Dan Hill & Vonda Shepard - "Can't We Try"

(Debuted June 6, 1987, Peaked #6, 24 Weeks on the chart)

During the late Spring and throughout the Summer of '87, it was hard not to notice "Can't We Try" because they tried to kill it with airplay. At the time, I was listening to both a Top 40 station and a station that leaned more toward adult contemporary and both had the song in heavy rotation. The video was a staple of VH-1 at the time as well. As a result, I got really sick of hearing the song. Now that the years have allowed me to put the song into its proper context, I really like it for its confessional nature and its melody. But it took several years to pass before I wanted to revisit it.

"Can't We Try" was a return to the chart for Dan Hill, who had scored with "Sometimes When We Touch" in 1978 and an introduction to Vonda Shepard, who would reappear on the show Ally McBeal a decade later. In both cases, the decade-long absence seemed like a comeback, but neither artist had stopped performing in the meantime.