Try To Remember Lyrics - Fantasticks, The

Song Overview

Review & Highlights

“Try to Remember” is the welcome mat to The Fantasticks - a soft-spoken prologue that asks the audience to slow down and imagine. Jerry Orbach’s El Gallo opens the evening like he’s lighting a candle, not flipping a switch. The lyrics carry the scene, and the melody moves like a hammock sway. It’s memory as overture, and it works because it doesn’t hurry.

Hearing Orbach on the 1960 cast album still feels like a door creaking open to a quieter room. He sings with calm authority, the band a pocket-sized pit - piano with harp shimmer - that fits the show’s minimalist frame. That scaled-back sound makes the invitation land.

Story-wise, the number isn’t plot so much as posture. It teaches the audience how to listen, then hands the story to the lovers. The trick is that the song plants a seasonal clock in your head: September first, December later. You know change is coming even before it arrives.

Verse 1

Images stack like old snapshots - green grass, yellow grain - while the harmony stays spare. The voice sits front and steady, no showboating, like someone telling you the truth in a kitchen.

Chorus

The refrain “then follow” feels like a hand gesture. Orbach doesn’t push; he leans, and the line keeps floating after the cutoff.

Exchange/Bridge

As other voices join, the texture thickens just enough to suggest community. It’s the village warming up, not a Broadway brass blast.

Final Build

“Deep in December” turns the light wintry and the counsel firmer. The lyric widens from private nostalgia to a shared instruction: remember, and keep moving.

Song Meaning and Annotations

This opener is a quiet thesis about memory as guide. It asks us to use the past without living in it, and it frames the show’s fable with tenderness rather than fuss.

“Try to remember the kind of September”

The line sets a temperature. September is warm, not hot - ripe, not roaring. The mood is reflective, hopeful, edged with harvest.

The groove is traditional show tune with a folk-lilt, carried by piano and punctuated by harp. That chamber scale matches the staging - a nearly bare platform - so the words stay crisp.

“When life was slow and oh, so mellow”

The lyric uses time as a flavor, not a clock. You can taste the unhurried pace. It’s not escapism; it’s perspective.

Emotionally, the arc moves from beckoning to bracing. The first half invites; the “Deep in December” turn admits winter will come and we’ll need what we saved.

“Without a hurt the heart is hollow”

A thesis in nine words. The show’s coming trials will matter because bruises make room for love to fit properly.

Culturally, this tune became the calling card of the longest-running musical in American history, a piece that outlived fashions and theater leases. Its survival owes a lot to the way this song teaches the audience to meet the story halfway.

“Then follow”

That little imperative does the staging for you. No big set, just an invitation the crowd completes in their heads.

Message

Use memory as compass. The lyric doesn’t promise safety - only that remembering keeps you human when the weather turns.

“Deep in December, our hearts should remember”

It isn’t nostalgia for its own sake. It’s practical - a well you draw from when present-tense bites.

Emotional tone

Gentle at the edges, steel in the center. The accompaniment stays modest so the counsel can land without ornament.

“Although you know the snow will follow”

The song names the storm and keeps walking. That’s the adult part.

Historical context

Premiered Off-Broadway in 1960, sung by Orbach as El Gallo, captured on an MGM cast album recorded June 13, 1960. The show’s long run and later revival kept the song in circulation well into the 21st century.

“Dreams were kept beside your pillow”

A domestic image that fits the show’s handmade look - cardboard sun and moon, a band you can count on one hand.

Production

The original pit is famously small: piano at the core, harp adding sheen, sometimes light percussion. That intimacy is the secret sauce.

“That love was an ember about to billow”

Fire as patience - not a blaze, an ember catching. The writing lets singers sit back and color.

Instrumentation

Keep it lean. On the cast album you hear piano-anchored support with harp glissandi that feel like breath between thoughts.

“Nice to remember”

The understatement is the point. The refrain isn’t a command so much as a habit you practice.

Creation history

Music by Harvey Schmidt, lyrics by Tom Jones. Orbach introduced the number Off-Broadway in 1960; countless covers followed, including charting versions by Ed Ames, Roger Williams, and The Brothers Four in 1965, and a 1975 medley hit by Gladys Knight & The Pips. The 1995 film adaptation, released in 2000, places the song with El Gallo again.

Key Facts

• Featured: Jerry Orbach - El Gallo (original Off-Broadway cast)
• Producer: Lore Noto - stage producer for the original Off-Broadway production; MGM issued the Original Cast Album
• Composer: Harvey Schmidt; Lyricist: Tom Jones
• Release Date: 1960 - Original Cast Album; recording date June 13, 1960
• Genre: Musical theatre - classic show tune with folk-lilt
• Instruments: piano-centered pit with harp coloration
• Label: MGM Records - Original Cast Album
• Mood: reflective, autumnal, quietly affirmative
• Length: 2:48 on the 1960 album
• Track #: 2 - The Fantasticks (Original Cast Album)
• Language: English
• Album: The Fantasticks - Original Off-Broadway Cast
• Music style: intimate pit-band sound, legato phrasing, rubato-friendly ballad pulse
• Poetic meter: anaphoric lines with iambic tilt; seasonal imagery framing
• © Copyrights: © 1960 Tom Jones & Harvey Schmidt - composition; © 1960 MGM Records - sound recording

Questions and Answers

When did Jerry Orbach first record “Try to Remember”?

On June 13, 1960, during the Original Cast Album sessions for MGM Records.

Who wrote “Try to Remember”?

Composer Harvey Schmidt and lyricist Tom Jones created the song for The Fantasticks.

Did “Try to Remember” chart on the Hot 100?

Yes - in 1965, versions by Ed Ames (#73), Roger Williams (#97), and The Brothers Four (#91) entered the Billboard Hot 100.

What’s the most famous later hit connected to the song?

Gladys Knight & The Pips’ medley “The Way We Were/Try to Remember,” a 1975 hit that reached #11 on the Hot 100 and #4 in the UK.

Where else has the song popped up on screen?

Among other places: The Muppet Show and The Man Who Fell to Earth in 1976, the 1995 film adaptation of The Fantasticks, and Captain America: Civil War in 2016.

Awards and Chart Positions

The Fantasticks received the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre in 1991, and its original Off-Broadway run set a longevity record with 17,162 performances. “Try to Remember” itself wasn’t a chart single from the cast album, but 1965 covers by Ed Ames (#73 Hot 100, #17 Easy Listening), Roger Williams (#97 Hot 100), and The Brothers Four (#91 Hot 100) all charted. In 1975, Gladys Knight & The Pips took the “The Way We Were/Try to Remember” medley to #11 on the Hot 100 and #4 in the UK.

How to Sing Try to Remember?

Range and tessitura sit well for a baritone lead. Typical published versions in G major put the line roughly B3 to D5 for the principal melody; productions commonly transpose as needed. Aim for easy onset, legato lines, and unforced head mix on the highest phrases.

Breath: mark long phrases at “try to remember” and each “Deep in December” turn. Let the consonants place meaning but ride the vowels. Keep vibrato narrow enough to feel like speech set to music.

Tempo: keep it steady in a gentle 4, with room for small rubato at phrase ends. If you rush, the spell breaks. If you drag, the advice sounds heavy.

Color: the first A-section wants warmth, not syrup. The December verse needs a mild winter tint - more core in the tone, not more volume. Think storyteller, not torch singer.