How "Try a Little Tenderness" went from forgettable love-song to soulful classic

On The Awl, an engrossing musical history of "Try a Little Tenderness," which started life in 1932 as a schmaltzy, vacuous love-song recorded by Ray Noble and his Orchestra. Gradually, over the decades, new singers reinterpreted it, gradually giving it soul in dribs and drabs, leading up to the classic Otis Redding recording (and the regrettable Jay-Z reinterpretation).

As nice a story as it'd make, Otis Redding didn't transform "Try A Little Tenderness" from campy relic to anthem in a single stroke. The process was more gradual, maybe more compromised. Bing Crosby took a go at "Tenderness" in 1933, and in the process injected some humanity into it. No less paternalistic, his interpretation stressed the duties of manhood, the weakness of women, and how love was about being strong by pretending to be vulnerable. Maybe that's a little too much psychodrama to pull from a performance that, for all Crosby's sly phrasing and attempts at straight talk, is still relatively light fare. But it was enough for "Tenderness" to catch on as a minor standard, an especially useful one to have in the songbook for black entertainers looking to cross over in the '50s and early '60s and perform at “classy joints." Selling records to white kids was one thing; eons before anyone thought to let youth guide the industry, appealing to white adults was the real meal ticket.

How 'Try A Little Tenderness' Got Its Soul (And Lost It)

• [mcarlson]

  I like the inimitable Mr. Al Jarreau

• [mcarlson]

  By the way, give the link above about 1:45 to get into the body of the song. It’s a live recording and has some blah blah at the beginning.

• [muteboy]

  Women they do get woolly.

• [dayna]

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNGIg8f-0Wc

• [muteboy]

  oh and please christ noone mention the fecking commitments

  • [Guest]

    But I really like that version sung by Andrew Strong, and I’m going to Ireland next week on a musical tour.

• [Guest]

  Also pretty fond of that song as sung by Solomon Burke, Three Dog Night, Aretha Franklin, Chris Brown, and Michael Bolton

• [Chris De Castro]

  hasn’t this been covered by Rob Bowman?
  http://www.tvo.org/TVOsites/WebObjects/TVO.woa?bi?1131213600000i've been trying to find a video of his lecture for ages… 

  • [Evan G.]

    I don’t know, but this piece was written because of the recent Jay-Z/Kanye collaboration, “Otis.” 

• [woid]

  How can anybody write about Otis’ version of Try A Little Tenderness without quoting him correctly?

  “She may get weary, women do get weary, wearing that same shaggy dress…”

  The piece also neglects to mention Sinatra — but the lack of shaggy is unforgiveable.

• [penguinchris]

  Isn’t it a little disingenuous to call it “forgettable” if it was sung by so many people?

  Yes, perhaps the original recording was forgettable (the video won’t play for me so I don’t know what it sounds like), but the lyrics clearly had something that grabbed the attention of Crosby (or whoever was next). It surely was Crosby’s recording that influenced others to sing it, not the original recording, but still it had to have some merit originally for Crosby to want to sing it in the first place.

  • [knoxblox]

    Agreed.
    In addition, IHMO the writer of the article almost sounds like they believe white people weren’t capable of anything but uptight, upright sex in 1932.

• [Jes Wells]

  I’m astonished that there is no mention of the Little Miss Cornshucks version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaf4DnzTSVM

• [Michael Newton]

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjkokZtjxl0&feature=fvst

• [Spookyland]

  You may be more familar with Ray Noble and his orchestra than you think – their recording of “Midnight, the Moon, and You” has become forever associated with Stanley Kubric’s film The Shining….