"Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" was written by Sam H. Stept with lyrics by Sidney Clare. The original publication also credited singer Bee Palmer as co-composer. The song was published in 1930. The lyrics are an admonishment between parting lovers, where the singer asks the other to either speak nicely of her, or not at all."Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" is also the name of an award winning stage play by playwright Tobias Manderson-Galvin.
A diverse group of performers have recorded this jazz standard over the years, including Ethel Waters, The Mills Brothers, Willie Nelson, Frank Sinatra, Rita Reys, Dean Martin, Ray Price, Sammy Davis, Jr, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ann-Margret, Bob Wills, Piano Red, Billie Holiday, and Bill Haley & His Comets, a duet between Harry Connick, Jr. and Carmen McRae, Leon Redbone, Helen Humes, Mose Allison, and as recently as 2007 by Manteca Beat and by The Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band in 2009. Deana Martin recorded the tune on her 2009 album “Volare.” Television anchor Edwin Newman sang the song during his hosting of Saturday Night Live in 1984.
This song is sung by Norma Shearer's character Mary Haines in the 1939 film The Women as a joke when she leaves her girl friends alone at tea while she takes a call from her philandering husband Stephen Haines.
The song was used in the film, House of Strangers (1949).
The song was also sung by the character Michigan J. Frog in the 1955 Warner Bros. animated short One Froggy Evening.
This song is also featured on Ella Fitzgerald's 1979 performance with Count Basie & His Orchestra, A Perfect Match.
In August 2007, a recording of the song with Dean Martin and Robbie Williams was released. Jamie Cullum also performed the song on the last Michael Parkinson chat show in December 2007.
Deana Martin recorded "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" in 2009. The song was released on her album, Volare, released in 2009 by Big Fish Records. Dutch Drummer, Composer and Bandleader Pierre Courbois made a new tune on these old chords with the French name: INSONORISÉ, recorded live at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam and released in 2006.