The 1990s File Feature
Try A Little Tenderness
Try A Little Tenderness — The Commitments Bring a Classic Back to the ChartsA Song With Multiple LivesSome songs refuse to stay in their original decade. "Tr…
01 The Story
Try A Little Tenderness — The Commitments Bring a Classic Back to the Charts
A Song With Multiple Lives
Some songs refuse to stay in their original decade. "Try A Little Tenderness" had already lived several complete lives before The Commitments arrived with their version in 1991: written in the 1930s, transformed by Otis Redding in 1966 into one of the defining performances of the soul era, and covered by dozens of artists in the years between. When the cast of Alan Parker's film brought their version to the Billboard Hot 100 in the autumn of 1991, they were not simply recording another cover. They were participating in a long conversation about what soul music means and where it comes from.
Alan Parker's Film and Its Music
The Commitments was a 1991 film directed by Alan Parker, based on Roddy Doyle's novel about a group of working-class young people in Dublin who form a soul band. The film's central thesis, that soul music belongs to anyone who has suffered enough to mean it, was argued through the performances of its cast, a group of largely unknown Irish actors and musicians assembled specifically for the project. The film was released in 1991 and became an immediate critical success, praised for its performances, its writing, and its genuinely passionate engagement with the soul tradition. The soundtrack was a commercial and artistic extension of the film's argument.
From Otis Redding to Dublin
The version of "Try A Little Tenderness" that The Commitments performed in the film drew directly from Otis Redding's 1966 recording, arguably the most celebrated version of the song. Redding had transformed what was originally a gentle, almost plaintive tune into a volcanic performance that escalated from tenderness to ecstatic release over the course of its running time. The Commitments' approach honored this structure while giving it a new context: a group of Irish working-class musicians discovering and inhabiting a tradition not geographically their own, which was precisely the film's emotional and intellectual argument. The track debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 26, 1991, entering at number 70.
Four Weeks on the Chart
The chart run for The Commitments' version was brief but genuine. Moving from 70 to its peak of 67 in its second week, the single spent 4 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching number 67 as its peak position on November 2, 1991. This modest performance reflected the reality that the primary commercial energy around the film was concentrated in album sales and film tickets rather than single chart action, which was characteristic of soundtrack releases from this era. The film's soundtrack album performed significantly better commercially than any individual single extracted from it, as audiences encountered the music as a cohesive whole rather than as individual tracks.
What the Performance Communicated
The appeal of The Commitments' version of "Try A Little Tenderness" rested on the same quality that made the film compelling: the sense of genuine investment, of people discovering something important in an inherited tradition rather than simply reproducing it. Whether the performance technically matched what Stax Records produced in Memphis in 1966 was almost beside the point. What mattered was that the emotional engagement felt real. The song has accumulated over 24 million YouTube views, with many viewers coming to the track through the film and then discovering the soul tradition it pointed toward. The track pointed outward as much as it existed on its own terms. Press play and follow where it points.
The Film's Lasting Impact on Soul's Reputation
In the broader history of how soul music has been understood and appreciated outside the United States, The Commitments occupies a meaningful place. It argued, with narrative force and musical conviction, that the music transcended its American origins without leaving them behind. The soundtrack brought artists like Otis Redding to new audiences who might not have sought them out through more academic routes, using cinema as a gateway rather than a lecture hall. The Commitments' brief Hot 100 appearance was a small fraction of what the project ultimately contributed to soul music's reach.
"Try A Little Tenderness" — The Commitments' singular moment on the 1990s charts.
02 Song Meaning
Soul Music, Cultural Belonging, and "Try A Little Tenderness"
The Original Song and Its History
Before The Commitments, before Otis Redding, "Try A Little Tenderness" existed as a song about the importance of gentleness in relationships, a 1930s popular standard that reflected the sensibilities of its era. The lyrics advised lovers to treat their partners with patience and kindness, recognizing that women carry burdens that are not always visible to others. This was emotional advice wrapped in the conventions of popular song, accessible and well-crafted but not particularly destined for lasting artistic significance in its original form.
What Otis Redding Did to It
The transformation of "Try A Little Tenderness" from pleasant standard to soul classic happened at the hands of Otis Redding, whose 1966 recording reimagined the song's emotional scale entirely. Redding took the tender advice of the original lyric and built it toward a conclusion of overwhelming ecstatic intensity, using the structure of the gospel performance tradition to turn what had been a gentle argument into something that felt like a revelation. Redding's version became one of the most celebrated performances in soul history, studied and discussed for the way it used escalation as a narrative and emotional device. When The Commitments covered the song, they were covering Redding as much as they were covering the 1930s original.
The Argument of the Film
The meaning of The Commitments' performance of "Try A Little Tenderness" cannot be separated from the film it came from. The Commitments made an explicit argument: that soul music belonged to working-class people anywhere who were familiar with economic struggle and emotional hardship, not exclusively to the Black communities of the American South who had originated it. This was a claim that required careful handling, and the film navigated it through the specificity of its Dublin setting and the honesty with which it showed its characters encountering the tradition as students rather than as natural inheritors. The Irish working-class context of the film gave the cover version a political and cultural argument that a simple cover would not have carried.
Tenderness as Radical Act
The core message of "Try A Little Tenderness," whatever version one hears, is worth taking seriously as an ethical claim. The instruction to notice what another person carries, to respond with gentleness rather than impatience, to treat someone's weariness as worthy of care, is not a trivial sentiment even if the original song expressed it in conventional popular music terms. The soul tradition gave this message additional weight by placing it in a context where endurance and hardship were understood as collective experiences rather than individual failures. When Redding sang about what women carried, he was drawing on a communal understanding of burden that the pop standard format of the original had not required.
Why the Cover Worked
The Commitments' version succeeded because the performances communicated genuine feeling rather than imitation. The cast of the film had been trained to inhabit these songs rather than simply reproduce them, and the difference between those two approaches was audible. The track's 24 million YouTube views reflect decades of viewers encountering the film and then returning to this performance, the climactic sequence in which the song is performed at full force, as a reminder of what the music can do when it is approached with full commitment. Soul music rewards exactly the sincerity it demands. The Commitments gave it that sincerity, and audiences responded.
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