Today's Hump Day Retro-Closet track is from Suzanne Vega who I love because she writes very intelligent literate songs. While attending college at Bernard College, she was a regular contributor to Jack Hardy's Monday night songwriters' group at the Cornelia Street Cafe and had some of her first songs published on Fast Folk anthology albums. In 1984, she received a major label recording contract, making her one of the first Fast Folk artists to break out on a major label.
Her self-titled debut album was released in 1985 and reached platinum status in the United Kingdom and got great reviews from critics. She then release Solitude Standing in 1987, which was a critical and commercial success with two hit singles, Luka and Tom's Diner. Luka was unique in that it was one of the first successful pop songs to really address child abuse. Tom's Diner was one of the first songs used in testing the MP3 format, making Vega the 'Mother of MP3'. Tom's Diner was released as an a cappella tune and also made into a dance track my UK's DNA.
Trivia: The diner shown in Seinfeld episodes is the Tom's Diner from the song.
Vega continues to record and release music, not for commercial success, but the songs that she wanted to write. Calypso is off the Solitude Standing release. Although Luka and Tom's Diner were the hits from this album, Calypso was always the song that I gravitated to when I was was listening to the album.
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