Video hit Nana Mouskouri

Nana Mouskouri & Harry Belafonte - Try To Remember (live)

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.

Pop charts and Early Recordings

"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, Barry McGuire, The Kingston Trio, The Sandpipers, and The Brothers Four.

Patti Page released a version in 1965 on her album Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte.

Andy Williams released a version in 1966 on his album The Shadow of Your Smile.

Perry Como released a version in 1968 on his album Look to Your Heart.

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 1971 Netherlandish singing duo Saskia & Serge had a national smash hit with their signature song 'Zomer in Zeeland', based on the music of 'Try to Remember'.

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.

The lyrics:

Try to remember the kind of September

When life was slow and so mellow

Try to remember the kind of September

When grass was green and the grain was yellow

Try to remember the kind of September

When you were a young and callow fellow

Try to remember and if you remember

Then follow, follow

Try to remember when life was so tender

When no one wept except the willow

Try to remember when life was so tender

When dreams were kept beside your pillow

Try to remember when life was so tender

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

Without the hurt the heart will follow

Deep in December it's nice to remember

The fire of September that made you mellow

Deep in December our hearts should remember

Then follow, follow