Tried and True is the fifth full length studio album released by Clay Aiken

Clay Aiken

Clayton Holmes "Clay" Aiken is an American singer, songwriter, actor, producer and author who began his rise to fame on the second season of the television program American Idol in 2003. RCA Records offered him a recording contract, and his multi-platinum debut album Measure of a Man was released...

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

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

 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 50s and 60s. "Unchained Melody" and "Mack the Knife" were performed by Aiken when he was a contestant on American Idol

American Idol

American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...

's second season. In an article written after interviewing Aiken, The News & Observer

The News & Observer

The News & Observer is the regional daily newspaper of the Research Triangle area of the U.S. State of North Carolina. The N&O, as it is popularly called, is based in Raleigh and also covers Durham, Cary, and Chapel Hill. The paper also has substantial readership in most of the state east of...

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

David Sanborn

David Sanborn is an American alto saxophonist. Though Sanborn has worked in many genres, his solo recordings typically blend jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He released his first solo album Taking Off in 1975, but has been playing the saxophone since before he was in high school...

 on the Sammy Davis Jr. classic 'What Kind of Fool Am I?' [sic] Vince Gill

Vince Gill

Vincent Grant "Vince" Gill is an American neotraditional country singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman to the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s, and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a...

 performs guitar on Andy Williams' legendary 'Moon River.'"

Commercial performance

The album, selling 22,000 units in its first week, made its debut on the Billboard charts

Billboard charts

The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...

 at #9 on the Billboard 200

Billboard 200

The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

 and #21 on Billboard's Digital Albums. In Canada, the album debuted at #58 on the Canadian Albums Chart

Canadian Albums Chart

The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS...

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

Critical reception

The album received positive reviews. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic 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

A Thousand Different Ways

A Thousand Different Ways is the third studio album by Clay Aiken. The album, which was executive produced by Jaymes Foster, consists of ten covers and four new songs. It was released by RCA on September 19, 2006...

, winding up with something that might be the best representation yet of his peculiar charms."

Track list

Looking like a worn sleeve from a '50s or '60s LP

Gramophone record

A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

, the Tried and True album art lists the songs included on the front cover.

Standard Edition

1. "Can't Take My Eyes off You
   Can't Take My Eyes off You
   "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" is a 1967 single by Frankie Valli. The song was among Valli's biggest hits, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earning a gold record. It was Valli's biggest "solo" hit until he hit #1 in 1975 with "My Eyes Adored You"...
   
   " Written by: Bob Crewe
   Bob Crewe
   Bob Crewe is an American songwriter, dancer, singer, manager, record producer and fine artist. He is known for producing, and co-writing with Bob Gaudio, a string of Top 10 singles for The Four Seasons...
   
   , Bob Gaudio
   Bob Gaudio
   Robert John "Bob" Gaudio is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer, and the keyboardist/backing vocalist for The Four Seasons.-Early career:...
   
    3:18
2. "What Kind of Fool Am I?
   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...
   
    (featuring David Sanborn
   David Sanborn
   David Sanborn is an American alto saxophonist. Though Sanborn has worked in many genres, his solo recordings typically blend jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He released his first solo album Taking Off in 1975, but has been playing the saxophone since before he was in high school...
   
   ) Written by: Leslie Bricusse
   Leslie Bricusse
   Leslie Bricusse is an English composer, lyricist, and playwright.Although best known for his partnership with Anthony Newley, Bricusse has worked with many other composers. He was educated at University College School in London and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge...
   
   , Anthony Newley
   Anthony Newley
   Anthony George Newley was an English actor, singer and songwriter. He enjoyed success as a performer in such diverse fields as rock and roll and stage and screen acting.-Early life:...
   
    3:31
3. "It's Only Make Believe
   It's Only Make Believe
   "It's Only Make Believe" is the title of a song written by Jack Nance and American country music artist Conway Twitty, released by Twitty as a single in July 1958. The single topped both U.S...
   
   " Written by: Jack Nance, Conway Twitty
   Conway Twitty
   Conway Twitty , born Harold Lloyd Jenkins, was an American country music artist. He also had success in early rock and roll, R&B, and pop music. He held the record for the most number one singles of any act with 55 No. 1 Billboard country hits until George Strait broke the record in 2006...
   
