George Michael - One More Try (1988)

"One More Try" is a song recorded by the British singer George Michael from his debut solo studio album, Faith (1987). It was ...

"One More Try" is a song recorded by the British singer George Michael from his debut solo studio album, Faith (1987). It was released on 11 April 1988 as the album's fourth single by Columbia Records. The song hit number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

Music video

Filmmaker Tony Scott ("Top Gun") directed the simple music video for the song, which features George singing alone in an empty room. The first shot of the video alone lasts a little over two minutes, ending at the beginning of the second verse. Throughout, a grey-blue light can be seen shining into his window, a metaphor for loneliness. In another scene, he attempts to draw a heart on his bathroom cabinet's glass door, but cannot finish the heart, as at this point, sadness and grief have taken over. His furniture can also be seen with drapes over each piece, as well as the curtains drawn, another lonely metaphor.

The video was filmed at The Carrington Hotel in New South Wales, Australia, which was empty and derelict at the time.

Chart performance

It reached number 8 on the UK Singles Chart and became his sixth number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. Four of the six singles issued from Faith went to number one in America, while by comparison, none managed to do so in the UK.

"One More Try" was the third consecutive number one single from the Faith album. "One More Try" debuted at an impressive number 40 the week of 16 April 1988, and matching the speed of "Father Figure", reached number one by its seventh week, 28 May 1988, this time staying there for three consecutive weeks. "One More Try" was the second-longest running number one of 1988, tied with "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" by Poison, and behind the four-week run of Steve Winwood's "Roll with It". In total, "One More Try" spent seven weeks in the top 10 and 14 weeks in the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. It was a triple-chart number one, also topping the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and the Adult Contemporary charts and becoming the last number-one single on the former by a white male artist until Robin Thicke's "Lost Without U" (2007).