“Love Takes Time” by Mariah Carey

"Love Takes Time" almost missed the boat. Mariah Carey's self-titled 1990 debut was already finished and being readied for release when she played the demo to Columbia chief Don Ienner on a plane; she wanted to hold it back for her second album, but Ienner and the other executives wanted it on this one. So she cut it in a hurry, it went on as the closing track, and the earliest pressings didn't even list it.

Carey wrote it with Ben Margulies, and Walter Afanasieff produced and arranged it, playing keyboards, synthesizers, synth bass and drums himself. It's an adult-contemporary ballad about a woman mourning a lost love, admitting that healing takes time and that the feelings haven't gone anywhere. As the album's second single it became her second US number one, holding the top spot for three weeks.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.