Cyndi Lauper — Time After Time

The slow-burn ballad that gave Cyndi Lauper her first Billboard Hot 100 number one is broadly charting across 46 country and platform charts today. Written with Rob Hyman of the Hooters, it appeared on She's So Unusual in 1983 and was released as a single in January 1984 — slower and more nakedly emotional than the album's poppier cuts, which made it a counterintuitive breakthrough. Its durability in film and television has kept it circulating for decades: the song landed in dance sequences in both Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997) and Napoleon Dynamite (2004), and Tunefind documents recurring TV placements well into the 2020s. The song's melodic patience — that held note before the chorus resolves — makes it unusually placement-friendly, landing in scenes of departure and longing with minimal editing required.