All This Time

Album: Hold an Old Friend's Hand (1988)
Charted: 47 6
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Written by Tim James and Steve McClintock, this heartbreak song finds Tiffany getting over a breakup, wondering how she will occupy her time now that they're no longer together.
  • Tiffany is best known for her #1 hits "I Think We're Alone Now" and "Could've Been," which were released on her 1987 debut album - she was just 16 when those songs topped the chart. Her next album was done with more urgency and issued in 1988. "All This Time" proved a substantial hit, and the album sold over a million copies. Her popularity was fading, however, and soon she was opening shows for the New Kids On The Block, who opened for her at the start.

    Tiffany never returned to the heights she reached as a teenager, but she began writing her own songs and forged a solid career with this material. She also became a reality TV star and appeared in some very campy SyFy movies: Mega Piranha and Mega Python vs. Gatoroid.
  • In a Songfacts interview with Tiffany, she talked about recording this song. "I fell in love with that song. The melody was kind of haunting, just those kind of strings in the beginning, that kind of sound. It was haunting but yet uplifting at the same time. It was just different for me and I've always liked that kind of sound.

    Going in and doing a vocal on that I wanted to use more of a scratchy voice. That's natural for my voice anyway, but I recorded that song at probably two in the morning, after a pizza. It made me good and scratchy and kind of lazy as a vocalist with that 'I just woke up' kind of sound. We really did think about the best way to approach the songs, and sometimes vocals on the first couple of records were done at two o'clock in the morning, just because studio things break down and they take time to track things, so I would end up falling asleep on a couch and they'd wake me up to do a vocal at one/two/three in the morning. "

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Al Kooper

Al KooperSongwriter Interviews

Kooper produced Lynyrd Skynyrd, played with Dylan and the Stones, and formed BS&T.

Oliver Leiber

Oliver LeiberSongwriter Interviews

Oliver Leiber talks about writing and producing hits for Paula Abdul, and explains his complicated relationship with his father, the songwriter Jerry Leiber.

Harry Shearer

Harry ShearerSongwriter Interviews

Harry is Derek Smalls in Spinal Tap, Mark Shubb in The Folksmen, and Mr. Burns on The Simpsons.

Don Dokken

Don DokkenSongwriter Interviews

Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.

Gene Simmons of Kiss

Gene Simmons of KissSongwriter Interviews

The Kiss rocker covers a lot of ground in this interview, including why there are no Kiss collaborations, and why the Rock Hall has "become a sham."

Meshell Ndegeocello

Meshell NdegeocelloSongwriter Interviews

Meshell Ndegeocello talks about recording "Wild Night" with John Mellencamp, and explains why she shied away from the spotlight.