Songfacts®:

• This is the song that put New Kids On The Block on the map. Their debut album was released in 1986 and was a colossal flop. "Please Don't Go Girl" was the first single from their next album, Hangin' Tough, in 1988. It caught a break when a radio station in Tampa started playing it that summer, and other stations followed suit. The song rose to #10 in October, giving the group their first hit and setting the stage for the hysteria that followed. The next single, "You Got It (The Right Stuff)," went to #3 in March 1989, and that June they landed their first #1 with "I'll Be Loving You (Forever)."
• This song was written and produced by New Kids guru Maurice Starr, who not only controlled their business affairs, but also their music. Most of the ballads Starr wrote for the group find them singing directly to the girl, professing their love. Starr used a similar formula in his work with New Edition.
• Maurice Starr wrote this song years earlier and first recorded it with another group he was working with called Irving And The Twins, but that version was never released. Another New Kids song that was originally recorded by another of his groups is "Step By Step."
• Joey McIntyre, the youngest member of the band, sang lead on this one. He was just 15, pretty close to the age of most New Kids fans.
• Aaron Carter, brother of Nick Carter from Backstreet Boys, covered "Please Don't Go Girl" on his 1997 debut album. Aaron was just 11 years old at the time.