In 1988, British production team Stock Aitken Waterman auctioned off their services for the Young Variety Club of Great Britain charity.

"[4] James Hamilton from Record Mirror wrote in his dance column, "Stock Aitken Waterman-created 129+3⁄4bpm old Motown-style fingersnappin' pulser, full of swimming harmonies and bright tinkles, and a sampled drum roll from the Isley Brothers 'This Old Heart of Mine'".

[5] Mike Soutar from Smash Hits named "The Harder I Try" Single of the Fortnight, adding, "It's quite obvious from the outset that Stock Aitken and Waterman are involved here, but happily they've not utterly swamped the song with their own inimitable "style".

Ah, the Yond' will make such good pop sensations..."[6] Retrospectively, in 2020, Daniel Griffiths of musicradar.com listed it as one of the five songs by SAW that producers need to hear, adding that it was a "razor-sharp Motown sound-alike".

[10] In Continental Europe, the single was mildly successful, reaching the top ten in Iceland only where it culminated at number nine,[11] while it was a top-20 hit in Switzerland, the Netherlands and the Flanders region of Belgium.