Time on My Hands is a 1930 popular song composed by Vincent Youmans with lyrics by Harold Adamson and Mack Gordon. It was introduced in the Broadway musical Smiles by Marilyn Miller and Paul Gregory, and is sometimes co-credited to Reginald Connelly. The tune became a standard of the American songbook, with early London recording in 1931 by Ray Noble’s New Mayfair Dance Orchestra featuring Al Bowlly, and later popular in the United States. Notable recordings include Billie Holiday (1940) and Glenn Miller (1937), with Django Reinhardt (1939) among the early jazz interpretations, and Ben Webster (1957) and Chet Baker (1959) later on. It has appeared in film, notably in Look for the Silver Lining (1949) as performed for Marilyn Miller’s biopic, and in So This Is Love (1953) sung by Kathryn Grayson. The song is generally performed as a ballad in Eb major, with a form that moves A1 - A2 - B - A3, and is admired for its rich harmonic structure. Modern interpretations appear on albums such as Chris Botti’s Vol. 1 (Blue Note, 2023).
