Legendary singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman, the artist behind Luke Combs' latest No. 1 song "Fast Car," just made country music history. Combs' cover, which topped Billboard's Country Airplay chart, makes Chapman the first Black woman as a song's sole writer to top the chart in its 33-year history.
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Chapman's song, which she originally released on her classic self-titled debut 1988 album, was of course well known and beloved before Combs' recorded it for his 2023 album Gettin' Old, but Combs' rendition certainly introduced the tune to a new generation of fans.
"I never expected to find myself on the country charts, but I'm honored to be there," Chapman told Billboard. "I'm happy for Luke and his success and grateful that new fans have found and embraced 'Fast Car.'"
Combs' version of the song also hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on Billboard Country Songwriters Chart this week.
Combs has long been a fan of the song, calling the tune "my first favorite song probably ever."
"I think that song came out in '88 or '89... I was born in '90," Combs told Today's Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen. "And so I remember listening to that song with my dad in his truck when I was probably four. He had a cassette, a tape of it, and we had this old brown camper top F-150... We rode around in that thing, and he had a tape cassette player in there. And I have the original cassette — my dad brought it to me a couple years ago."
The "Beer Never Broke My Heart" singer also shared why he chose not to change the original lyrics.
"I think, you want to just be mega respectful of the [original] song. That's why in that song, it's, 'work in the market as a checkout girl.' I didn't change that in my version," Combs said. "I really [wanted] to just do the original version of the song... It's weird because you're doing a cover of it and you say, 'I don't want to make it my own, because I really just really want to shine a light on the original version and bring that,' because I think there's so many people that maybe know that song or it would be familiar to them, but they really don't know anything about it. They've never really listened to it, listened to it. When I recorded this, literally the engineer in there asked me who I wrote that song with."
"Fast Car" has previously been covered by Sam Smith, Jonas Blue, Khalid and more.
Chapman hasn't released a new album since 2008's Our Bright Future, but the "Give Me One Reason" singer made her first television appearance in five years when she performed "Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution" during the 2020 election on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
