The Harder I Try (The Bluer I Get)
13 chart weeks across 2 charts, peaking at No. 49
Billboard Hot 100
10 weeks, 12/11/71 to 2/12/72. Each column is a published week — click one for that chart.
Billboard R&B Singles
3 weeks, 1/29/72 to 2/12/72. Each column is a published week — click one for that chart.
Tallest is No. 1, and the height is scaled by how many places the chart ran to that week, so No. 30 on a top-30 is the floor and No. 30 on a top-50 is the middle. A green column is a bulleted week — on the airplay charts, airplay gained; on the Hot 100, among the week’s greatest airplay and sales gains — which is not the same as a rise, so a green column can sit lower than the one before it. Weeks at the peak carry their position in red. A run longer than the page scrolls sideways; no week is left out of the drawing.
Peak is the best position the record reached on that chart and links to the issue where it
first got there; the run dates link to its first and last week. Bulleted counts the weeks
the magazine circled the position — an increase in airplay on the airplay charts, and on the
Hot 100 the week’s greatest airplay and sales gains — rather than an upward move, so a
record can be bulleted while holding or even slipping a place.
A record that charted on more than one chart is one record here, with a summary line and a
history for each chart it reached: the archive keeps a single entry per record across every chart,
whichever magazine published it, so the title and the billing read the same way wherever it
appeared.
Every name in the credit links to that act's own page, and a credit naming more than one act
— a duet, a guest vocal, a "featuring" — links each of them separately.
Billboard Hot 100 covers 1958 to 2026, R&R CHR / Top 40 1977 to 1994, R&R Pop CHR and R&R Adult CHR / Hot AC 1994 to 2009, R&R Adult Contemporary 1977 to 2009, R&R Country 1977 to 2008, R&R AOR Tracks 1985 to 1995, R&R Adult Alternative / Triple A 1995 to 2009, Billboard Triple A / Adult Alternative Airplay 2009 to 2026, Billboard Mainstream Rock 1981 to 2026, Billboard Modern Rock / Alternative 1988 to 2026, and Billboard R&B Singles 1965 to 2015.