Time After Time (3:57)

“Time After Time” was a single by singer Cyndi Lauper, the second from her album, She’s So Unusual. Speaking with Songfacts about this song in an interview, co-writer Rob Hyman explained Cyndi came up with the title when she saw it in the magazine TV Guide. “Time After Time” was the name of a 1979 science fiction movie starring Malcolm McDowell as a man who invents a time machine. Said Rob: “When she saw ‘Time After Time,’ something clicked - she said ‘I think I have a title.’ I was sitting at the piano and just started banging out what would eventually be the chorus, hook, and the way we sing it. It almost had like a Reggae feel, it was a little bouncier and a little more upbeat. We started getting off on that chorus, then the verse melodies started to appear. It’s a deceptively simple song.”

It reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart on June 9, 1984, and remained there for two weeks. Worldwide, the song is her most commercially successful single after “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”, and reached number 3 on the UK Singles Chart and number 6 on the RIAA Singles Chart.

“Time After Time” was nominated for “Song of the Year” at the 1985 Grammy Awards. The ballad is considered a classic of the 1980s and is still played frequently on adult contemporary radio. It has been covered by numerous artists.

Writing

Lauper co-wrote “Time After Time” with Philadelphia rocker Rob Hyman of The Hooters, who also supplied backup vocals to the song. In a 2006 interview with Sound Off with Matt Pinfield (episode 212) on HDNet, Lauper related how the song was written. She indicated much of the lyrics were written about occurrences in the studio and her life at the time.