    3:13
4. "Misty
   Misty (song)
   "Misty" is a jazz standard written in 1954 by the pianist Erroll Garner.Originally composed as an instrumental following the traditional 32-bar format, the tune later had lyrics by Johnny Burke and became the signature song of Johnny Mathis, reaching #12 on the U.S. Pop Singles chart in 1959...
   
   " Written by: Johnny Burke
   Johnny Burke (lyricist)
   Johnny Burke was a lyricist, widely regarded as one of the finest writers of popular songs in America between the 1920s and 1950s.-Biography:...
   
   , Erroll Garner
   Erroll Garner
   Erroll Louis Garner was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the ballad "Misty", has become a jazz standard...
   
    4:18
5. "Mack the Knife
   Mack the Knife
   "Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife", originally "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928 at the...
   
   " Written by: Kurt Weill
   Kurt Weill
   Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
   
   , Bertolt Brecht
   Bertolt Brecht
   Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
   
   , Marc Blitzstein
   Marc Blitzstein
   Marcus Samuel Blitzstein, better known as Marc Blitzstein , was an American composer. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Works Progress Administration...
   
    3:21
6. "It's Impossible" Written by: Armando Manzanero
   Armando Manzanero
   Armando Manzanero Canché is a Mexican musician and composer of Maya descent, widely considered the premier Mexican romantic composer of the postwar era and one of the most successful composers of Latin America....
   
   , Sid Wayne
   Sid Wayne
   Sid Wayne was an American songwriter, lyricist and composer, who wrote a number of well-known songs from the 1950s to the 1980s...
   
    4:02
7. "Unchained Melody
   Unchained Melody
   "Unchained Melody" is a 1955 song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. It has become one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, by some counts having spawned over 500 versions in hundreds of different languages....
   
   " Written by: Alex North
   Alex North
   Alex North was an American composer who wrote the first jazz-based film score and one of the first modernist scores written in Hollywood ....
   
   , Hy Zaret
   Hy Zaret
   Hy Zaret was an American Tin Pan Alley lyricist and composer best known as the co-author of the 1955 hit "Unchained Melody", one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century.-Biography:...
   
    4:51
8. "Suspicious Minds
   Suspicious Minds
   "Suspicious Minds" is a song written by American songwriter Mark James that, after the failure of his own recording, was handed to Elvis Presley by producer Chips Moman becoming one of his most notable hits and a number one in 1969, "Suspicious Minds" was widely regarded as the single that returned...
   
   " Written by: Mark James
   Mark James (songwriter)
   Mark James is a songwriter, famous for writing hits for singers B.J. Thomas, Brenda Lee, and Elvis Presley, most notably Elvis' last US number one hit single, "Suspicious Minds."-History:...
   
    3:49
9. "Crying" (duet with Linda Eder
   Linda Eder
   Linda Eder is an American singer and actress. She made her Broadway debut in the musical Jekyll & Hyde, for which she received 1997 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Nominations, as well as the Theatre World Award for Best Actress in a Musical...
   
   ) Written by: Joe Melson
   Joe Melson
   Joe Melson , is an American singer and a BMI Award–winning songwriter.Melson was born in Bonham, the seat of Fannin County in northeast Texas. He was reared on a farm until he was sixteen. He attended high school in Gore, Oklahoma, and in Chicago before he returned to Texas to study at the two-year...
   
   , Roy Orbison
   Roy Orbison
   Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...
   
    4:05
10. "There's a Kind of Hush
    There's A Kind Of Hush
    "There's a Kind of Hush" is a popular song written by Les Reed and Geoff Stephens which was a hit in 1967 for Herman's Hermits and again in 1976 for the Carpenters.-First recordings:...
    
    " Written by: Les Reed
    Les Reed
    Les Reed O.B.E. is an English songwriter, musician and light orchestra leader.-Career:...
    
    , Geoff Stephens
    Geoff Stephens
    Geoffrey 'Geoff' Stephens , was one of the top British songwriters of the 1960s and 1970s.-Career:...
    
     3:00
11. "Moon River
    Moon River
    "Moon River" is a song composed by Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini in 1961, for whom it won that year's Academy Award for Best Original Song. It was originally sung in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's by Audrey Hepburn, although it has been covered by many other artists...
    
