The woman playing the female subject of the song was chosen personally by Murs. The owner of the house also appeared as an extra in the video. As Murs was well known for his dancing on The X Factor, he wanted a video in which he did not dance, to make it more about the song. Critical reception Nick Levine from Digital Spy described "Please Don't Let Me Go" as "a lovely summery reggae-tinged pop tune that bobs along in a thoroughly hummable and not un-Will Young-like fashion" and said that the music video "is just as quintessentially pleasant". A reviewer for children's news programme Newsround rated the song four out of five, stating: "The song is funky, catchy and easy to sing along to. It's quite a mellow, summery sound." Promotion Murs promoted the single with live performances on a number of TV shows in the run up to the single's release, including GMTV, The Michael Ball Show, This Morning, Stephen Mulhern's Magic Numbers, Suck My Pop and Live from Studio Five. Later performances of the single came during promotion of the Olly Murs album in the winter of 2010, at T4 Stars of 2010 and that year's Christmas Day edition of Top of the Pops. It was also infamously, in an interview with Heat magazine during promotion for the single, that Murs declared he would strip naked in a photoshoot for them if the single were to reach number one, despite his belief that it would not, as it was being released the same week as Katy Perry's song Teenage Dream. After the single debuted at number one, he then went on to fulfill his promise for the magazine, appearing naked in the 14 September 2010 issue, with a trilby hat covering his modesty. Track listing Chart performance The single made its chart debut on 3 September, where it debuted at number five on the Irish chart. On 5 September, the single debuted at number-one on the UK chart, having sold 93,239 copies. The single spent only one week at the top of the singles chart, having been dethroned by fellow X Factor contestant Alexandra Burke and her single "Start Without You". Both songs kept "Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry off the top. "Please Don't Let Me Go" spent three weeks within the top 10 and nine weeks within the top 40. Following the release of Murs' second