Johnny Mandel, music · Paul Francis Webster, lyrics · From the film An American Dream, 1966
A Time for Love
A Time for Love is a slow love song from the 1966 film An American Dream, nominated for an Oscar. At 38 it runs longer than the usual 32, which gives players room to stretch. Tony Bennett, Bill Evans, Stan Getz, Abbey Lincoln and Barbra Streisand all recorded it.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Johnny Mandel's own arrangement for Tony Bennett in 1966. It then hears the tune as a piano trio, as solo piano, with vibes and piano, as a live guitar trio, in two Stan Getz sessions and in Kenny Garrett's saxophone trio.
Tony Bennett recorded it in New York on June 11, 1966, with Johnny Mandel arranging and conducting. Columbia issued it on a single and on the album A Time for Love, released August 29, 1966.
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Listen for
Tony Bennett sings the song with an arrangement by its composer, Johnny Mandel, who also conducts. Follow the voice first, since the melody is easiest to learn from a singer.
Try it on your instrument
Play section A, 1 to 8, one per bar: , , , , , , then and sharing the last two bars. Smaller version: play only Fmaj7, G7 and Gm7, one chord every two bars, under the melody.
Jack Wilson recorded it at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on September 22, 1967, for Blue Note. Other tracks on the album use a larger band, but this one is piano, bass and drums.
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Listen for
A trio of piano, bass and drums plays the tune with nobody else added. The track runs 5:49, which leaves the pianist room to stretch out.
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Play section B, 9 to 16, one per bar: , , , , , , then and sharing the last two bars. Smaller version: play only Dm7, G7 and Gm7, two bars each.
Evans recorded it alone at Webster Hall in New York in autumn 1968 for the album Alone, which came out in April 1970. Clare Fischer had recorded the song on his 1967 album Songs for Rainy Day Lovers.
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Listen for
Evans plays alone, so the melody, the and the beat all come from one piano. Follow the melody through the 5:04.
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Play section C, 17 to 24, slowly: , Dm7 , , , Dm7 , , and , with two in a bar where shown. The section moves through several , so this step needs more practice. Smaller version: play only Dm7 for bars 17 and 18, C6 for bar 19, Am7 for bar 20 and Gm7 C7 for bar 24.
Milt Jackson and Oscar Peterson recorded it in July 1971 in Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer's private studio in Villingen, West Germany, for the album Reunion Blues. Ray Brown and Louis Hayes complete the quartet.
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Listen for
Two instruments lead: Milt Jackson's vibes, with their long ringing notes, and Oscar Peterson's piano. Bass and drums keep time behind them for 5:27.
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Play the start of section D, 25 to 32: , , , , , , and Em7♭5 A7♭9, with two in a bar where shown. Smaller version: play only Fmaj7, Dm7, G7 and Gm7, one chord every two bars.
The Joe Pass Trio recorded it live at Donte's in Los Angeles on December 8 and 9, 1974. Pablo first released it in 1981 on the double album Live at Donte's.
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Listen for
Joe Pass leads on guitar, with electric bass and drums behind him. It was recorded live at Donte's in Los Angeles, so listen for the room around the music.
Try it on your instrument
Play the ending of section D, 33 to 38: , , , , and , one per bar. Smaller version: play only Gm7, C7 and F6.
Stan Getz recorded it live at the Keystone Korner in San Francisco on May 10, 1981, with Lou Levy, Monty Budwig and Victor Lewis. Concord first issued it that year on the album The Dolphin.
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Stan Getz plays the melody on tenor saxophone, with piano, bass and drums behind him, recorded live at the Keystone Korner in San Francisco.
Try it on your instrument
Play sections A and B back to back, 1 to 16, using one per bar. Bars 5 to 8 and bars 13 to 16 use nearly the same chords, so section B asks you to learn only its first four bars and one changed chord. Smaller version: play only bars 1 to 8.
Recorded in New York on February 25 and 26, 1991, in one of Stan Getz's last recording sessions. Verve released the album You Gotta Pay the Band later that year.
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Listen for
Abbey Lincoln sings, and Stan Getz plays tenor saxophone alongside her, with piano, bass and drums. At 8:40 it is the longest track on the path.
Try it on your instrument
Play section A, 1 to 8, at a very slow pace, one per bar, and let each chord ring through its bar. Smaller version: play only , and , one chord every two bars.
Kenny Garrett recorded his album Triology at the Power Station in New York in 1994, and Warner Bros. released it in 1995. Charnett Moffett plays bass on this track and Brian Blade plays drums.
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Listen for
This is a trio of alto saxophone, bass and drums, so nothing else fills in the underneath. Listen for the open space around the saxophone.
Try it on your instrument
Play all 38 with only the first of each bar, counting four slow beats per chord. Smaller version: play section A, then jump to the last six bars, 33 to 38.
Johnny Mandel and Paul Francis Webster write it for the 1966 film An American Dream, which earns an Oscar nomination for Best Song. Tony Bennett records it that June, and Jack Wilson and Bill Evans follow in 1967 and 1968.
1970s
Oscar Peterson and Milt Jackson record it in West Germany in 1971, and Elvin Jones leads a ten-piece band on it that December. Joe Pass plays it live at Donte's in Los Angeles in 1974.
1980s
Stan Getz plays it live at the Keystone Korner in San Francisco in May 1981, in a quartet with Lou Levy, Monty Budwig and Victor Lewis.
1990s
Abbey Lincoln sings it with Stan Getz in New York in February 1991, in one of his last recording sessions. Kenny Garrett plays it with a bass and drums trio in 1994.
2000s
Jamie Cullum sings it at the piano on Pointless Nostalgic, released in 2002. Barbra Streisand sings an orchestra version on Love Is the Answer, released in 2009.
More great versions
4 more, from 1969 to 2009. Tap a cover to play it here.
Jamie Cullum sings and plays piano on it for Pointless Nostalgic, released by Candid on 15 July 2002 and recorded in Bexley, Kent. Geoff Gascoyne plays bass and Sebastiaan de Krom plays drums.
“A Time for Love (Orchestra Version)”, Love Is the Answer
Barbra Streisand sings the orchestra version on Love Is the Answer, a jazz standards album produced by Diana Krall and Tommy LiPuma and released in 2009. The deluxe edition adds a disc of the songs with Krall's quartet.
The tune's layout, its keys and the chord chart, for anyone who wants to play along.
Show the form and chords
How the tune works
F majorusual key
38 barsA · B · C · D form
F major → Moves through several keys → F majorkey centers
A8 bars
B8 bars
C8 bars
D14 bars
F
Moves through several keys
F
The tune runs 38 , longer than the usual 32. Sections A, B and C take 8 bars each and section D takes 14. It stays in except for section C, which moves through several before it comes home. Section A, bars 1 to 8, plays , , , , , , then and sharing the last two bars. Section B, bars 9 to 16, plays , , , G7, then the same Gm7, Gm7/F and Em7 A7 as section A, and ends on Em7♭5/A . Section C, bars 17 to 24, plays Dm7 A7, Dm7 G7, , A7♭13, Dm7 , , and Gm7 , which leads back to F. Section D, bars 25 to 38, plays Fmaj7, A7♭9, Dm7, G7, Gm7, Gm7/F, Em7 A7 and Em7♭5 A7♭9, then Dm7, G7, Gm7, C7, F6 and . These follow the iReal Pro chart; other lead sheets may spell some differently.