1987 Suzanne Vega released her second album Solitude Standing. The album opens with the acapella "Tom's Diner."
The "Tom's Diner" of the song is Tom's Restaurant in New York City, a mid-20th-century diner on the corner of Broadway and 112th Street. Singer and songwriter Suzanne Vega was reputedly a frequent patron during the early 1980s when she was a student at nearby Barnard College. The diner later became famous as the location used for the exterior scenes of Monk's Café in the popular 1990s television sitcom Seinfeld.
In 1990 British record producers under the name DNA remixed the song onto a dance beat from Soul II Soul ("Keep On Movin'") and the dance hit made #5 #10 R&B #7 Alternative #13 Dance.
The single release was "Luka" making #3 on the Hot 100.
The title track was released and made #94.
Suzanne said about this remix of "Tom's Diner" - "Three years later, I heard that two young English guys called DNA had put a beat to it – and I cringed. I'd just had a big hit with Luka, which – unfortunately, despite its dark subject matter, child abuse – lent itself to all sorts of parodies and covers, most of which I hated. I feared more of the same, but to my great relief I loved what DNA had done. I thought it would be played in a few dance clubs and that would be it, but it surpassed everyone's expectations. I even got a plaque for it being one of the most played R&B songs – funny for a folk singer."
I've always thought this was a well-done parody!
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