Tom's Diner
Encyclopedia
"Tom's Diner" is an a cappella
pop
song written in 1981
by American singer-songwriter
Suzanne Vega
. It was first released as a track on the January 1984 issue of Fast Folk Musical Magazine
. When first featured on one of her own studio albums, it appeared as the first track of her Solitude Standing
album in 1987
. It was later used as the basis for a popular remix by the British group DNA
in 1990
. The 1991
release Tom's Album includes the DNA version as well as cover versions by such artists as After One, Chicago-based band Canasta
, and Bingo Hand Job (R.E.M.
and Billy Bragg
). It was also used as the background soundtrack for the opening scene of the 1993 film Untamed Heart
.
The "Tom's Diner" of the song is Tom's Restaurant
in New York City
, which was later fictionalized as Monk's Cafe
in Seinfeld
.
The song is written as a simple first person vignette
of someone stopping at a diner
for a cup of coffee
. The song notes the newspaper as well as two women, one who enters the diner and one who stands outside in the rain. The ringing of bells at a nearby cathedral
cause the singer to reminisce on an unnamed companion and a picnic
previously. When the coffee is finished, it is time to leave the diner to catch a train.
Vega wrote the song based on a comment by her friend Brian Rose, a photographer, who mentioned that in his work, he sometimes felt as if "he saw his whole life through a pane of glass, and[...] like he was the witness to a lot of things, but was never really involved in them." She attempted to think and write in this fashion (including a male perspective) while sitting at Tom's Restaurant, a diner on the corner of Broadway
and 112th Street in New York City
, which would later become famous as a location for some exterior scenes in the popular television sitcom
Seinfeld
. (The building belongs to Columbia University
and houses some of its programs, as well as NASA
's Goddard Institute for Space Studies
.) The "bells of the cathedral" that she remarks hearing in the song are those of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine
, located one block to the east.
uses clues in the song to determine the exact date that Vega wrote it.
Vega herself said that she wrote the song sometime in 1982; Brian Rose has said that it was written sometime between mid-1981 and mid-1982. The lyrics of the song refer to a rainy morning, when she was at the diner on the corner, reading in her newspaper
of "a story of an actor / who had died while he was drinking", and afterwards "turning to the horoscope
/ and looking for the funnies
". Only two newspapers in New York City carried comic strips, or "funnies", in 1981 and 1982, and only one, the New York Post
, featured a front-page story of the death of William Holden
(star of Sunset Boulevard), whose body was discovered on November 16, 1981. He had died from a fall at his apartment, suffered after drinking
excessively. The story in the Post concerning Holden's death was not carried until two days later on November 18, which is taken to be the exact date of the composition.
On that day in New York, however, the weather was not rainy, but overcast. Vega has acknowledged this by admitting that "Tom's Diner" featured a composite of events, and that the rain was from a morning she remembered being in the diner during the spring of 1982, after the initial events of the song.
At a concert in the Exhibition Hall of Longwood Gardens
in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania on Friday November 18, 2011, Vega performed "Tom's Diner" as the final song of her second set; Dublin-born guitarist Gerry Leonard accompanied her. Beforehand she explained to the audience that the day marked the 30th anniversary of the one on which she wrote the song. She also noted in a self-deprecating manner that the actor who had died while he was drinking was William Holden and that, despite his fame, she indeed had never heard of him until the morning when she read about his death.
. Two versions feature on her album Solitude Standing; the album opens with an a cappella
version, and closes with an instrumental version played on keyboards, with guitars lending support.
It has been suggested that Vega's layered singing was originally intended to be overlaid on top of the instrumental version, but that Vega and her producers ultimately preferred the effect of two separate versions of the tune. Vega's a cappella recording of the song is extremely sparse — no vocal effects are used except her singing voice — and clocks in at slightly over two minutes long. It was not released as a single; the song "Luka", which follows it on the album, was released as a successful single.
Somewhat surprisingly, in order to confront stage fright
, Suzanne Vega opened her appearance at the Prince's Trust Concert on June 20, 1986, with an a cappella rendition of "Tom's Diner", intending to walk off stage afterwards if it wasn't well-received. It was, and she performed a full and equally well-received set.
