Take My Time

Background

After becoming suddenly famous due to her appearance on a television documentary in 1980 and with the hits “9 To 5” (which went gold) and “Modern Girl”, Easton began recording her debut album with producer Christopher Neil. The style of the album was a combination of pure pop (“Take My Time” and “Voice on the Radio”) and sentimental ballads (“When He Shines” and “No-One Ever Knows”). "Prisoner" is a cover of a Sue Saad and the Next song released earlier in 1980.

The album charted in February 1981, just as Easton was finding fame in the US when “9 to 5” (retitled “Morning Train (Nine to Five)” to avoid confusion with a record by Dolly Parton called "9 To 5") took her to No. 1 in the charts there.

In the UK, the album met with favourable response by reaching No. 17 and spent 19 weeks on the charts. In the US, it was released two months later and also made the top 30. By May 1981, three more singles were released from the collection, namely; “One Man Woman”, “Take My Time” and “When He Shines”. The latter being a song she had performed at the Royal Variety Performance in November 1980, and was left off the US version of the album (to be later included on her second album). With four of the singles reaching the top 20 in the UK (the title track reached a lower #44), Easton became the first female artist to score five top 50 singles hits from an album. The album's opening track, "Don't Send Flowers" had recently been released as a single by British band Sailor, but had been unsuccessful.

In the US, the album was simply titled Sheena Easton and included only two singles (“Morning Train“ and “Modern Girl”) before Easton was to chart highly with a new song, the James Bond theme, “For Your Eyes Only”; however "When He Shines" was released as a single from Sheena's second US album, Easton quickly became a staple on Adult Contemporary radio, where "Morning Train" also hit No. 1 and "Modern Girl" reached the top 10, both in 1981.

Producer Christopher Neil continued to work with Easton and produced her following two albums in a similar vein, before Easton decided to leave behind the pure-pop image she had gained.

Take My Time was re-released on Compact disc in the US on 19 June 1999 with bonus tracks by One Way Records. The UK version of the album was re-released on CD on 19 October 2009 with bonus tracks by Cherry Red Records.

On November 24, 2014 the album was included in an Original Album Series box set in the UK with all of her first 5 albums with EMI through Warner Music Group, who now owns the rights to all of EMI's back catalogs.

Track listing

1. "Don't Send Flowers" (Phil Pickett) 3.02
2. "Cry" (Frank Musker, Garth Murphy) 3.32
3. "Take My Time" (Paul Bliss, Phil Palmer) 2.39
4. "When He Shines" (Dominic Bugatti, Peter Vale) 3.56
5. "One Man Woman" (Mike Leeson, Peter Vale) 3.06
6. "Prisoner" (D.B. Cooper, James Lance, Tony Riparetti) 3.34

1. "9 to 5" (Florrie Palmer) 3.20
2. "So Much In Love" (Dominic Bugatti, Frank Musker) 3.04
3. "Voice On the Radio" (Florrie Palmer, Peter Vale) 3.18
4. "Calm Before the Storm" (Christopher Neil, Peter Vale) 3.28
5. "Modern Girl" (Dominic Bugatti, Frank Musker) 3.37
6. "No-one Ever Knows" (Leeson, Peter Vale) 3.47

1. "Paradox" (Christopher Neil) 2.40
2. "Moody (My Love)" (Easton, Christopher Neil) 2.07
3. "Summer's Over" (Florrie Palmer, Christopher Neil) 3.24
4. "Right or Wrong" (Florrie Palmer) 3.17

Track listing (US, Canada)

1. "Morning Train (9 to 5)"
2. "Don't Send Flowers"
3. "Cry"
4. "Take My Time"
5. "Prisoner"

1. "Modern Girl"
2. "So Much In Love"
3. "Voice On the Radio"
4. "One Man Woman"
5. "Calm Before the Storm"

1. "Family of One" (Mike Leeson, Peter Vale)
2. "Please Don't Sympathize" (Thompson)
3. "Right or Wrong"
4. "Paradox"
5. "Summer's Over"

Personnel