The Country Music Association honored singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman, who originally released the song in 1988, with Song of the Year on Wednesday, despite Luke Combs’ rendition of the song “Fast Car” winning the category. Upon winning the Song of the Year award at the CMAs, a full 35 years after the song’s release, Chapman made history as the first Black songwriter to do so.
In a prepared statement read by presenter Sara Evans, Chapman—who did not attend the ceremony—stated that it was “truly an honor to have my song to be newly acknowledged after 35 years of its debut.”
In addition, Combs’ rendition of “Fast Car” won him the single of the year award. As he accepted the award, he thanked Chapman for “writing one of the best songs of all time.”
In addition, the song experienced widespread success over thirty years ago. Three of the six Grammy nominations that Chapman received in 1989 came from the song itself. That year, Chapman took home three Grammys: Best New Artist, best contemporary folk recording, and Best Pop Vocal Performance for his performance in “Fast Car.”
“Fast Car” reached its highest position of No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1988. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the song at No. 165 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Several artists have covered “Fast Car” just in 2015. Tobtok and Jonas Blue released two house versions of the song; the latter peaked at No. 1 on the U.S. Top 40 dance singles chart and No. 98 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
When Michael Collings, a competitor on Britain’s Got Talent, sang Champan’s version on the competition show in 2011, it saw a second spike in popularity in the UK. According to BBC News, the song debuted at No. 4 on the U.K. chart.
The track “Gettin’ Old,” which was released in March, features Combs’ cover. In August, he recorded a live version of the song and released it as a single. It peaked at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and is currently at No. 2.
This indicates that Chapman, the sole writer of the song, made an appearance on the Billboard charts for the very first time since 1996.
Combs, 33, claimed he recorded the cover just out of love for the song. “It’s a song I’ve loved and it’s meant so much to me during my entire life, so I just recorded it,” Combs stated in his CMA acceptance speech. “It’s the first favorite song I have from the time I was 4 years old.”
“Our Bright Future,” Chapman’s 2008 album, is the last one she has put out, according to Billboard. She doesn’t seem to be very visible online and doesn’t have any public social media profiles. She did, however, sing her 1988 hit song “Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution” in a video that aired on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” prior to the 2020 presidential election.
CBS News has been in contact with Elektra Records, the label that issued Champan’s 1988 rendition of “Fast Car.”