During the 2006 Major League Baseball
season, Cincinnati Reds
player Ryan Freel
used this song as his entrance song when he came to bat.
revealed that "Tom's Diner" was also used by Karlheinz Brandenburg
to develop the audio compression scheme known as MP3
at what is now the Fraunhofer Society
. He recalled:
In a 2009 documentary about the history of the song by Swedish SVT
, Brandenburg said:
Brandenburg adopted the song for testing purposes, listening to it again and again each time he refined the scheme, making sure it did not adversely affect the subtlety of Vega's voice. While the MP3 compression format is not specifically tuned to play the song "Tom's Diner" (an assortment of critically analyzed material was involved in the design of the codec over many years), among audio engineers
this anecdote has earned Vega the informal title "The Mother of the MP3".
, two British record producers remix
ed "Tom's Diner", grafting her vocals onto a dance beat from Soul II Soul
and turning her simple ad-libbed outro
— "Doo doo doo doo, doo da-doo doo" — into the song's driving hook
. Without permission from Vega, her record label, or publisher, the duo released the remix on a limited basis for distribution to clubs as "Oh Suzanne" by "DNA featuring Suzanne Vega". Vega's record company of the time, A&M
, decided to buy and release the remix rather than take DNA to court for copyright infringement
. A&M struck the deal after consulting with Vega, who liked the interpretation, and DNA, who conducted the transaction through intermediaries without revealing their true identities. The remix became a much larger hit than Vega had with the song originally, peaking at #2 on the UK singles chart
and #5 on the US
Billboard Hot 100
, and it became one of a handful of tracks to chart in the top 10 of both the Modern Rock Tracks
(#7) and Billboard R&B Tracks (#10) charts. It spawned a number of hip hop, dance, and rock remixes and remakes from artists such as Peter Behrens
(drummer from Trio
) and Bingo Hand Job, a whimsical one-time collaboration between Billy Bragg
and R.E.M.
It was also sampled in songs by Public Enemy, Nikki D
, Twin Hype, and Lil' Kim
, among other hip hop acts.
In 1991
, Vega, noting the huge number of remakes of the song, released Tom's Album, a compilation of different versions of the song, spanning a variety of musical genres, including a parody that worked in references to I Dream of Jeannie
called "Jeannie's Diner," which Nick-at-Nite would use to promote its airings of the show. The album also featured another DNA remix of one of her songs, "Rusted Pipe."
7" single
12" maxi
") by the rap duo Felt on their song "Suzanne Vega" from their album Felt: A Tribute to Christina Ricci
. The lyrics have also been sampled for B-Real
's song "Don't Ya Dare Laugh", off his 2009 Smoke N Mirrors album.
Lil' Kim
recorded her own version of the song called "Right Now" featured on her second album The Notorious K.I.M. released in 2000.
The song has also been re-invented posthumously by 2Pac, for his song "Dopefiend's Diner" on Best of 2Pac
. More recently, hip-hop artist Drake
has used the sample on a track titled "Juice". The track appeared on promotional mixtapes in 2009. Underground rapper Steve Spag (from Windsor, ON) released a remix titled "Racin' For Answers" and was the single off his March 2010 album "Ready Or Not". Miami based hip-hop group Git Fresh
also used it for their single "She Be Like". Rapper Yo Gotti
used the beat in his song "Standing in the Kitchen."
The "Do do do do do do do do" part of the song was sampled in "Weird Al" Yankovic
's polka medley "Polka Your Eyes Out."
It's also featured in "Keep Moving" by Adam Deacon & Bashy feat Paloma Faith. It was in the film 4.3.2.1 directed by Noel Clarke. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4.3.2.1
The song was sampled by Aaliyah
's remix of "Hot Like Fire
" was used by Timbaland
.
musician Ivo Perelman
recorded "Tom's Diner" on his CD The Children of Ibeji (1991) as an Albert Ayler
-ish improvisation, with Guilherme Franco
featured on electric berimbau
.
Italian pop/hip-hop duo Karmah
released a new version of "Tom's Diner" on their album "Be Good To Me."
Erin McCarley
covers "Tom's Diner" at live shows, while her keyboardist beatboxes the score.
The House Band "Bingo Players" covered the song in their 2010 song "Tom's Diner"
Alex Kidd
& Kidd Kaos, two hard dance
DJs released a remix of "Tom's Diner", entitled "Alex Kidd Vs Kidd Kaos - Tom's Diner".
