Cyndi Lauper's Most-covered Song Hit No. 1 On This Day In 1984
Even though Cyndi Lauper's hit song "Time After Time" enjoyed two weeks on the Billboard charts, the feat was just the beginning of how the song became established in pop culture history.
First hitting No. 1 on the Billboard chart on June 9, 1984, the song, a ballad-type tune that was a different style for the rocker at the time, who had released "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" a year earlier, went on to become one of her most recognizable hits.
Its origin story however, comes from a not-so-conventional place. Lauper has shared that the title of the song was actually inspired by a sci-fi movie title.
"I thumbed through a TV Guide Magazine. One movie title seemed good, a sci-fi film called ‘Time After Time' from 1979," she told the Wall Street Journal in 2015. "I never meant for it to be the song's real title. It was just supposed to get me thinking."
"As I danced to what [songwriter Rob Hyman] played, I started thinking about up and down, lost and found: ‘If you fall I will catch you, I will be waiting / Time after time' and ‘If you're lost you can look and you will find me / Time after time.' It sounded odd at first, but when I sang it, I realized what I was talking about," she said. "They were pieces of my personal life."
Related: 1984 No. 1 Heartbreak Ballad Borrowed Its Name From a Forgotten Sci-Fi Movie
"Time after Time" came a year after Lauper's career had kicked off and was a part of her album entitled 'She's So Unusual.' She was no stranger to the Billboard chart as "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" also saw success at No. 2 in the famed ranking months before, according to Billboard.com.
"Time After Time" was also nominated for a Grammy for Song of the Year in 1985. The award ultimately went to "What's Love Got to Do with It" by Tina Turner.
Through the years though, the song has been covered over 400 times according to SecondHandSongs' database. Some notable versions of the hit song include ones by Miles Davis, Willie Nelson, Quietdrive, and SarahMclachlan. The song was also featured in the movie 'Romy and Michelle's High School' reunion.
"A lot of the song to me was kind of spiritual and it also was kind of deep because it's about testing love," Lauper told Rolling Stone in 2021. "Because if you love somebody you're there. I think that is what grabbed people, and the fact that there were real moments of humanity in it."
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This story was originally published June 9, 2026 at 4:00 AM.