Featured on Janet Jackson’s 1986 album Control, “Let’s Wait Awhile” represents a departure from the sexually provocative themes typical of Jackson’s output. “I didn’t think at the time we were sending out any kind of significant message,” Jimmy Jam, who helped co-write the song, said. “For us it was more like a love song. It got interpreted as maybe more of a statement than it was intended to be. It’s a very simple love song and it was just saying, ‘Let’s wait. I’m not going anywhere, so let’s just take our time.’ Lyrically, that was Janet’s concept and we shaped the music to fit.”
Released during the AIDS crisis in the United States, the song was also frequently employed as a teaching tool to encourage abstinence. Critic Danyel Smith commented in the magazine Vibe that “on the fragile [ballad], Jackson’s tender, hesitant delivery conveys all of the trepidation and wonder felt by a young girl on the brink of losing her innocence.”
Jackson included the track on two of her greatest hits albums, and performs it regularly on tour. A modulation from Db to D occurs at 3:14 (the tune briefly returns to Db in the outro at 4:24.)
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