Using the_time() before the_title()

I’m trying to output the date of a post. I moved the call to the_time() to a spot in the code that was before any calls to the_title() and received no output. So I moved the call to the_time() to spot in the code following the_title() and it worked fine. What’s the story with this? Is there a manner in which I can get access to the data from the_time() before outputting the title of the post?