- published: 11 Jul 2012
- views: 369079
"Try to Remember" is a song from the musical comedy The Fantasticks. It is the first song sung in the show, to get the audience to imagine what the sparse set suggests. Its lyrics, written by Tom Jones, famously rhyme "remember" with "September", "so tender", and "December", and repeat the sequence llow throughout the song: verse 1 contains "mellow", "yellow", and "callow fellow"; verse 2 contains "willow", "pillow", "billow"; verse 3 contains "follow", "hollow", "mellow"; and all verses end with "follow". Harvey Schmidt composed the music.
"Try to Remember" was originally sung by Jerry Orbach in the Original Off-Broadway production of The Fantasticks. "Try To Remember" made the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart three times in 1965 in versions by Ed Ames, Roger Williams and The Brothers Four. The song was the first Australian hit for the then-Brisbane based trio New World, billed at the time as The New World Trio. Their version peaked at 11 in late 1968.
In 1975 Gladys Knight & the Pips had a huge international hit with their version of "Try to Remember", combining it into a medley with a cover of Barbra Streisand's "The Way We Were". It reached #11 on the Hot 100 chart. In 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". Harry Belafonte has recorded the song multiple times. The Greek singer Nana Mouskouri also recorded it in three languages: German, French, and Italian. Romanian singer Aura Urziceanu recorded a Romanian language version in duet with Aurelian Andreescu in 1975, Septembrie.
Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams (born December 3, 1927) is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri named after the song "Moon River", with which he is closely identified.
Williams was born in Wall Lake, Iowa, the son of Jay Emerson and Florence (née Finley) Williams. He first performed in a children's choir at the local Presbyterian church. Williams and his three older brothers Bob, Don, and Dick formed the Williams Brothers quartet in late 1938, and they performed on radio in the Midwest, first at WHO in Des Moines, Iowa, and later at WLS in Chicago and WLW in Cincinnati. Williams graduated from Western Hills High School in Cincinnati and his brother was engaged to Gene Ingram's car-pool partner, Peggy. The Williams Brothers appeared with Bing Crosby on the hit record "Swinging on a Star" (1944). They appeared in 4 musical films: Janie (1944), Kansas City Kitty (1944), Something in the Wind (1947) and Ladies' Man (1947). This led to a nightclub act with entertainer Kay Thompson from 1947 to 1951.
Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow and oh, so mellow
Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green and grain was yellow
Try to remember the kind of September
When you were a tender and callow fellow
Try to remember and if you remember
Then follow, follow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
That no one wept except the willow
Try to remember the time of September
When love was an ember about to billow
Try to remember and if you remember
Then follow, follow.
Deep in December It's nice to remember
Although you know the snow will follow
Deep in December It's nice to remember
The fire of September that made us mellow
Deep in December our hearts should remember