While Tracy Chapman barely remembers writing her 1988 hit “Fast Car”, the song has an unforgettable magic to it. Based on the folk-rock singer-songwriter’s experiences growing up working class in Cleveland, Ohio, “Fast Car” earned Chapman a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The somber, folk-tinged ballad was everywhere in the late 1980s and early 1990s, eventually reaching the ears of a young boy in North Carolina by the name of Luke Combs. More than three decades later, Combs would record his own version of “Fast Car”. And on this day (June 18) in 2023, Combs’ cover topped the Country Airplay charts, making Tracy Chapman the first Black female solo artist to ever hold that spot.
Luke Combs Changed Very Little About This Tracy Chapman Cover
Luke Combs wasn’t looking to improve on Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car”. Instead, he simply wanted to pay homage to an artist whose work helped shape his own career. Some of the “Hurricane” crooner’s earliest memories involve his father’s truck and a Tracy Chapman cassette tape.
While Combs’ version of “Fast Car” is unmistakably twangier than the original, that’s more or less where the differences end. The two-time Entertainer of the Year kept most of Chapman’s original lyrics, including the line, “I work in the market as a checkout girl.”
A Performance for the Ages
Released on Luke Combs’ 2023 album Gettin’ Old, “Fast Car” raced to the top of the Country Airplay, Hot Country Songs, and Adult Pop Airplay charts.
It also reached number two on the Hot 100, number three on the Adult Contemporary chart, and number seven on the Pop Airplay chart.
Additionally, “Fast Car” also won both Single and Song of the Year at the 2023 Country Music Association Awards, making Chapman the first Black woman or Black songwriter to ever win a CMA Award.
“I always thought it was one of the best songs of all time, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised,” Combs told People. “But there’s nothing like Tracy’s version, so I thought it would just be a nice complement to the original but never really expected mine to take off quite the way it did.”
In February 2024, Chapman, now 62, joined Combs onstage at the Grammy Awards for a live performance of “Fast Car”.
The emotional duet marked the singer-songwriter’s first televised live performance in nine years and claimed an eternal spot in Grammys history. Combs later called it “a defining moment of my career.
Of Chapman, he wrote, “We were all in awe of you up there and I was just the guy lucky enough to have the best seat in the house.”
Featured image by Monica Schipper/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
The post On the Charts This Day in 2023, Tracy Chapman Made Country Music History With Some Help From Luke Combs appeared first on American Songwriter.
Go To Source | Author: Erinn Callahan
« Massive Ozzy Osbourne Statue Revealed at France’s Hellfest: “Absolutely Stunning”
3 Niche Songs From 1979 That Every 70s Teen Seemed To Know by Heart »