Luke Combs; Tracy Chapman.Photo:Jason Kempin/Getty; Georges De Keerle/Getty
Jason Kempin/Getty; Georges De Keerle/Getty
When a then-unknownTracy Chapmanperformed her debut single “Fast Car” at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert in 1988, the moving ballad, about a couple escaping poverty, became a runaway hit.
Combs, 33, included a cover of the song, a favorite of his from childhood, on his most recent albumGettin' Old. His version is currently at No. 4 on theBillboardHot 100, and has also become a hit in the UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand.
During a concert in May, the country star recalled being 5 years old and listening to the song, as well as the rest of Chapman’s self-titled debut album, while riding in his dad’s brown Ford F-150.
“He played me all kinds of music, and one of the first songs that I remember hearing… I love this whole album, and there was this one song that really stuck out to me, though, and it was called ‘Fast Car,'” he said. “And that song has meant a lot to me ever since then for my whole life. I always think about my dad when it comes on, and us spending time together."
Fans like Combs forming emotional attachments to the track is nothing new for Chapman, 59, whotold the BBCthat she often has people come up to her and tell her that “Fast Car” is “their song.”
“Someone told me at one point that they thought I’d been reading their mail. They were saying, ‘You seem to know my story,'” she said in 2010. “People would come up to me and tell me about a car, a relationship and some detail that they felt was in the song that represented something that had happened in their lives.”
Chapman was just 24 years old when the song came out, and PEOPLE described it at the time as “a female companion piece to one of Springsteen’s bucket-seat sagas.”
“Everyone was really just, one, working hard, and two, hoping that things would get better,” she said.
“Fast Car” was the lead single offTracy Chapman, and it received a massive boost after Chapman performed it at the Mandela concert at Wembley Stadium in London. Then a relatively unknown artist, she was added to the bill at the last minute afterStevie Wonderdropped out.
Tracy Chapman in 2001.Tim Mosenfelder/ImageDirect
Tim Mosenfelder/ImageDirect
The song quickly became a runaway success, cracking the Top 10 of theBillboardHot 100 and helping Chapman win three Grammys, including best female pop vocal performance, best contemporary folk recording and best new artist (“Fast Car” was also nominated for record and song of the year).
“I definitely felt the emotionality of the song, that there was something to it in that way. You never know how other people are going to respond to it,” she told the BBC. “In part everything that a person writes is autobiographical, but the songs weren’t directly so, or most of them were not, and ‘Fast Car’ wasn’t one that was directly autobiographical. I never had a fast car. It’s a story about a couple, and how they are trying to make a life together and they face various challenges.”
source: people.com
