''Tried and True'' is the fifth studio album by

Clay Aiken Clayton Holmes Aiken (''né'' Grissom; born November 30, 1978) is an American singer, television personality, actor and political activist. Aiken finished second place on the second season of ''American Idol'' in 2003, and his debut album, '' Me ...

, released on June 1, 2010. This album is Aiken's first on the

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, record label * Decca Gold, classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, musical theater record label * Decca Studios, recording facility in West ...

label. The deluxe edition includes two additional tracks plus a second disk with behind the scenes video and a live performance.

Background

The songs on this album are classics from the 1950s and 1960s. "Unchained Melody" and "Mack the Knife" were performed by Aiken when he was a contestant on ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American Music competition, singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle (company), Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It a ...

's'' second season. In an article written after interviewing Aiken,

The News & Observer ''The News & Observer'' is an American regional daily newspaper that serves the greater Triangle area based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The paper is the largest in circulation in the state (second is the '' Charlotte Observer''). The paper has be ...

reported that "... the album features a guest turn by saxophonist and label-mate

David Sanborn David William Sanborn (July 30, 1945 – May 12, 2024) was an American alto saxophonist. He worked in many musical genres; his solo recordings typically blended jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He began playing the saxophone at the age o ...

on the

Sammy Davis Jr. Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, actor, comedian, dancer, and musician. At age two, Davis began his career in Vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the Will Mastin Trio, which t ...

classic 'What Kind of Fool Am I?'

Vince Gill Vincent Grant Gill (born April 12, 1957) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He played in a number of local bluegrass music, bluegrass bands in the 1970s, and from 1978 to 1982, he achieved his first mainstream attention after ta ...

performs guitar on Andy Williams' legendary 'Moon River.'"Ehlers, Mat
A classic move
Newsobserver. March 12, 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-05

Reception

Commercial performance

The album, selling 22,000 units in its first week, made its debut on the ''Billboard'' charts at number nine on the ''Billboard'' 200 and number twenty-one on Billboard's Digital Albums.'Tried and True' Clay Aiken debuts in the Top 10
USA Today. June 09, 2010. Retrieved 2010-06-09 In Canada, the album debuted at number 58 on the

Canadian Albums Chart The ''Billboard'' Canadian Albums is the official record chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music according to certain criteria during a given ...

, the lowest debut in Canada for any of his albums.

Critical reception

The album received positive reviews. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

gave the album 3 out of 5 stars, saying "It’s handsomely tailored music that fits Aiken’s strengths quite well. Indeed, he’s never seemed more at home on a record; nothing may challenge him but he’s never straining, seeming happier singing standards than he did churning out contemporary classics on '' A Thousand Different Ways,'' winding up with something that might be the best representation yet of his peculiar charms."

Track listing

Looking like a worn sleeve from a 1950s or 1960s LP, the ''Tried and True'' album art lists the songs included on the front cover.

Standard edition

# "

Can't Take My Eyes off You "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" is a 1967 song written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio, and first recorded and released as a single by Gaudio's Four Seasons bandmate Frankie Valli. The song was among his biggest hits, earning a gold record and rea ...

" Written by:

Bob Crewe Robert Stanley Crewe (November 12, 1930 – September 11, 2014) was an American songwriter, dancer, singer, manager, and record producer. Crewe co-wrote and produced a string of Top 10 singles with Bob Gaudio for the Four Seasons. As a songw ...

Bob Gaudio Robert John Gaudio (born November 17, 1942) is an American songwriter, singer, musician, and record producer, and the keyboardist and backing vocalist of the pop/rock band the Four Seasons. Gaudio wrote or co-wrote the vast majority of the ban ...

3:18 # "

What Kind of Fool Am I? "What Kind of Fool Am I?" is a popular song written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley and published in 1962. It was introduced by Anthony Newley in the musical '' Stop the World – I Want to Get Off''. It comes at the end of Act Two to clos ...

(featuring

) Written by:

Leslie Bricusse Leslie Bricusse OBE (; 29 January 1931 – 19 October 2021) was a British composer, lyricist, and playwright who worked on theatre musicals and wrote theme music for films. He was best known for writing the music and lyrics for the films '' D ...