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
song written in 1981
1981 in music
See also:* Timeline of musical eventsThis is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1981.-January–April:*January 10 – A revival of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance opens at Broadway's Uris Theatre, starring Linda Ronstadt and Rex Smith.*January 24 –...
by American singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Nadine Vega is an American songwriter and singer known for her eclectic folk-inspired music.Two of Vega's songs reached the top 10 of various international chart listings: "Luka" and "Tom's Diner"...
. It was first released as a track on the January 1984 issue of Fast Folk Musical Magazine
Fast Folk
Fast Folk Musical Magazine , was a combination magazine and record album published from February 1982 to 1997...
. When first featured on one of her own studio albums, it appeared as the first track of her Solitude Standing
Solitude Standing
Solitude Standing is Suzanne Vega's platinum second album, released in 1987. It is the most popular and critically acclaimed of her career. As can be seen by the CD insert, many of the songs had been written prior to 1987 ....
album in 1987
1987 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1987.See also:Record labels established in 1987-January-February:*January 3 – Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
. It was later used as the basis for a popular remix by the British group DNA
The DNA Disciples
DNA was the pseudonym taken by two British dance music producers Nick Batt and Neal Slateford, best known for issuing a remix of Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner" in 1990....
in 1990
1990 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1990.-Events:*January 21 – MTV's Unplugged premieres on cable television with British band Squeeze...
. The 1991
1991 in music
See also:* 1991 in music Record labels established in 1991-Summary:The year 1991 is the year that grunge music made its popular breakthrough. Nirvana's Nevermind, led by the surprise hit single "Smells Like Teen Spirit", becomes the most popular U.S. album of the year...
release Tom's Album includes the DNA version as well as cover versions by such artists as After One, Chicago-based band Canasta
Canasta (band)
Ned Raggett of Allmusic wrote that on this album the band "display both an ambition and a sense of range that any number of early 21st century American groups described in similar terms would be wise to follow"...
, and Bingo Hand Job (R.E.M.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...
and Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...
). It was also used as the background soundtrack for the opening scene of the 1993 film Untamed Heart
Untamed Heart
Untamed Heart is a 1993 film starring Christian Slater and Marisa Tomei. It mixes drama with romance and comedy and tells the story of a young woman, always unlucky in love, finally finding true love in a very shy young man. The film is directed by Tony Bill, and written by Tom Sierchio...
.
Background and writing
Tom's Restaurant (Manhattan)
Tom's Restaurant is a diner located at 2880 Broadway on the corner of 112th Street in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, which was later fictionalized as Monk's Cafe
Monk's Cafe
Monk's Café is a fictional coffee shop from the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. The exterior of Tom's Restaurant on the corner of West 112th Street and Broadway, near Columbia University, is often shown on the show as the exterior of Monk's, though the interiors were shot on a sound stage. The coffee shop is...
in Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
.
The song is written as a simple first person vignette
Vignette (literature)
In theatrical script writing, sketch stories, and poetry, a vignette is a short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives a trenchant impression about a character, an idea, or a setting and sometimes an object...
of someone stopping at a diner
Diner
A diner, also spelled dinor in western Pennsylvania is a prefabricated restaurant building characteristic of North America, especially in the Midwest, in New York City, in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey, and in other areas of the Northeastern United States, although examples can be found throughout...
for a cup of coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
. The song notes the newspaper as well as two women, one who enters the diner and one who stands outside in the rain. The ringing of bells at a nearby cathedral
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
cause the singer to reminisce on an unnamed companion and a picnic
Picnic
In contemporary usage, a picnic can be defined simply as a pleasure excursion at which a meal is eaten outdoors , ideally taking place in a beautiful landscape such as a park, beside a lake or with an interesting view and possibly at a public event such as before an open air theatre performance,...
previously. When the coffee is finished, it is time to leave the diner to catch a train.
Vega wrote the song based on a comment by her friend Brian Rose, a photographer, who mentioned that in his work, he sometimes felt as if "he saw his whole life through a pane of glass, and
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
and 112th Street in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, which would later become famous as a location for some exterior scenes in the popular television sitcom
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
. (The building belongs to Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and houses some of its programs, as well as NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Goddard Institute for Space Studies
The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies , at Columbia University in New York City, is a component laboratory of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Earth-Sun Exploration Division and a unit of The Earth Institute at Columbia University...
.) The "bells of the cathedral" that she remarks hearing in the song are those of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine
Cathedral of Saint John the Divine
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, officially the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in the City and Diocese of New York, is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York...
