• Tracy Chapman said to Q magazine: "It's not really about a car at all... basically it's about a relationship that doesn't work out because it's starting from the wrong place."
• This won the Grammy Award in 1989 for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
• When the then-unknown Tracy Chapman was booked to appear down the bill at the Nelson Mandela birthday concert at Wembley Stadium on June 11, 1988, little did she know her appearance would be the catalyst for a career breakthrough. After performing several songs from her self titled debut during the afternoon, Chapman thought she'd done her bit and could relax and enjoy the rest of the concert. However, later in the evening Stevie Wonder was delayed when the computer discs for his performance went missing, and Chapman was ushered back onto stage again. In front of a huge prime time audience she performed "Fast Car" alone with her acoustic guitar. Afterwards the song raced up the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
• The two appearances shot her to stardom, with two songs from her recently released first album, 'Fast Car' and 'Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution'. Before the concert, she had sold 250,000 albums. In the following two weeks, she was said to have sold two million.

• In the US, the song peaked at number 6, and it reached number 4 in the UK. It returned to the UK charts again in 2011, again peaking at number 4, after Michael Collings performed it on Britain's Got Talent. It has sold over 650,000 copies in the UK alone.

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CATW