Anthony Newley Anthony Newley (24 September 1931 – 14 April 1999) was an English actor, director, comedian, singer, and composer. A "latter-day British Al Jolson", he achieved widespread success in song, and on stage and screen. "One of Broadway's greatest ...

3:31 # "

It's Only Make Believe "It's Only Make Believe" is a song written by drummer Jack Nance and Mississippi-born singer Conway Twitty, while they were touring across Ontario, Canada, in 1958. Twitty was a relatively unknown rock n' roll singer at the time, and this song w ...

" Written by: Jack Nance,

Conway Twitty Harold Lloyd Jenkins (September 1, 1933 – June 5, 1993), better known by his stage name Conway Twitty, was an American singer and songwriter. Initially a part of the 1950s rockabilly scene, Twitty was best known as a country music performer. ...

3:13 # "

Misty In cryptography, MISTY1 (or MISTY-1) is a block cipher designed in 1995 by Mitsuru Matsui and others for Mitsubishi Electric. MISTY1 is one of the selected algorithms in the European NESSIE project, and has been among the cryptographic tech ...

" Written by: Johnny Burke,

Erroll Garner Erroll Louis Garner (June 15, 1921 – January 2, 1977) was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His instrumental ballad "Misty", his best-known composition, has become a jazz standard. It was first re ...

4:18 # "

Mack the Knife "Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife" () is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their 1928 music drama ''The Threepenny Opera'' (). The song tells of a knife-wielding criminal of the London underworld n ...

" Written by:

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (; ; March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for hi ...

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

Marc Blitzstein Marcus Samuel Blitzstein (March 2, 1905January 22, 1964), was an American composer, lyricist, and Libretto, librettist. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-Trade union, union musical ''The Cradle Will Rock'', directed by Orson Welles, ...

3:21 # " It's Impossible" Written by:

Armando Manzanero Armando Manzanero Canché (7 December 1934 – 28 December 2020) was a Mexican musician, singer, composer, actor and music producer, widely considered the premier Mexican romantic composer of the postwar era and one of the most successful comp ...

Sid Wayne Sid Wayne (January 26, 1923 – December 26, 1991) was an American songwriter, lyricist and composer, who wrote a number of well-known songs from the 1950s to the 1980s. Almost every Elvis Presley film contained one or more works written by W ...

4:02 # "

Unchained Melody "Unchained Melody" is a 1955 song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. North wrote the music as a theme for the prison film '' Unchained'' (1955), hence the song title. Todd Duncan sang the vocals for the film soundtrack.Robert ...

" Written by:

Alex North Alex North (born Isadore Soifer; December 4, 1910 – September 8, 1991) was an American composer best known for his many film scores, including ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' (one of the first jazz-based film scores), '' Viva Zapata!'', ''Spartac ...

Hy Zaret Hy Zaret (born Hyman Harry Zaritsky; August 21, 1907 – July 2, 2007) was an American Tin Pan Alley lyricist and composer who wrote the lyrics of the 1955 hit "Unchained Melody", one of the most-recorded songs of the 20th century. Personal lif ...

4:51 # "

Suspicious Minds "Suspicious Minds" is a 1968 song written and first recorded by the American songwriter Mark James. After this recording failed commercially, it was recorded by Elvis Presley with the producer Chips Moman. Presley's version reached No.1 on th ...

" Written by: Mark James 3:49 # "

Crying Crying is the dropping of tears (or welling of tears in the eyes) in response to an emotional state or physical pain. Emotions that can lead to crying include sadness, anger, joy, and fear. Crying can also be caused by relief from a period ...

" (duet with

Linda Eder Linda Eder (; born February 3, 1961) is an American singer and actress. She originated the role of Lucy Harris in the Broadway musical '' Jekyll & Hyde'', for which she was nominated for the Drama Desk Award. Biography Eder was born in Tucso ...

) Written by:

Joe Melson Joe Melson (born May 11, 1935) is an American singer and a BMI Award-winning songwriter best known for his collaborations with Roy Orbison, including "Only the Lonely" and "Crying", which are both in the Grammy Hall of Fame and have both been inc ...

