"I Try" | ||||
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File:Macygray-itry.jpg | ||||
Single by Macy Gray | ||||
from the album On How Life Is | ||||
B-side | "Don't Come Around", "Rather Hazy" | |||
Released | June 27, 1999 See release history) | |||
Format | Digital download, CD single, 12" maxi single | |||
Recorded | 1997 | |||
Genre | Soul | |||
Length | 3:59 | |||
Label | Epic | |||
Writer(s) | Macy Gray, Jeremy Ruzumna, Jinsoo Lim, David Wilder | |||
Producer | Andrew Slater | |||
Macy Gray singles chronology | ||||
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"I Try" is the title of a song co-written and recorded by American musician Macy Gray. It was released in September 1999 as the second single from her debut album On How Life Is, released in North American in January 2000 (See release history). It was Gray's biggest hit to date. It peaked at number six in the United Kingdom, number five in the United States, and number one in Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland.
At the 2001 Grammy Awards, "I Try" won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, the first to be awarded to a American artist winner in the category, since Toni Braxton's "Un-Break My Heart" in 1997, and was also nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. It remains Gray's biggest hit single in the USA to date, and her only one to reach the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. In 2010, the song was featured in an episode of The Office. It was also featured in the series 2 finale of Mrs Brown's Boys
Contents |
The video for the song, directed by Mark Romanek, depicts Gray waking up in a hotel room, buying flowers, and traveling through New York City to meet a man in a park. At one point she is seen entering a Lexington Avenue subway entrance, which at the time served the 6, E, and F lines. The platform which her train arrives on, however, is the 63rd Street Connector which would indeed become the Lexington Avenue F line stop one year later.
At the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, the video won Best New Artist and was nominated for Best Female Video.
It was notably used on the television series Spin City, Daria, Tatort, Gilmore Girls and in the Series 2 finale of Mrs Brown's Boys, in the films Love Jones, Picture Perfect Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.
Peak positions [link]
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Release history [link]
End of year charts [link]
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Preceded by "Everyday I Love You" by Boyzone |
Irish Singles Chart number-one single December 11, 1999 |
Succeeded by "I Have a Dream"/"Seasons in the Sun" by Westlife |
Preceded by "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65 "Mascara"/"Leave Me Alone" by Killing Heidi |
Australian ARIA Singles Chart number-one single January 16, 2000 – January 23, 2000 (first run) February 20, 2000 (second run) |
Succeeded by "Mascara"/"Leave Me Alone" by Killing Heidi "Bloke" by Chris Franklin |
Preceded by "S Club Party" by S Club 7 |
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart number-one single January 30, 2000 |
Succeeded by "What a Girl Wants" by Christina Aguilera |
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(Nits)
I tried to be afraid
But you said that it was too late
I tried to be alone
But you said that I wanted this home
I try I try I try
I try to be like you
But you never wanted that I
Wanted it too
But I try to be around
Somehow, sometime I was found
I try I try I try
I have seen mirrors black
In a room by the sea
When we came back
Sometimes it's a sunny day
You lift your head and walk away
I try I try I try
I tried to be afraid
But you said that it was too late
I tried to be alone