There are great singer and there are distinctive singers — singers whose voice you immediately recognize. Marvin Gaye is a great singer. Erykah Badu is distinctive. Macy Gray is another distinctive singer. She turns 48 years old today (Sept. 6).

Gray's raspy, lower octave voice was hard to miss at the turn of the millennium. That's because "I Try" was a hit. Gray's biggest hit reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs chart and pushed her debut, 1999's On How Life Is, into multi-platinum status. "I Try" also earned Gray a Grammy award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

The song was big enough to earn Gray some cameos and acting gigs. She has appeared in such film as Training Day and Spider-Man, among other roles.

Music-wise, the Ohio native's identifiable voice should have birthed multiple other hits. Gray kept putting out albums, but she never had a song that even came close to matching the success of "I Try." She revealed to Oprah Winfrey in a 2014 interview that she struggled with drug abuse during her quick rise to fame.

Gray still tours regularly and recently she made a cameo in the indie flick, Brotherly Love. Her latest album, The Way, is in stores now.

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