My parents got married and went out into the world to try to make a place for themselves and it was very difficult going.” Topping our list of the best Tracy Chapman songs, Fast Car outlines the struggle of an inner-city woman held captive by poverty and romantic self-delusion. “Looking back at it… I think that it was a song about my parents… And about how when they met each other they were very young, and they wanted to start a new life together and my mother was anxious to leave home. “At the time that I wrote the song, I actually didn’t really know who I was writing about,” Chapman later reflected. Released as the lead single from her self-titled debut album, the song made Chapman a household name following a solo acoustic performance at Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute, which was broadcast to 600 million people live from London’s Wembley Stadium. Undoubtedly her most recognised song, and the one that shot Tracy to stardom, the prodigious Fast Car pulls into view with an instantly recognisable guitar riff and Chapman’s natural way with a hook. Highlighting Chapman’s inspirationally poetic way with lyrics (“There is fiction in the space between/You and everybody/Give us all what we need/Give us one more sad, sordid story/But in the fiction of the space between/Sometimes a lie is the best thing”), the album’s title track is a feel-good classic whose infectious musicality and effortless virtue can’t fail to make you move. Listen to the best of Tracy Chapman here, and check out our best Tracy Chapman songs, below.ġ0: Telling Stories (from ‘Telling Stories’, 2000)Įntering the new millennium on a high, Chapman’s fifth album, Telling Stories, found her breaking an almost five-year silence. These ten tracks offer a place to start with that formidable legacy. The best Tracy Chapman songs have brought influential explorations of change, love and political oppression into the mainstream. The queen of protest pop, Tracy Chapman’s endearing yet audacious approach to her music has resulted in an influential body of work that spans three decades and eight albums.

Tracy chapman the promise live