Dan Hill/Vonda Sheppard-"Can’t We Try"

My commercial 45 has a listed time of (4:02), but an actual time of (3:59).

Though the follow-up hit, "Never Thought (That I Could Love)", had a single remix (which was only slightly different), this hit has only the one mix. No edit. No remix. No rock mix. The version you heard probably a thousand times on the radio is the only one that exists and the version you'll have to continue to sit through. Luckily, mixed as it is, it became the #1 AC song of the year in Billboard (an incredible accomplishment, don't you think?) so it seems there were other people -- like Dan, the folks at Columbia Records, the radio programmers, and the listeners -- that were very happy with the mix, and no remix was issued. Incidentally, when Dan was putting together his Best of CD, he called me to get the single mix of "Never Thought" (he and no one else could find it but he remembered I had a promo CD single) and there was never any discussion about other mixes of "Can't We Try".

Hey Gene, there is always the Rockell and Collage version from a few years back that has a nice freestyle beat behind it. Definitely not Blacklight Radio format but it does pep the song up quite a bit....LOL.

Edited by Fetta

EdisonLite: Please tell Dan I forgive him for "Can't We Try." ;-) I also forgive the hundreds (thousands? Tens of thousands? Perhaps millions?) who bought and requested the song... clearly I'm in the minority by being driven quite crazy by this song. :-)

(Hearing it 50-million times hasn't helped, either, I'm sure.)

I absolutely WILL have to sit through it, again and again, and again... not only did it make #1 on the year-end AC charts as you mentioned, but it also made the year-end pop charts (at #67) in 1987... so BlackLight Radio will be playing it over and over and over.

"Give the people what they want!" :-D

(I also play "Friends & Lovers," "Wind Beneath My Wings," & "Almost Paradise." Wowza. They were hits, though!

And, in case you think I'm just a ballad / love song hater, not so. I love "Separate Lives," "Should've Never Let You Go" & "After All.")

I do appreciate the definitive answer... sorry about my opinion showing in my original post. :)

Fetta, I'll have to go looking for that version! LOL... you're right, though: if it wasn't an original from-the-original-chart-run mix, I don't play it. Maybe hearing the remix will make me enjoy the original more.

(Remember the dance mix of "My Heart Will Go On?" I'm still not sure how they got from a sad Irish love ballad to club hit, but the mix shows played it.)

EDIT: ROTFL!!! O.K., just heard the dance remake... after hearing this, I'm a bigger fan of Dan Hill's version... you'll have to hear this for yourselves: Rockell & Collage - Can't We Try... YIKES! :-D

Edited by NightAire

Glad you liked it Gene... LOL.. This version actully got a lot of airplay on KTU here in NY and I think Z100 probably picked it up as well as Rockell is a Staten Island native...