SUZANNE VEGA
Suzanne Vega (born July 11, 1959) is an American songwriter and singer known for her eclectic folk-inspired music. Two of Vega’s songs (both from her second album Solitude Standing, 1987) reached the top 10 of various international chart listings: “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner”. The latter was originally an a cappella version on Vega’s album, which was then remade in 1990 as a dance track produced by the British dance production team DNA. Vega has released eight studio albums to date, the latest of which is Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles, released in 2014. (More from Wikipedia)
Suzanne Vega was basically an acoustic artist when she started out, and she scored a major hit in 1987 with “Luka” from her second album Solitude Standing. In 1990, an anonymous duo called DNA released a bootleg single based on an a capella track from that album called “Tom’s Diner” that was set to an electronic beat; originally released under the name “Oh Suzanne”, they had an unexpected hit song a full 3 years after her album came out (and nearly 10 years after Vega originally wrote the song). Suzanne Vega allowed the single to be issued legitimately and subsequently released several albums of her own with an edgier sound, as well as Tom’s Album that included several other unsolicited versions of this same song.
(March 2012)
