Time (Clock of the Heart)

"Time (Clock of the Heart)"
Single by Culture Club
from the album Kissing to Be Clever
B-side	"White Boys Can't Control It" "Romance Beyond the Alphabet" (US version)
Released	19 November 1982 (UK) / 29 March 1983 (US)
Recorded	1982
Genre	New wave soul[1][2]
Length	3:42
Label	Virgin, Epic
Songwriter(s)	Boy George, Jon Moss, Mikey Craig, Roy Hay
Producer(s)	Steve Levine
Culture Club singles chronology
"Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" (1982) "Time (Clock of the Heart)" (1982) "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" (1983)
Audio sample
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"Time (Clock of the Heart)" is a song by the British new wave band Culture Club, released as a stand-alone single in most of the world and as the second single from their debut album Kissing to Be Clever in North America. As the follow-up single to their global hit, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", "Time (Clock of the Heart)" peaked at #2 on the US Billboard Hot 100, kept from the #1 spot by Irene Cara's "Flashdance... What a Feeling". "Time" was also a major hit in the band's native UK, reaching #3 on the UK Singles Chart and selling over 500,000 copies in that country.

The song appears on the North American version of Culture Club's album Kissing to Be Clever. In Europe and other regions, it does not appear on the album, but instead was released as a stand-alone single in November 1982. For many of these markets, its first inclusion on a Culture Club album was on the band's 1987 greatest hits album, This Time: The First Four Years.

Cash Box said the song has "a gentle funk anchor on an otherwise airy romantic ballad."^[3] In a retrospective review of the song, Allmusic journalist Stewart Mason wrote: "Of all of Culture Club's early hits, Time (Clock of the Heart) has probably aged the best. Boy George drops the cryptic self-mythology long enough to deliver a tender, heartfelt lyric on lost love."^[4]

The music video for the song has two very slightly different versions. The only difference in the versions being a scene where the band is watching television, along with backing singer Helen Terry. In one version, a Christmas tree is shown. In the other version, the tree is not visible. This difference is because of the date of release in various markets. The version with the Christmas tree (which is also on the 2005 DVD "Greatest Hits") was released for Europe in November 1982, and the other version was for other markets, where the song was released as single in the spring of 1983.^{[citation needed]}

The B-side of the North American single was an instrumental version of the song "Romance Beyond the Alphabet". This song, either with vocals or as an instrumental, does not appear on the Kissing to Be Clever album.

The song's music video was featured during a flashback scene on the TV show Mr. Robot, season 4, episode 3.^{[5][importance?]}

The song has been re-recorded as a dance/pop track and been re-released as "Time 2022" on digital/streaming platforms.^{[citation needed]}