, located one block to the east.
"Tom's Diner Day": The date of the composition
An article on Suzanne Vega's official Web siteuses clues in the song to determine the exact date that Vega wrote it.
Vega herself said that she wrote the song sometime in 1982; Brian Rose has said that it was written sometime between mid-1981 and mid-1982. The lyrics of the song refer to a rainy morning, when she was at the diner on the corner, reading in her newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
of "a story of an actor / who had died while he was drinking", and afterwards "turning to the horoscope
Horoscope
In astrology, a horoscope is a chart or diagram representing the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, the astrological aspects, and sensitive angles at the time of an event, such as the moment of a person's birth. The word horoscope is derived from Greek words meaning "a look at the hours" In...
/ and looking for the funnies
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
". Only two newspapers in New York City carried comic strips, or "funnies", in 1981 and 1982, and only one, the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
, featured a front-page story of the death of William Holden
William Holden
William Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...
(star of Sunset Boulevard), whose body was discovered on November 16, 1981. He had died from a fall at his apartment, suffered after drinking
Drunkenness
Alcohol intoxication is a physiological state that occurs when a person has a high level of ethanol in his or her blood....
excessively. The story in the Post concerning Holden's death was not carried until two days later on November 18, which is taken to be the exact date of the composition.
On that day in New York, however, the weather was not rainy, but overcast. Vega has acknowledged this by admitting that "Tom's Diner" featured a composite of events, and that the rain was from a morning she remembered being in the diner during the spring of 1982, after the initial events of the song.
At a concert in the Exhibition Hall of Longwood Gardens
Longwood Gardens
Longwood Gardens consists of over 1,077 acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, United States in the Brandywine Creek Valley...
in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania on Friday November 18, 2011, Vega performed "Tom's Diner" as the final song of her second set; Dublin-born guitarist Gerry Leonard accompanied her. Beforehand she explained to the audience that the day marked the 30th anniversary of the one on which she wrote the song. She also noted in a self-deprecating manner that the actor who had died while he was drinking was William Holden and that, despite his fame, she indeed had never heard of him until the morning when she read about his death.
Music and lyrics
Vega originally conceived "Tom's Diner" as a piece for voice and solo pianoPiano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
. Two versions feature on her album Solitude Standing; the album opens with an a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
version, and closes with an instrumental version played on keyboards, with guitars lending support.
It has been suggested that Vega's layered singing was originally intended to be overlaid on top of the instrumental version, but that Vega and her producers ultimately preferred the effect of two separate versions of the tune. Vega's a cappella recording of the song is extremely sparse — no vocal effects are used except her singing voice — and clocks in at slightly over two minutes long. It was not released as a single; the song "Luka", which follows it on the album, was released as a successful single.
Somewhat surprisingly, in order to confront stage fright
Glossophobia
Glossophobia or speech anxiety is the fear of public speaking. The word glossophobia comes from the Greek glōssa, meaning tongue, and φόβος phobos, fear or dread...
, Suzanne Vega opened her appearance at the Prince's Trust Concert on June 20, 1986, with an a cappella rendition of "Tom's Diner", intending to walk off stage afterwards if it wasn't well-received. It was, and she performed a full and equally well-received set.
During the 2006 Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
season, Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the National League Central Division. The club was established in 1882 as a charter member of the American Association and joined the National League in 1890....
player Ryan Freel
Ryan Freel
Ryan Paul Freel is a retired baseball utility player. He played second base, third base, and all three outfield positions.-MLB career:...
used this song as his entrance song when he came to bat.
The "Mother of the MP3"
An article in the now defunct magazine Business 2.0Business 2.0
Business 2.0 was a monthly magazine publication founded by magazine entrepreneur Chris Anderson, Mark Gross, and journalist James Daly in order to chronicle the rise of the "New Economy"...
revealed that "Tom's Diner" was also used by Karlheinz Brandenburg
Karlheinz Brandenburg
Karlheinz Brandenburg is an audio engineer who has contributed to the audio compression format MPEG Audio Layer 3, more commonly known as MP3.- Biography :...
to develop the audio compression scheme known as MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
at what is now the Fraunhofer Society
Fraunhofer Society
The Fraunhofer Society is a German research organization with 60 institutes spread throughout Germany, each focusing on different fields of applied science . It employs around 18,000, mainly scientists and engineers, with an annual research budget of about €1.65 billion...
