Love Takes Time
"
Love Takes Time" is a
pop song written by
Mariah Carey and
Ben Margulies, and produced by
Walter Afanasieff for Carey's debut album
Mariah Carey (1990). It was released as the album's second
single in the third quarter of 1990 (see
1990 in music). It was the first of several
adult contemporary-influenced Carey
ballads to be released as a single, and its protagonist informs others to take things easy in a relationship as "love takes time". It became Carey's second number-one single in the
United States and
Canada, but was only a moderate success elsewhere.
Carey and Margulies had written "Love Takes Time" while
Mariah Carey was being produced, but intended to save it for Carey's second album (which became
Emotions, 1991). Carey played a
demo of the track to
Tommy Mottola and other
Sony/
Columbia executives on a promotional tour after her album was sent to be pressed. The executives insisted that Carey recorded it for the album because they were impressed with it. As their decision was made as Carey's debut was about to be printed, then-struggling producer Walter Afanasieff was forced to produce the song in time for the pressing of the album. Carey had lobbied to co-produce the song, but was denied permission by her record label. Afanasieff had minimal experience in production, but he met the production deadline and went on to enjoy a career of almost ten years co-writing and co-producing with Carey. Some copies of her debut album include the song, but don't list it.
"Love Takes Time" was another success like Carey's debut single "
Vision of Love" in the
United States: it reached number one in its ninth week on the
Billboard Hot 100 and spent three weeks at the top of the chart, from
November 4 to
November 24 1990. It replaced "
Ice Ice Baby" by
Vanilla Ice, and was replaced by
Whitney Houston's "
I'm Your Baby Tonight". It spent seventeen weeks in the top forty and the
RIAA certified it
gold. It topped every other Billboard chart for which it was eligible (including the
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks and
Adult Contemporary charts), a record few singles can claim. Because its success was divided over two calendar years it did not rank high on Billboard's year-end charts, making seventy-sixth on the 1990 chart and sixty-ninth on the 1991 chart.
However, "Love Takes Time" failed to emulate the popularity of "Vision of Love" in any other market. It topped the
Canadian charts for one week, but did not make much of an impact elsewhere, becoming a moderate top twenty hit in
Australia, hitting the top ten in
New Zealand, and almost failing to make the top forty altogether in the
UK.
The song did not receive as many awards as "Vision of Love", but it too managed a
BMI Pop Award for "Song of the Year". The single's
video, directed by Jeb Bien and Walter Maser, features Carey (after receiving a call that upsets her from a
phone booth) walking around a beach. Like the video for "Vision of Love", Carey lacked creative control in its production and, ashamed of the result, did not include it on the DVD/home video
#1's (1999).
*
U.S. CD single (cassette single/7" single)#"Love Takes Time" (album version)#"Sent from up Above" (album version)
*
UK CD 5" single#"Love Takes Time" (album version)#"Vanishing" (album version)#"You Need Me" (album version)
| Chart (1990) | Peak
position | No. of chart topper | | U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 1 (3 weeks) | 2nd |
| U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks | 1 (1 week) | 2nd |
| U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary | 1 (1 week) | 2nd |
| U.S. ARC Weekly Top 40 | 1 (2 weeks) | 2nd |
| Canadian Singles Chart | 1 (1 week) | 2nd |
| New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart | 9 | — |
| Australia ARIA Singles Chart | 14 | — |
| UK Singles Chart | 37 | — |
| German Singles Chart | 75 | — |
*
Hot 100 number-one hits of 1990 (USA)*
Lyrics for the album version
