"Time Was" is the English-language adaptation of the Mexican bolero "Duerme," composed by Gabriel Luna de la Fuente and Miguel Prado. The original Spanish version, whose title translates simply as "Sleep," became a popular song in Mexico during the early 1940s. English lyrics were provided by S.K. Russell, transforming the piece into a wistful romantic ballad that found wide appeal in the United States. The song's melody carries the characteristic warmth and languid expressiveness of the bolero tradition, with a flowing, singing quality that lends itself equally to vocal and instrumental interpretation. "Time Was" became a significant crossover hit, bridging the Latin American and North American popular music worlds during a period when such cultural exchange was flourishing in the entertainment industry. The song was recorded by numerous popular artists of the 1940s and 1950s, and its harmonic structure proved inviting to jazz musicians, who found in its changes a vehicle for lyrical improvisation. While it never reached the top tier of the most frequently performed jazz standards, "Time Was" maintained a presence in the repertoire of musicians drawn to its romantic character and melodic beauty. Its inclusion on John Coltrane's debut album as a leader in 1957 stands as one of the composition's most notable jazz treatments, placing it alongside better-known standards in a program that demonstrated Coltrane's broad musical taste.