. He recalled:
- I was ready to fine-tune my compression algorithm...somewhere down the corridor, a radio was playing "Tom's Diner." I was electrified. I knew it would be nearly impossible to compress this warm a cappella voice.
In a 2009 documentary about the history of the song by Swedish SVT
Sveriges Television
Sveriges Television AB , Sweden's Television, is a national television broadcaster based in Sweden, funded by a compulsory fee to be paid by all television owners...
, Brandenburg said:
- I was finishing my PhD thesis, and then I was reading some hi-fi magazine and found that they had used this song to test loudspeakers. I said "OK, let's test what this song does to my sound system, to mp3". And the result was, at bit rates where everything else sounded quite nice, Suzanne Vega's voice sounded horrible.
Brandenburg adopted the song for testing purposes, listening to it again and again each time he refined the scheme, making sure it did not adversely affect the subtlety of Vega's voice. While the MP3 compression format is not specifically tuned to play the song "Tom's Diner" (an assortment of critically analyzed material was involved in the design of the codec over many years), among audio engineers
Audio engineering
An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
this anecdote has earned Vega the informal title "The Mother of the MP3".
Track listings
12" maxi- "Tom's Diner"
- "Left of Center"
- "Tom's Diner" (live)
- "Luka" (live)
Charts
| Chart (1987) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Irish Singles Chart | 16 |
| UK Singles Chart | 58 |
Background
In 19901990 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1990.-Events:*January 21 – MTV's Unplugged premieres on cable television with British band Squeeze...
, two British record producers remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
ed "Tom's Diner", grafting her vocals onto a dance beat from Soul II Soul
Soul II Soul
Soul II Soul are a British group that was created in London in 1988. They are best known for their 1989 UK chart-topper and U.S. Top 5 hit, "Back to Life ".-Career:...
and turning her simple ad-libbed outro
Coda (music)
Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
— "Doo doo doo doo, doo da-doo doo" — into the song's driving hook
Hook (music)
A hook is a musical idea, often a short riff, passage, or phrase, that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to "catch the ear of the listener". The term generally applies to popular music, especially rock music, hip hop, dance music, and pop. In these genres, the hook is often...
. Without permission from Vega, her record label, or publisher, the duo released the remix on a limited basis for distribution to clubs as "Oh Suzanne" by "DNA featuring Suzanne Vega". Vega's record company of the time, A&M
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
, decided to buy and release the remix rather than take DNA to court for copyright infringement
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
. A&M struck the deal after consulting with Vega, who liked the interpretation, and DNA, who conducted the transaction through intermediaries without revealing their true identities. The remix became a much larger hit than Vega had with the song originally, peaking at #2 on the UK singles chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
and #5 on the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, and it became one of a handful of tracks to chart in the top 10 of both the Modern Rock Tracks
Modern Rock Tracks
Alternative Songs is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in Billboard magazine since September 10, 1988. It lists the 40 most-played songs on modern rock radio stations, most of which are alternative rock songs...
(#7) and Billboard R&B Tracks (#10) charts. It spawned a number of hip hop, dance, and rock remixes and remakes from artists such as Peter Behrens
Peter Behrens (musician)
Peter Behrens is a German drummer, actor, musician and clown.-Life:Peter Behrens is the illegitimate son of an American GI, and was put up for adoption by his biological mother. He was adopted by the Behrens family, where he grew up in northern Germany...
(drummer from Trio
Trio (band)
Trio was a German band. It formed in the small German town of Großenkneten in 1980. The band is most noted for the song "Da da da, ich lieb dich nicht du liebst mich nicht aha aha aha" which was a hit in 30 countries worldwide. Trio was a product of the Neue Deutsche Welle...
) and Bingo Hand Job, a whimsical one-time collaboration between Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...
and R.E.M.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...
It was also sampled in songs by Public Enemy, Nikki D
Nikki D
Nichelle "Nikki D" Strong is an American female rapper. Nikki D was the first female rapper signed by Def Jam Recordings.-Career:She signed with Def Jam in 1989, and released her debut single "A No No No" the same year. It was produced by Sam Sever. The single's video featured Flavor Flav...
, Twin Hype, and Lil' Kim
Lil' Kim
Kimberly Denise Jones , better known by her stage name Lil' Kim, is an American rapper and actress who was a member of the group Junior M.A.F.I.A.....
