Released 1965 | Writer(s) Buffy Sainte-Marie | |
"Until It's Time for You to Go" is a song from the 1965 album Many a Mile by Canadian First Nations singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. It was a UK Top 20 hit for British group The Four Pennies in 1965, and for Elvis Presley in 1972, and a US Hot 100 single for Neil Diamond in 1970 and New Birth featuring future Supremes member Susaye Greene in 1973. Andy Williams released a version in 1972 on his album, Love Theme from "The Godfather".
Buffy Sainte-Marie included a French language reworking of the song, "T'es pas un autre", on her 1967 album Fire & Fleet & Candlelight. French translation was made by Quebecer songwriter Claude Gauthier.
The lyrics concern an ordinary man and woman who love each other, but cannot stay together because they come from different worlds. The singer asks her (or his) lover: "Don't ask why/Don't ask how/Don't ask forever/Love me now." According to Sainte-Marie, the song "popped into my head while I was falling in love with someone I knew couldn't stay with me." Besides The Four Pennies, Diamond and Presley, it has been covered by Paul Anka, Eddy Arnold, Chet Atkins, Emilie-Claire Barlow, Shirley Bassey, The Boston Pops Orchestra, Glen Campbell, Vikki Carr, Anita Carter, Cher, Jim Croce, Bobby Darin, Bette Davis, Roberta Flack, Robert Goulet, Françoise Hardy, Cleo Laine, Pierre Lalonde (in French), Claudine Longet, Joe Longthorne, Vera Lynn, Johnny Mathis, Willie Nelson, Michael Nesmith, New Birth, Helen Reddy, Nancy Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Grover Washington, Jr., Evie Sands, Dottie West, and Andy Williams.