"Love Takes Time" is a song recorded by American singer Mariah Carey for her eponymous debut studio album (1990).

Written by Carey and Ben Margulies, while produced by Walter Afanasieff, the song was released as the second single from the album on August 21, 1990, by Columbia Records.

An adult contemporary-influenced ballad, the song follows its protagonist lamenting the loss of a lover and confesses that "love takes time" to heal and that her feelings for her ex-lover remain.

Carey quickly recorded "Love Takes Time" at the last minute when the album was already considered complete and being processed for release.

While on a company plane, she played the demo of "Love Takes Time" for Columbia Records president Don Ienner.

The demo was very close to what Mottola wanted the finished product to be, according to Afanasieff: "We cut the song and the music and the basics in about a day - and the only reason is this deadline.

Dorothy Marcic categorized "Love Takes Time" as a "compliant victim song" in which the narrator "struggles with feeling incomplete and losing her mind since he left".

[15][16] Diane Rufer and Ron Fell of the Gavin Report called it "an awesome ballad of heroic proportions"[17] and Billboard said Carey surpassed expectations.

[18] According to Cash Box, "Carey keeps things simmering at a low heat, slowly unveiling the power and beauty of her voice.

"[19] Entertainment Weekly wrote, "With just the softest synthesizer tinkle, a touch of percussion, and what may well have been a borrowed pair of back-porch wind chimes, she made every last listener feel the utter despair of a breakup: "Losing my mind/From this hollow in my heart/Suddenly I’m so incomplete.

"[21] During a review of her 2001 Greatest Hits album in May 2002, Devon Powers of PopMatters praised the song along with "I Don't Wanna Cry", calling it "stupendous" and said that ″Her lyrics were exactly what you wanted them to be: simple, memorable, and absolutely true."

[25][26] In the United States, "Love Takes Time" debuted at number 73 on Hot 100 Singles in the Billboard issue dated September 15, 1990.

[27] Following "Vision of Love", which previously spent four weeks atop the chart, this made Carey the thirteenth artist to have two number one songs from a debut album.

[30][31] "Love Takes Time" spent a total of 26 weeks on the Hot 100;[27] it remained Carey's third best-performing song on the chart as of 2018.

[34] Internationally, "Love Takes Time" failed to emulate its US success in any other market except Canada, where it reached number two on the Canadian RPM Top Singles chart.

[citation needed] Three years later, in 1993, she performed the song in the special Here Is Mariah Carey, filmed at Proctor's Theatre.