It was this week in 1991 that an unlikely hit record made its way to number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart.
Susanne Vega originally recorded “Tom’s Diner” on her 1987 Solitude Standing album as an a capella track, barely two minutes long. Suzanne explained the genesis of the song in an interview from that same year:
“Tom’s Diner” was written in Tom’s Restaurant, it’s really about Tom’s Restaurant, on 112th Street and Broadway in New York City, and it was really written from the point of view of my friend Brian, who is a photographer, and had made a comment to me one day that he felt that as a photographer, he saw his whole life through a pane of glass, and always felt like he was the witness to a lot of things, but was never really involved in them. So I was sitting at Tom’s Restaurant one morning, and suddenly I guess I got this weird feeling, it came over me, and I thought, ‘well, if I were Brian today, how would I be perceiving these different things? And in a way it was supposed to be slightly humorous, and not entirely to be taken totally seriously. And also I thought of it from a male point of view. I’d originally heard it with piano in back, but I don’t play piano, so it’s a capella.”
“Tom’s Diner” may have been forgotten by everyone but Vega’s fans, were it not for a couple of secretive record producers…
These producers remixed the song without Vega’s permission, adding a dance beat and using the outro, “Doo doo doo doo, doo da-doo doo”, as the hook. The duo, who took the name “DNA”, released the song to clubs in 1990. A&M Records (Vega’s label at the time) certainly could have sued, but Vega liked the interpretation. The record company decided to buy the single and release it themselves. The remix peaked at #2 on the UK singles chart, and #5 on the US Hot 100. It was also one of the rare singles that also reached the top 10 on both the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks (#7) and Billboard R&B Tracks (#5).
