I don’t have ‘charts’ from the last two months of 77 that match what I’d been keeping prior to that time—instead I simply have lists crammed together, almost all on the fronts of just two sheets of paper. They’re artifacts of the broken left wrist I suffered at the beginning of November. Since I’m right-handed, you’d think I could have taken the time to do them up right, but I must have gotten in a “woe is me” pattern while I had the cast on, one that wound up continuing through the end of the year. Plus, maybe it was boring having “You Light Up My Life” at the top every week?
During that period of recovery I bought the 45 for this excellent tune. It’s halfway up the chart here (as Casey was wont to say about the song at #20) and on its way to a peak of #13. Something I’ve discovered in going through the music of the 70s over and over again in recent years is that a number of lyrics I didn’t quite catch or mis-heard back then have become clear to me now. For instance, I’ve just realized that the lead-in to the chorus here is not “Ba-by!” like I’ve thought for forty years, but “Hey babe!”
Listening to “Isn’t It Time” afresh, what really emerges is how all-out they went and how well everything hangs together: the piano and organ, the horns, the strings, the amazing back-up singing, the bass line. Extremely hard to top this, and I don’t think the Babys ever did.
The Music of My Life 
According to last.fm, which has been tracking which songs I’ve been listening to over the past 11 years, “Isn’t It Time” is tied with REO’s “Roll With The Changes” as my twelfth most listened to song since December 2006.
It is one of my most favorite songs ever and the day I bought the 45 home it soundtracked pivotal moments in two of my most treasured relationships: my relationship with my Dad and my relationship with music.
If and when I get a vintage jukebox that plays 45s, the Chrysalis Classics 45 of The Babys “Isn’t It Time” b/w “Everytime I Think Of You” will be among the first records loaded.
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