, among other hip hop acts.
In 1991
1991 in music
See also:* 1991 in music Record labels established in 1991-Summary:The year 1991 is the year that grunge music made its popular breakthrough. Nirvana's Nevermind, led by the surprise hit single "Smells Like Teen Spirit", becomes the most popular U.S. album of the year...
, Vega, noting the huge number of remakes of the song, released Tom's Album, a compilation of different versions of the song, spanning a variety of musical genres, including a parody that worked in references to I Dream of Jeannie
I Dream of Jeannie
I Dream of Jeannie is a 1960s American sitcom with a fantasy premise. The show starred Barbara Eden as a 2,000-year-old genie, and Larry Hagman as an astronaut who becomes her master, with whom she falls in love and eventually marries...
called "Jeannie's Diner," which Nick-at-Nite would use to promote its airings of the show. The album also featured another DNA remix of one of her songs, "Rusted Pipe."
Track listings
CD maxi- "Tom's Diner" (7" A) (3:47)
- "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega (2:39)
- "Tom's Diner" (a cappella) by Suzanne Vega (2:08)
- "Tom's Diner" (12" A) (5:20)
7" single
- "Tom's Diner" (3:47)
- "Tom's Diner" (a cappella) by Suzanne Vega (2:08)
12" maxi
- "Tom's Diner" (remix)
- "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega
- "Tom's Diner" (a cappella) by Suzanne Vega
Samples
"Tom's Diner" lyrics were sampled (along with Vega's "LukaLuka (song)
"Luka" is a song recorded by Suzanne Vega and released as a single in 1987. It remains her highest-charting hit in the United States, reaching #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. This song was one of the earliest to deal with child abuse and domestic violence...
") by the rap duo Felt on their song "Suzanne Vega" from their album Felt: A Tribute to Christina Ricci
Felt: A Tribute to Christina Ricci
Felt: A Tribute to Christina Ricci is the first album by Felt, a side project made up of Slug and Murs. It is entirely produced by Living Legends member The Grouch and it contains scratches provided by Mr. Dibbs. The album is dedicated to actress Christina Ricci because when the two first met they...
. The lyrics have also been sampled for B-Real
B-Real
Louis Freese, better known by his stage name B-Real, is an American rapper of Cuban and Mexican heritage, and a film and TV actor...
's song "Don't Ya Dare Laugh", off his 2009 Smoke N Mirrors album.
Lil' Kim
Lil' Kim
Kimberly Denise Jones , better known by her stage name Lil' Kim, is an American rapper and actress who was a member of the group Junior M.A.F.I.A.....
recorded her own version of the song called "Right Now" featured on her second album The Notorious K.I.M. released in 2000.
The song has also been re-invented posthumously by 2Pac, for his song "Dopefiend's Diner" on Best of 2Pac
Best of 2Pac
Best of 2Pac is a posthumous greatest hits compilation series from rapper Tupac Shakur released in two parts: Thug and Life. Both albums were released on December 4, 2007 in the United States and December 10, 2007 in the United Kingdom, having had been leaked on November 30...
. More recently, hip-hop artist Drake
Drake (entertainer)
Aubrey Drake Graham , who records under the mononym Drake, is a Canadian recording artist and actor. He originally became known for playing Jimmy Brooks on the television series Degrassi: The Next Generation....
has used the sample on a track titled "Juice". The track appeared on promotional mixtapes in 2009. Underground rapper Steve Spag (from Windsor, ON) released a remix titled "Racin' For Answers" and was the single off his March 2010 album "Ready Or Not". Miami based hip-hop group Git Fresh
Git Fresh
Git Fresh is an American R&B and hip hop group based in Miami, Florida. They are currently signed to Island Def Jam...
also used it for their single "She Be Like". Rapper Yo Gotti
Yo Gotti
Mario Mims better known by his stage name Yo Gotti, is a southern rapper from the northern side of Memphis, Tennessee who was previously known as Lil Yo.-Independent Albums:Yo Gotti released a string of independent albums...
used the beat in his song "Standing in the Kitchen."
The "Do do do do do do do do" part of the song was sampled in "Weird Al" Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
's polka medley "Polka Your Eyes Out."
