Please, Please, Please enters the UK Single Top 40!

Johan de Witt

Senior Member
At number 36!

From Music Week:

Under the guise of Slow Moving Millie, singer/actress Amelia Warner's cover of The Smiths' Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want is the fourth cover commissioned by high street chain John Lewis to make the Top 40 in two years. Ellie Goulding reached number two last November with her cover of Elton John’s Your Song, specially recorded as a bed for John Lewis’ 2010 Christmas TV campaign; Taken By Trees’ cover version of Guns N’ Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine - used for the Christmas 2009 campaign - reached number 23; and Guillemots singer Fyfe Dangerfield’s specially-recorded version of Billy Joel’s She’s Always A Woman To Me reached number seven in May 2010. Slow Moving Millie's Please, Please, Please... debuts at number 36 (8,878 sales) while The Smiths’ original – the flipside of 1985 single William, Is Was Really Nothing – also enters the Top 200 for the first time, at number 121 (2,322 sales).

A bit of a surprise to me, but it's a fine cover version, and good to see the original selling quite a few (digital) copies as well.
 
At number 36!

From Music Week:

Under the guise of Slow Moving Millie, singer/actress Amelia Warner's cover of The Smiths' Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want is the fourth cover commissioned by high street chain John Lewis to make the Top 40 in two years. Ellie Goulding reached number two last November with her cover of Elton John’s Your Song, specially recorded as a bed for John Lewis’ 2010 Christmas TV campaign; Taken By Trees’ cover version of Guns N’ Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine - used for the Christmas 2009 campaign - reached number 23; and Guillemots singer Fyfe Dangerfield’s specially-recorded version of Billy Joel’s She’s Always A Woman To Me reached number seven in May 2010. Slow Moving Millie's Please, Please, Please... debuts at number 36 (8,878 sales) while The Smiths’ original – the flipside of 1985 single William, Is Was Really Nothing – also enters the Top 200 for the first time, at number 121 (2,322 sales).

A bit of a surprise to me, but it's a fine cover version, and good to see the original selling quite a few (digital) copies as well.

The Great British Public are so vapid nowadays that the only times they buy records is during the X-Factor. And advertising breaks. A sad but true reflection on the tragic times we now reside in
 
When I am ever asked to create a 'best of' for potential new Smiths fans, I always start with The Queen is Dead and end with 'Please, Please, Please', so it saddens me that this poor version has ever seen the light of day :( I said previously that this record might help create new fans but thinking about it, I doubt it will. It is a good advert though :D
 
When I am ever asked to create a 'best of' for potential new Smiths fans, I always start with The Queen is Dead and end with 'Please, Please, Please', so it saddens me that this poor version has ever seen the light of day :( I said previously that this record might help create new fans but thinking about it, I doubt it will. It is a good advert though :D
I think it's an appalling ad. It's aim is to manipulate the viewers emotions, much the same as your standard hollywood fare, with unrealizable situations that no one can in reality relate to. Children do not bust a gut waiting for Christmas so they can give us parents presents.
 
I think it's an appalling ad. It's aim is to manipulate the viewers emotions, much the same as your standard hollywood fare, with unrealizable situations that no one can in reality relate to. Children do not bust a gut waiting for Christmas so they can give us parents presents.

As opposed to things on TV which represent reality such as...?
 
I think it's an appalling ad. It's aim is to manipulate the viewers emotions, much the same as your standard hollywood fare, with unrealizable situations that no one can in reality relate to. Children do not bust a gut waiting for Christmas so they can give us parents presents.

 
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As opposed to things on TV which represent reality such as...?
Hey Because, there's been loads of good stuff on telly that deal in real emotions. Check out work by Mike Leigh for starters. More lately, maybe the Sopranos.
 
I think it's an appalling ad. It's aim is to manipulate the viewers emotions, much the same as your standard hollywood fare, with unrealizable situations that no one can in reality relate to. Children do not bust a gut waiting for Christmas so they can give us parents presents.

It is supposed to be manipulative, it's an advert for a store, all adverts are manipulative. The trick is not to fall for it. Anyway must dash I'm off to do my Christmas shopping at John Lewis :thumb:
 
Hey Because, there's been loads of good stuff on telly that deal in real emotions. Check out work by Mike Leigh for starters. More lately, maybe the Sopranos.

sounds like you have your finger on the pulse!
 
Re: Slow Moving Millie: 'Morrissey said it was delightful'

Decent voice (for a female singer -- please don't make me justify that comment) and nice arrangement but some of the melody changes irk badly. It's a slick ad but it takes the most superficial meaning of the song and applies it to something equally superficial -- retail. Not being facetious but has Morrissey ever stated he Didn't like a particular cover version? They all earn some dosh for him.

And her analogy about The Smiths selling records and nice houses is air-headed. They didn't write the songs with the intention of making money -- at least not beyond eschewing day jobs. Nobody would write songs like Suffer Little Children or Meat is Murder with the intention of making money.

She's one of those young, pretty, acclaimed female singers that I'd be surprised if she's still around once her looks fade (there are male equivalents of this, too). Get out of the business now, ditz.

Sorry, rare bad mood for King Leer!
 
Re: Slow Moving Millie: 'Morrissey said it was delightful'

Well an attractive girl rolling around amongst autumn leaves always makes me happy. Really though it is an average cover version. Nothing that makes it stand out from the original. This cover version will insipire lots of 14 year old girls to practice it and use it for their auditon for some dreadful talent quest at school, local mall or reality TV show.
 
And it is top 30 now, in the midweeks.
I feel a Christmas number 1 beckoning...

Interesting - it's the complete opposite of a Morrissey single.
Morrissey singles achieve nearly all their sales within days of release due to huge amounts of fan tribalism and tiny amounts of airplay.
Slow Modern Millie, a complete unknown, had zero tribalism (or fan loyalty) but the song's getting blanket airplay (at least in the TV ads) so it creeps up the charts.
I hope it does really well.
The more successful it is, the more Marr and Morrissey will realise how wonderful their songwriting gift was, and how important it is to do at least something together once more. Like Millie herself, it's moving too slowly to have a chance of Christmas number 1 but with any luck it'll sneak into the top 20.
 
pffft, still think the original is better and should be in the charts instead of this cover.
 
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