Roy Orbison Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's most successful periods were ...

4:05 # "

There's a Kind of Hush "There's a Kind of Hush" is a popular song written by Les Reed and Geoff Stephens. Originally recorded by Stephens' group the New Vaudeville Band in 1967 as a neo- British music hall number, this version of the track became a hit in Australia ...

" Written by: Les Reed,

Geoff Stephens Geoffrey Stephens (1 October 1934 – 24 December 2020) was an English songwriter and record producer, most prolific in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and 1970s. He wrote a long series of hit records, often in conjunction with other British so ...

3:00 # "

Moon River "Moon River" is a song composed by Henry Mancini with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was originally performed by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film '' Breakfast at Tiffany's'', winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song. The song also won the 19 ...

" (featuring

) Written by:

Henry Mancini Henry Mancini ( ; born Enrico Nicola Mancini; April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994) was an American composer, conductor, arranger, pianist and flutist. Often cited as one of the greatest composers in the history of film, he won four Academy Awards, ...

Johnny Mercer John Herndon Mercer (November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976) was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Wallichs Music Cit ...

4:11

Deluxe edition

" Who's Sorry Now?" Written by:
Bert Kalmar Bert Kalmar (February 10, 1884 – September 18, 1947) was an American songwriter. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. He was also a screenwriter. Biography Kalmar, a native of New York City, left school at an early age an ...
,
Harry Ruby Harry Rubenstein (January 27, 1895 – February 23, 1974), known professionally as Harry Ruby, was an American pianist, composer, songwriter and screenwriter, who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.Ted Snyder Theodore Frank Snyder (August 15, 1881 in Freeport, Illinois – July 16, 1965 in Woodland Hills, California), was an American composer, lyricist, and music publisher. His hits include " The Sheik of Araby" (1921) and " Who's Sorry Now?" (1923). ...
3:47
"
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" is a song recorded by Neil Sedaka, co-written by Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. Sedaka recorded this song twice, in 1962 and 1975, in two significantly different arrangements, and it is considered to be his signature s ...
" Written by:
Neil Sedaka Neil Sedaka (; born March 13, 1939) is an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Since his music career began in 1957, he has sold millions of records worldwide and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collabo ...
,
Howard Greenfield Howard Greenfield (March 15, 1936 – March 4, 1986) was an American lyricist and songwriter, who for several years in the 1960s worked out of the famous Brill Building. He is best known for his successful songwriting collaborations, including o ...
2:58

Bonus tracks
" You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" (
iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...
exclusive) Written by:
Pino Donaggio Giuseppe "Pino" Donaggio (born 24 November 1941) is an Italian musician, singer, and composer of film and television scores. A classically-trained violinist, Donaggio is known for his collaborations with director Brian De Palma, and for his work i ...
,
Vito Pallavicini Vito Pallavicini (22 April 1924 – 16 August 2007) was an Italian lyricist. Biography Born in Vigevano, Pallavicini started his career as a journalist, founding in 1950 the local weekly magazine ''L'informatore vigevanese''.Giannelli, Enzo. ...
,
Vicki Wickham Vicki Heather Wickham (born 1939) is an English talent manager, entertainment producer, and songwriter. Career Wickham was an assistant producer of the 1960s British television show ''Ready Steady Go!'', and was fashion consultant for the shor ...
,
Simon Napier-Bell Simon Robert Napier-Bell (born 22 April 1939) is an English record producer, music manager, author and journalist. At different times, he has managed artists as diverse as the Yardbirds, John's Children, Marc Bolan, Japan, London, Sinéad O'Co ...
4:12

Disc 2 (deluxe edition)

# Behind The Scenes Look: The Making Of Tried And True 6:22 #

Build Me Up Buttercup "Build Me Up Buttercup" is a song written by Mike d'Abo and Tony Macaulay, and released by The Foundations in 1968 with Colin Young singing lead vocals. Young had replaced Clem Curtis during 1968, and this was the first Foundations hit on which ...