It's also featured in "Keep Moving" by Adam Deacon & Bashy feat Paloma Faith. It was in the film 4.3.2.1 directed by Noel Clarke. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4.3.2.1
The song was sampled by Aaliyah
Aaliyah
Aaliyah Dana Haughton , who performed under the mononym Aaliyah , was an American R&B recording artist, actress and model. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was raised in Detroit, Michigan. At the age of 10, she appeared on the television show Star Search and performed in concert alongside...
's remix of "Hot Like Fire
Hot Like Fire
"Hot Like Fire" is a song written by Missy Elliott and Tim "Timbaland" Mosley for Aaliyah's second album, One in a Million . It is the fifth release overall and the official fourth single in North America . The single was released as a hip hop soul remix produced by Timbaland, titled as...
" was used by Timbaland
Timbaland
Timothy Zachery Mosley , better known by his stage name Timbaland, is an American record producer, songwriter and rapper....
.
Peak positions
| Chart (1990) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | 8 |
| Austrian Singles Chart | 1 |
| Dutch Top 40 | 2 |
| French SNEP Singles Chart | 16 |
| German Singles Chart | 1 |
| Irish Singles Chart | 2 |
| New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart | 8 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 1 |
| UK Singles Chart | 2 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 5 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play | 13 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks | 7 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs | 10 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales | 5 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay | 17 |
End of year charts
| End of year chart (1990) | Position |
|---|---|
| Austrian Singles Chart | 17 |
| Dutch Top 40 | 32 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 23 |
| End of year chart (1991) | Position |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 53 |
Chart successions
|-Other covers
JazzJazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
musician Ivo Perelman
Ivo Perelman
Ivo Perelman is a Brazilian free jazz saxophonist born in Sao Paulo.Perelman learned to play guitar, cello, clarinet, trombone, and piano while young, and concentrated on tenor sax from age 19. He attended the Berklee College of Music for one semester and then dropped out, moving to Los Angeles in...
recorded "Tom's Diner" on his CD The Children of Ibeji (1991) as an Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer.Ayler was among the most primal of the free jazz musicians of the 1960s; critic John Litweiler wrote that "never before or since has there been such naked aggression in jazz" He possessed a deep blistering tone—achieved...
-ish improvisation, with Guilherme Franco
Guilherme Franco
Guilherme Franco was born November 25 1946 in São Paulo, Brazil. He is a percussionist in the jazz and World fusion music genres.Guilherme Franco has recorded on the albums of many jazz performers such as McCoy Tyner, Lonnie Liston Smith and Woody Shaw...
featured on electric berimbau
Berimbau
The berimbau is a single-string percussion instrument, a musical bow, from Brazil. The berimbau's origins are not entirely clear, but there is not much doubt about its African origin, as no Indigenous Brazilian or European people use musical bows, and very similar instruments are played in the...
.
Italian pop/hip-hop duo Karmah
Karmah
Karmah may refer to:*Al-Karmah, a city in Iraq near Fallujah*Karmah , an Italian duo...
released a new version of "Tom's Diner" on their album "Be Good To Me."
Erin McCarley
Erin McCarley
Erin McCarley is an alternative music singer-songwriter. McCarley attended college at Baylor University, and is now based in Nashville, Tennessee. She has been compared to Sara Bareilles, Regina Spektor, and Sheryl Crow. Currently, Erin is working on her follow up to 2009's Love, Save the Empty...
covers "Tom's Diner" at live shows, while her keyboardist beatboxes the score.
The House Band "Bingo Players" covered the song in their 2010 song "Tom's Diner"
Alex Kidd
Alex Kidd
is a video game character whose popularity peaked during the late 1980s and who was the protagonist of both a series of video games released by Sega and their fictional universe, as well as in numerous spin-off merchandise such as novelizations and comics...
& Kidd Kaos, two hard dance
Hard dance
Hard Dance is an umbrella term that refers to a group of Hard electronic dance genres which aren't hard enough to be classified as hardcore. The term usually includes genres such as Hard House, Hard NRG, Hard Trance, and Hardstyle...
DJs released a remix of "Tom's Diner", entitled "Alex Kidd Vs Kidd Kaos - Tom's Diner".
External links
- Tom's Diner Live Performance December, 2002 Suzanne Vega Documentary
- Suzanne Vega explains how the song came to be
- http://www.djbooth.net/index/tracks/review/young-son-tha-diner/
- Writeup containing Vega's a cappella version in the prelude to which she speaks of the song