    " (featuring Vince Gill
    Vince Gill
    Vincent Grant "Vince" Gill is an American neotraditional country singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman to the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s, and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a...
    
    ) Written by: Henry Mancini
    Henry Mancini
    Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
    
    , Johnny Mercer
    Johnny Mercer
    John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...
    
     4:11

Deluxe Edition

12. "Who's Sorry Now?
    Who's Sorry Now?
    "Who's Sorry Now?" is a popular song with music written by Ted Snyder and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. It was published in 1923."Who's Sorry Now?" was featured in the Marx Brothers film A Night in Casablanca , directed by Archie Mayo and released by United Artists.The song has been...
    
    " Written by: Bert Kalmar
    Bert Kalmar
    Bert Kalmar was a Jewish American lyricist.He was born in New York, New York. He ran away from home at the age of 10 to become a magician at a tent show, and retained an interest in magic all his life. He never got much of an education, but decided to make a career in show business...
    
    , Harry Ruby
    Harry Ruby
    Harry Ruby was a Jewish American songwriter and screenwriter.After failing in his early ambition to become a professional baseball player,...
    
    , Ted Snyder
    Ted Snyder
    Theodore Frank Snyder , was a U.S. composer, lyricist, and music publisher . His hits include "The Sheik of Araby" and "Who's Sorry Now?" . In 1970, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame...
    
     3:47
    
13. "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" Written by: Neil Sedaka
    Neil Sedaka
    Neil Sedaka is an American pop/rock singer, pianist, and composer. His career has spanned nearly 55 years, during which time he has sold millions of records as an artist and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collaborating mostly with lyricists Howard...
    
    , Howard Greenfield
    Howard Greenfield
    Howard Greenfield was an American lyricist and songwriter, who for several years in the 1960s worked out of the famous Brill Building...
    
     2:58
    

    Bonus tracks

14. "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
    You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
    "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" is the title of a 1966 hit recorded by British singer Dusty Springfield which proved to be her career record reaching #1 UK and #4 US: the song subsequently charted in the UK via remakes by Elvis Presley , Guys 'n' Dolls and Denise Welch with Presley's version...
    
    " (iTunes
    ITunes
    iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
    
     exclusive) Written by: Pino Donaggio
    Pino Donaggio
    Giuseppe "Pino" Donaggio is an Italian composer.Born in Burano , into a family of musicians, Donaggio began studying violin at the age of ten, first at the Benedetto Marcello conservatory in Venice, followed by the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan...
    
    , Vito Pallavicini
    Vito Pallavicini
    Vito Pallavicini was an Italian lyricist.Born in Vigevano, he wrote numerous songs, during his career for Adriano Celentano , Caterina Caselli and many others. He died at the age of 83....
    
    , Vicki Wickham
    Vicki Wickham
    Vicki Heather Wickham is an English talent manager, entertainment producer, and songwriter.-Career:She is most known for producing the 60s British television show Ready Steady Go!, and managing well known pop/soul acts Labelle and Dusty Springfield....
    
    , Simon Napier-Bell
    Simon Napier-Bell
    Simon Napier-Bell has undertaken many jobs in the music industry, including bandboy, manager, producer, songwriter, journalist and author and gourmet...
    
     4:12
    

Disk 2 (Deluxe Edition)

1. Behind The Scenes Look: The Making Of Tried And True 6:22
2. Build Me Up Buttercup
   Build Me Up Buttercup
   "Build Me Up Buttercup" is the name of a song written by Mike d'Abo and Tony Macaulay, and released by The Foundations with Colin Young singing the lead vocals in 1968. This was the third major hit for The Foundations. Colin Young replaced Clem Curtis in 1968 and this was the first Foundations hit...
   
    (Live) Written by: Mike d'Abo
   Mike d'Abo
   Michael David "Mike" d'Abo is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the former lead vocalist of Manfred Mann.-Biography:...
   
   , Tony Macaulay
   Tony Macaulay
   Tony Macaulay is a British author, composer for musical theatre, and songwriter, though it was the latter that made him a household name early in his career...
   
