Songfacts®:

• Tears For Fears' Roland Orzabal married Caroline Johnston in 1982. She developed alcohol-related dementia in the early 2010s and her husband spent five years as her caretaker before her death in 2017. Orzabal wrote "Please Be Happy" during his wife's illness. It was "inspired by watching someone you love sitting in a chair all day, not doing anything, not moving," he told The Irish Times, "and when she does, she goes up the stairs with a glass of wine, and [the glass] crashes on the stairs."
• Curt Smith does the vocals on "Please Be Happy." The first time Orzabal heard his bandmate sing the heartwrenchingly sad song, he really struggled. "I left the studio when we were doing the playback" he told The Sun, "because that song just demolishes me."
• Caroline's illness inspired several songs on The Tipping Point, including the title track. "I needed some respite from the constant illness, the constant dysfunction, and, as per usual, as I've always done all my life, they went into lyrics and songs," Orzabal said.
• Orzabel wrote the song with Sacha Skarbek, whom he met on an Ivor Novello Awards voting panel. Skarbek also co-penned James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" and Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball."