One More Try

Columbia released it on 11 April 1988. It is a blue-eyed soul and gospel-pop ballad of almost six minutes, about a man who hesitates to start a new relationship because he has been hurt so often. Temptation wins at the end, and Michael sings the title for the only time. In 1988 he told Countdown that the song was written, recorded and finished in eight hours. It is a soul song in the tradition of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder.

It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on 28 May 1988 and stayed three weeks, topping the Hot Black Singles and Adult Contemporary charts as well. In the UK it reached number eight. It was the last number one on the R&B and hip-hop chart by a white male artist until Robin Thicke's Lost Without U in 2007. Tony Scott directed the video, in which Michael sings alone in an empty room, filmed at the then derelict Carrington Hotel in New South Wales, Australia.

Live

A gospel version recorded at the Concert of Hope at Wembley Arena on 1 December 1993 was later released on the Jesus to a Child single in 1996.