Tracy Chapman has become the first Black woman in history to have the sole songwriting credit on a No. 1 country hit, thanks to Luke Combs’ cover of her 1988 song “Fast Car.” It currently sits atop Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (dated July 8th).
As Rolling Stone notes, Chapman is only the fourth Black woman to have any writing credit on a No. 1 country song. She joins the club currently occupied by Alice Randall, who co-wrote Trisha Yearwood’s 1994 single “XXX’s and OOO’s (An American Girl)”; Ester Dean, who co-wrote Lady A’s “Champagne Night” in 2020; and Tayla Parx, who co-wrote Dan+Shay’s 2021 song “Glad You Exist.”
Combs’ version of “Fast Car” is the second single from his latest album, Gettin’ Old. Earlier this month, it rose from No. 8 to No. 4 on the Hot 100, surpassing the No. 6 peak of Chapman’s original, which Combs said was his “first favorite song probably ever.” As of this week, it sits at No. 2 on the Hot 100.
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“I remember listening to that song with my dad in his truck when I was probably four years old,” Combs recently told Music Mayhem. “He had a cassette, a tape of it, and we had this old brown camper top F-150. We rode around that thing, and he had a tape cassette player in there, and I have the original cassette — my dad brought it to me a couple of years ago… I have the one, and I have it in my shop.”
Combs aside, “Fast Car” has been covered by way too many artists to keep track of, including Sam Smith and Jamila Woods. You can hear the country star perform it during his massive world tour, which you can get tickets for here.