    2:59

Additional personnel

• Linda Eder
  Linda Eder
  Linda Eder is an American singer and actress. She made her Broadway debut in the musical Jekyll & Hyde, for which she received 1997 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Nominations, as well as the Theatre World Award for Best Actress in a Musical...
  
   (appears courtesy of The Verve Music Group)
• Vince Gill
  Vince Gill
  Vincent Grant "Vince" Gill is an American neotraditional country singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman to the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s, and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a...
  
   (appears courtesy of MCA Nashville)
• Dave Sanborn
  David Sanborn
  David Sanborn is an American alto saxophonist. Though Sanborn has worked in many genres, his solo recordings typically blend jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He released his first solo album Taking Off in 1975, but has been playing the saxophone since before he was in high school...
  
   (appears courtesy of Decca Label Group)
• Pete Beachill - Trombone
  Trombone
  The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
  
   (Tenor)
• Gordon Campbell - Trombone (Tenor)
• Andy Wood -Trombone (Tenor)
• Dave Stewart - Trombone (Bass)
• Andy Mackintosh - Flute
  Flute
  The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
  
  , Saxophone
  Saxophone
  The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
  
   (Alto)
• Stan Sulzmann
  Stan Sulzmann
  Stanley Ernest Sulzmann is an English jazz saxophonist.Sulzmann began on saxophone at age 13 and played in Bill Ashton's London Youth Jazz Orchestra, later the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music from 1969-1972...
  
   - Flute, Saxophone (Alto)
• Dave Bishop - Clarinet
  Clarinet
  The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
  
  , Saxophone (Tenor)
• Ben Castle
  Ben Castle
  Ben Castle is a British jazz musician, the son of the late television actor and entertainer Roy Castle . He placed first in the Jazz category of the 2003 International Songwriting Competition with his song "The Heckler"....
  
   - Clarinet, Saxophone (Tenor)
• Jeff Daly - Saxophone (Baritone)
• Mitch Dalton - Guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  
• Mark James - Guitar
• Steve Pearce - Bass
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
   (Electric)
• Mark Hodgson - Double Bass
• Martin Gordy - Percussion
  Percussion instrument
  A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
  
  
• Simon Gardner - Trumpet
  Trumpet
  The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
  
  , Flugelhorn
  Flugelhorn
  The flugelhorn is a brass instrument resembling a trumpet but with a wider, conical bore. Some consider it to be a member of the saxhorn family developed by Adolphe Sax ; however, other historians assert that it derives from the valve bugle designed by Michael Saurle , Munich 1832 , thus...
  
  
• Noel Langley - Trumpet, Flugelhorn
• Mike Lovatt - Trumpet, Flugelhorn
• Derek Watkins
  Derek Watkins (trumpeter)
  Derek Watkins is a British trumpeter and session musician renowned for playing the trumpet and flugelhorn...
  
   - Trumpet, Flugelhorn
• Pete Murray - Piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
  
• Ralph Salmins - Drums
• Quiana Parler - Background vocals, vocal production (Tracks 7 and 11)
• G-Strings Orchestra (Track 9)
• Thomas Bowes - Violin
  Violin
  The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
  
  
• Jonathan Rees - Violin
• Vicci Wardman - Violin
• Anthony Pleeth - Cello
  Cello
  The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
  
  
• Chris Walden
  Chris Walden
  Chris Walden is a German composer, arranger, and conductor living in the U.S. He leads his own jazz big band, the Chris Walden Big Band, based in Los Angeles and was nominated four times for a Grammy award....
  
   - Arranger
  Arranger
  In investment banking, an arranger is a provider of funds in the syndication of a debt. They are entitled to syndicate the loan or bond issue, and may be referred to as the "lead underwriter". This is because this entity bears the risk of being able to sell the underlying securities/debt or the...
  
  , Conductor
  Conducting
  Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
  
  , 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
  Record producer
  A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
  
  
• Isobel Griffiths - Orchestra Contractor
• Vlado Meller - Mastering
• Jochem van der Saag - Mixing
• Vincent Soyez - Photography
  Photography
  Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
  
  
• Dave Novik - Executive Producer
  Executive producer
  An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
  
  , 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, Mixing

• Angel Studios, 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)