Songoftheday 7/21/15 - I see your face cloud over like a little girl's and your eyes have lost their shine...

"Can't We Try" - Dan Hill with Vonda Shepard
from the album Dan Hill (1987)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #6 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13

Today's SOTD comes from Canadian soft rock artist Dan Hill, who started out as a teen songwriter for RCA which led to his first self-titled solo album in 1975. While the first single, "You Make Me Want To Be", reached the top-40 in his homeland, it was the second, the coming-of-age ode "Growin' Up", which dented the American pop chart at #67. Two years later, with his third album Longer Fuse, Hill struck gold with the creepy breakup song "Sometimes When We Touch", which peaked at #3 in the States in topped the charts up North. After the follow-up single, "All I See Is Your Face", just missed the pop top-40 at #41 (while reaching the top-10 on the "easy listening" chart), Hill's success was relegated just to Canada.

In 1987, Hill returned with a second self-titled album, and the first single, "Can't We Try", was a duet with fellow singer/songwriter Vonda Shepard. Like "Sometimes When We Touch", it was a ballad about a relationship in turmoil, but this time having the protagonist plead for another try. Written with Dan's own wife Beverly, the "lite rock" stations ate this up, with her soaring voice a good counterpoint to his gruff delivery...

"Can't We Try" became Hill's second and most recent top-10 pop hit in September of 1987, while reaching #2 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary radio chart. In Dan's own country, the song reached #14.

The next single, "Never Though That I Could Love", matched "Can't We Try" on the AC chart at #2, but just missed the top-40 again at #43. He would proceed to have a handful more of hits at that previous format, most recently in 1994 with "In Your Eyes". Meanwhile, after scoring a top-20 adult hit with "Don't Cry Ilene", Shepard was hired to be the ongoing piano-player/Greek Chorus stand-in on the hit comedy Ally McBeal, with the show's theme, "Searchin' My Soul", went to #10 on the new format of Adult Top-40 in 1998, while a duet with the Indigo Girls' Emily Saliers, "Baby, Don't You Break My Heart Slow", made the top-30 on both the Adult top-40 and Easy Listening radio lists. She's married to rock producer Mitch Froom (Suzanne Vega's ex-husband).

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Here's Dan performing "Can't We Try" with a very young Celine Dion...

In 1998, freestyle dance music artist Rockell covered the song with the duo Collage, and reached #59 on the pop chart...

 

 ...and finally back to Dan at the "Love Rocks" concert in 2011 with Carrie Pejano...

Up tomorrow: a new wave trio have some accomodations on paper.