Fast Car

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"Fast Car"

Single by Tracy Chapman
Released	1988
Genre	Rock/Acoustic Rock/Contemporary Folk
Length	4:56
Label	Elektra Records
Writer(s)	Tracy Chapman
Producer(s)	David Kershenbaum

Fast Car is a popular song by the American singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman. It was released on her self-titled 1988 debut Tracy Chapman. Her appearance on the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute was the catalyst for the song becoming a Top 5 hit in the UK and a top 10 hit in her homeland.

The song's narrative is complex and evolving, telling a tale of generational poverty. The song's narrator grows up with an alcoholic father in a small dead-end town and decides to leave home with her partner, full of optimism as they set off in the car to the big city. However, they are unable to break the cycle. When the partner becomes a heavy drinker and pays no attention to her children, she is ultimately told to decide whether to stay or to "take [his] fast car and keep on driving".

The song has been covered many times by bands such as R.E.M., The Flying Pickets, Hundred Reasons, Xiu Xiu, Vertical Horizon, Even Nine, Darwin's Waiting Room, Jesse James, The Love Project, Amazing Transparent Man, The Wilkinsons and by solo singers Kristian Leontiou, David Usher and Hitomi Yaida. It was also sampled by the rap group Nice and Smooth in their hit song "Sometimes I Rhyme Slow", making it a hit within the hip hop community as well.

In 1991, British soul singer Gabrielle recorded a demo of her song "Dreams" which featured a sample of "Fast Car". When it was released commercially in 1993 the sample of Fast Car was removed because of legal issues, but the version with the sample was still being played in nightclubs and DJ sets. Los Angeles based turntablist DJ Quixotic is known to perform a cover of this song by manipulating a tone record on a turntable to imitate the notes of the opening guitar riffs.

Rolling Stone ranked the song #165 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It is Chapman's only song on the list and one of top ten songs of the 1980s.