"Try It on My Own" | ||||||||||||
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Single by Whitney Houston | ||||||||||||
from the album Just Whitney | ||||||||||||
Released | February 11, 2003 | |||||||||||
Format | CD maxi, 12" single, DVD single | |||||||||||
Recorded | 2002 | |||||||||||
Genre | Pop, soul, R&B, gospel | |||||||||||
Length | 4:39 | |||||||||||
Label | Arista | |||||||||||
Songwriter(s) | Babyface, Jason Edmonds, Carole Bayer Sager, Aleese Simmons, Nathan Walton | |||||||||||
Producer(s) | Babyface | |||||||||||
Whitney Houston singles chronology | ||||||||||||
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Just Whitney... track listing | ||||||||||||
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"Try It on My Own", sometimes labelled as "On My Own", is a song by American recording artist Whitney Houston. It was written by Babyface, Jason Edmonds, Carole Bayer Sager, Aleese Simmons, and Nathan Walton for her fifth studio album Just Whitney (2002), with production handled by the former. A pop ballad, the song is about overcoming doubts or fears so a person can reach the point in their life where they can "try it on their own".
The song became the project's third single and was released on February 11, 2003. It received acclaim from critics as well as fans; most of them who named it as the album's highlight. Like "Whatchulookinat" and "One of Those Days" before it, "On My Own" was a modest success, topping the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart and reaching the top ten on the US Adult Contemporary charts. A music video, directed by David LaChapelle, was released to promote the single. Houston performed "Try It on My Own" on an episode of the television series Boston Public ("Chapter 66"), which first aired in May 2003, and on the 2003 VH1 Divas Duets: An Honors Concert for the VH1 Save the Music Foundation.
Critical reception for "Try It on My Own" was generally positive. In a single review, Billboard said that "the third single 'Try It on My Own' is the best song on the disc, a classic Whitney ballad that pushes every diva button, from huge celestial notes to a creamy orchestral arrangement". Keysha Davis from BBC felt that the song marked "the most welcomed return on Just Whitney, with the melancholic [song] providing one of the album's highlights." Generally critical with the album, Entertainment Weekly's Tom Sinclair called the record a "treacly keyboards-and-strings big ballad."Slant Magazine felt that "Try It on My Own" was "the kind of syrupy ballad responsible for cookie-cutter star-makers like American Idol's."