"Try to Remember" is a song about nostalgia from the musical comedy play The Fantasticks (1960). It is the first song performed in the show, encouraging the audience to imagine what the sparse set suggests. The words were written by Tom Jones while Harvey Schmidt composed the music. "Try to Remember" was sung by Jerry Orbach for the original off-Broadway production of The Fantasticks.
"Try to Remember" scored the Billboard Hot 100 popular music chart three times during 1965, with versions by Ed Ames, Roger Williams and Barry McGuire.
The song was the first Australian success for the trio New World. Their version peaked at no. 11 during late 1968.
In 1975, Gladys Knight & the Pips had an international success with their version of "Try to Remember", combining it into a medley with a cover version of Barbra Streisand's "The Way We Were". It scored no. 11 on the US Hot 100 chart, and no. 4 in the UK (their biggest success there). For Knight's version, she recited some of the lyrics from "Try To Remember" in spoken-word fashion before beginning to sing "The Way We Were".
|