Cyndi Lauper: Time After Time - On Solid Gold Countdown '86 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit)

Cyndi Lauper: Time After Time - On Solid Gold Countdown '86 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit)

"Time After Time" is a 1983 song by American singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper, co-written with Rob Hyman, who also provided backing vocals. It was the second single released from her debut studio album, She's So Unusual (1983). The track was produced by Rick Chertoff and released as a single in March 1984. The song became Lauper's first number 1 hit in the U.S. The song was written in the album's final stages, after "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", "She Bop" and "All Through the Night" had been written or recorded. The writing began with the title, which Lauper had seen in TV Guide magazine, referring to the science fiction film Time After Time (1979).

Music critics gave the song positive reviews, with many commending the song for being a solid and memorable love song. The song has been selected as one of the Best Love Songs of All Time by many media outlets, including Rolling Stone, Nerve, MTV and many others. "Time After Time" was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Song of the Year at the 1985 edition. The song was a success on the charts, becoming her first number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart on June 9, 1984, and remaining there for two weeks. The song reached number three on the UK Singles Chart and number six on the ARIA Singles Chart.

Although "Time After Time" would eventually become one of Lauper's signature songs, it was one of the last songs on her debut album to be recorded. While Lauper was still writing material for She's So Unusual in the spring of 1983, her producer, Rick Chertoff introduced her to American musician Rob Hyman, a founding member of the Hooters. Lauper had by then already recorded the majority of the album, including the songs "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "She Bop," but Chertoff insisted that she and Hyman needed to record just "one more song". Therefore, she and Hyman sat at a piano and started working on "Time After Time".

The inspiration for the song came from the fact that both songwriters were going through similar challenges in their respective romantic relationships; Hyman was coming out of a relationship, and Lauper was having difficulties with her boyfriend/manager, David Wolff. One of the early lines Rob wrote was "suitcase of memories," which according to Lauper, "struck her," claiming it was a "wonderful line," and other lines came from Lauper's life experiences. The song's title was borrowed from a TV Guide listing for the 1979 movie Time After Time, which Lauper had intended to use only as a temporary placeholder during the writing process. Although she later tried to change the song's name, she said that she felt at some point that "Time After Time" had become so fundamental to the song that it would fall apart with a different title.

Initially, Epic Records wanted "Time After Time" as the album's lead single. However, Lauper felt that releasing a ballad as her debut solo single would have pigeonholed her stylistically as a balladeer, limiting her future work and thus potentially killing her career. Wolff felt that "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" could become a successful pop anthem and was a better choice; ultimately the label agreed and released it as the lead single. "Time After Time" became the album's second single, released on March 27, 1984.