(Live) Written by:

Mike d'Abo Michael David d'Abo (born 1 March 1944) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of Manfred Mann from 1966 to their dissolution in 1969, and as the composer of the songs " Handbags and Gladrags" and " Build Me Up Bu ...

Tony Macaulay Tony Macaulay (born Anthony Gordon Instone; 21 April 1944) is an English author, composer for musical theatre, and songwriter. He has won the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors Award twice as 'Songwriter of the Year' (1970 an ...

2:59

Additional personnel

(appears courtesy of The Verve Music Group) *

(appears courtesy of MCA Nashville) * Dave Sanborn (appears courtesy of Decca Label Group) * Pete Beachill – Trombone (Tenor) * Gordon Campbell – Trombone (Tenor) * Andy Wood – Trombone (Tenor) * Dave Stewart – Trombone (Bass) * Andy Mackintosh – Flute, Saxophone (Alto) *

Stan Sulzmann Stanley Ernest Sulzmann (born 30 November 1948) is an English jazz saxophonist. Biography He was born in London, England. Sulzmann began playing the saxophone aged 13 and played in 1964 Bill Ashton's London Youth Jazz Orchestra, later the Nat ...

– Flute, Saxophone (Alto) * Dave Bishop – Clarinet, Saxophone (Tenor) *

Ben Castle Ben Castle (born 1973) is a British jazz musician, the younger son of television presenter and entertainer Roy Castle (1932–1994) and his wife Fiona (born 1940). He placed first in the Jazz category of the 2003 International Songwriting Compe ...

– Clarinet, Saxophone (Tenor) * Jeff Daly – Saxophone (Baritone) * Mitch Dalton – Guitar * Mark James – Guitar * Steve Pearce – Bass (Electric) * Mark Hodgson – Double Bass * Martin Gordy – Percussion * Simon Gardner – Trumpet,

Flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet, but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though ...

* Noel Langley – Trumpet, Flugelhorn * Mike Lovatt – Trumpet, Flugelhorn * Derek Watkins – Trumpet, Flugelhorn * Pete Murray – Piano * Ralph Salmins – Drums * Quiana Parler – Background vocals, vocal production (Tracks 7 and 11) * G-Strings Orchestra (Track 9) * Thomas Bowes – Violin * Jonathan Rees – Violin * Vicci Wardman – Violin * Anthony Pleeth – Cello *

Chris Walden Chris Walden (born 10 October 1966) is a seven-time Grammy nominated German composer, arranger, and conductor living in the U.S. He leads the Chris Walden Big Band, and is the founder and artistic director of the Pacific Jazz Orchestra. He ha ...

– Arranger, Conductor, Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Soloist * Jesse Vargas – Arranger (Tracks 3 and 9) * Ben Cohn – Arranger (Track 7) * Carl Marsh – Arranger (Track 11 and 12) * Alex Christensen – Producer * Isobel Griffiths – Orchestra Contractor * Vlado Meller – Mastering * Jochem van der Saag – Mixing * Vincent Soyez – Photography * Dave Novik – Executive Producer, A&R * Paul Altomari – A&R coordination * Amy Merxbauer – A&R administration * Evelyn Morgan – A&R administration * Tom Arndt – Package Coordinator * Denise Trotman – Package Design * Fanny Gotschall – Art Direction

Recording and mixing

Angel Recording Studios Angel Recording Studios Limited (also referred to as Angel Studios) is a British recording studio based in the eponymous recording and mixing complex in Islington, London. The company was incorporated by James Warren Sylvester de Wolfe on 5 Dec ...

, London, UK * Home Studios, Hamburg, Germany * Universal Mastering Studios, New York City, NY * Additional vocals ** Soundpure Studios, Durham, NC (Track 7) ** Strange Cranium Studios, New York City, NY (Track 9) ** Osceola Studios, Raleigh, NC (Track 11)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tried and True 2010 albums Clay Aiken albums 2010s covers albums Decca Records albums

Background

Reception

Commercial performance

Critical reception

Track listing

Standard edition

Deluxe edition

Bonus tracks

Disc 2 (deluxe edition)

Additional personnel

Recording and mixing

References