Songfacts®:

• Phil Collins released his first solo album in 1981, which contained some very plaintive tunes about his divorce. He started writing in this style around 1979, however, when his marriage to his first wife Andrea was falling apart.
  
  Leaving their home in Surrey, England, Andrea took their two children to Vancouver; Collins followed hoping for a reconciliation, but it was not to be and he moved back to Surrey. He spent his nights at a local pub, but would work on songs when he returned home. One of these was "Please Don't Ask," which was the most personal song he had written to that point - "It was me baring my soul," Collins said.
  
  The song finds Collins trying desperately to convince Andrea to give their marriage another chance. It wasn't to be: the couple divorced in 1980.
• When Collins returned to England in 1979, he found that his bandmates, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks, had been working on solo albums in his absence. With all three back together, they set their solo efforts aside to work on the Genesis album Duke, with Rutherford and Banks moving in to Collins' house for six weeks while they worked on it. "Please Don't Ask" and "Misunderstanding" were Collins' solo compositions; the biggest hit from the set was "Turn It On Again," which was written by the band.