album’s first single – the title track – “Please Don’t Go” was released as its follow-up in August 1979. It took 19 weeks for it to climb to the top of the US pop chart, making it the first official #1 of the 1980s. The song also performed well internationally, reaching #1 in three other countries and peaking in the top 10 in six more. This was the band’s last song to chart well in most countries. KC himself, however, still found big chart success two more times. First he guested on Terri DeSario’s hit “Yes I’m Ready” that same year, and then his solo hit “Give It Up” reached the top 20 in seven countries a few years later.