"Takes a Little Time" was a maxi-single released in 1997 (see 1997 in music) to promote Amy Grant's album Behind the Eyes, which was also released that year. "Takes a Little Time" included two songs from Behind the Eyes, as well as a new version of Grant's 1982 Christian radio hit, "El Shaddai". The maxi-single was also an enhanced CD (ECD), meaning it had a video that consumers could watch when they put it in their home computer. The ECD portion of the CD contained a live acoustic version of the song After the Fire, which Grant later released on her 2003 album Simple Things; Grant stated on Oprah that she had written the song for her mother.