Tracy Chapman has the last laugh

Anybody check what’s going on with Tracy Chapman’s music sales, ever since she loaned out one of her songs, “Fast Car,” to country music star Luke Combs to sing a country version of for his fans?

On Kworb.net. which tracks Spotify downloads, she has this:

On Amazon, which tracks vinyl and CD sales, she has this:

…and this…

I see some 702 million streams and 441,745 daily downloads on the Spotify front.

On Amazon, she’s number one in three of her own musical categories, just as Combs is near the top in his country category.

Poor old Luke Combs, who borrowed her song — where his version of it currently sits at number one or two on the Billboard Hot 100 country songs and is pretty much the current hit of the day.

His numbers look like this:

On streams, Chapman herself is way ahead of him since his hit song, and on daily downloads, he bests her by a factor of three.

Which is pretty interesting. It basically signals that Chapman was pretty clever in giving Combs permission to use her song for his number one hit — it rekindled an explosion of interest from the public for her music, too, where a younger audience is discovering with delight her extraordinary musical talents first expressed 35 years ago, and she must be raking in the bucks on sales for her own work in addition to the $500,000-plus she’s gotten from Combs as royalties.

Why does this matter? Because the Washington Post’s Emily Yahr wrote a column trying to make Combs’s success into a racial grievance issue (Combs is white, Chapman is black), quoting one whiner who said the song never would have taken off on the country charts because the country music industry discriminates against black artists:

To quite a few people, this is cause for yet another celebration in Combs’s whirlwind journey as the genre’s reigning megastar with 16 consecutive No. 1 hits. But it has also prompted a wave of complicated feelings among some listeners and in the Nashville music community. Although many are thrilled to see “Fast Car” back in the spotlight and a new generation discovering Chapman’s work, it’s clouded by the fact that, as a Black queer woman, Chapman, 59, would have almost zero chance of that achievement herself in country music. 

Chapman herself, who is not a country musician, said she was “honored” to see her song place on the country charts, and she was “grateful,” to see new fans embrace “Fast Car,” too. She can say that again, because they are doing it not just in country music, but in several musical genres, including Chapman’s own. That should have ended the controversy right then and there as I argued here earlier.

Several observers have noted that Chapman’s rendition of “Fast Car” was no small thing, but a very big deal when it was released in 1988.

I liked this one from Gareth Roberts at Spiked:

One recollection that I can confirm with the aid of historical evidence is that ‘Fast Car’ by Tracy Chapman was everywhere. I heard it in seedy gay bars, at civil-service leaving dos, at family barbecues. It is one of those songs that announces itself instantly as a classic for the ages. But unlike most songs in that category, it is beguiling in a subtle way. The acoustic guitar riff is simplicity itself, with just a few repeated, easily imitated notes.

And there is so much going on under the bonnet. The vocal is unshowy, almost hesitant. It holds back for most of the duration, so the thrill when it soars, just a bit, is a punch to the gut (the good kind). The lyrics are heartbreaking. They recall a thwarted attempt to make something out of a messy family life and a failed relationship. It ends with the realisation that things are just going to go on as they are until death. Yes, there is – maybe – a route out to something better, but Chapman probably isn’t going to take it.

It was a huge hit and got this string of accolades, according to Wikipedia:

At Elektra, she released Tracy Chapman (1988).^[3] The album was critically acclaimed,^[12] and she began touring and building a fanbase.^[3] “Fast Car” began its rise on the U.S. charts soon after she performed it at the televised Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert at Wembley Stadium, London, in June 1988. At the concert, Chapman initially performed a short set in the afternoon, but reached a larger audience when she was a last-minute stand in for Stevie Wonder, who had technical difficulties.^[13][14] This appearance is credited with greatly accelerating sales of the single and album.^[15] “Fast Car” became a No. 6 pop hit on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending August 27, 1988.^[16] Rolling Stone ranked the song No. 167 on their 2010 list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time“.^[17] “Talkin’ ’bout a Revolution“, the follow-up to “Fast Car”, charted at No. 75 and was followed by “Baby Can I Hold You“, which peaked at No. 48.^[18] The album sold well, going multi-platinum^[19] and winning three Grammy Awards, including an honor for Chapman as Best New Artist.^[18] Later in 1988, Chapman was a featured performer on the worldwide Amnesty International Human Rights Now! Tour.^[3]

Seems Chapman was no oppressed artist because she was black — she was a major, major singer whose work is so contagious it not only gave the country charts their number one hit today, it gave her own musical categories number one hits, too.

That’s not someone repressed, as the Post claims, that is a rare and spectacular talent recognized by fans across the board, not just in the 1980s but now, too. To claim that country music represses black singers unless they have a white “middleman” is ridiculous, give what Chapman’s songs are doing on the charts — they succeed wherever they go. This is testimony to the power and talent of Chapman’s work that it can span decades and still hit number one on a re-release, and that it can do that in more than one musical genre.

No wonder Chapman had no time for the Post’s whining — they seemed to consider her a minor talent or something.

With numbers like these, she just made their claims look stupid.

She must be marveling at how little they knew about who she was and how irrelevant their claims of racial grievances were. How can she not be having the last laugh?

Image: Screen shot from Tracy Chapman Online video screen shot via YouTube