Monday, October 25, 2021

Song of the Day: 'Tom's Diner' by D.N.A. Featuring Suzanne Vega

 

This came on MTV Classic last night and reminded me how it was one of the first remixes to leave a mark on me, the song sounding so reimagined from the version on Suzanne Vega's "Solitude Standing" LP I had bought years earlier. (Regular readers know I'm the only big queen who isn't a big remix queen!) Everything but the Girl's "Missing" remix by Todd Terry, the pre-"Venus" Stock Aiken and Waterman remix of Bananarama's "More Than Physical" and Cher's "One by One" and "Paradise Is Here" remixed by Junior Vasquez also come to mind. 


Via Wikipedia: The "Tom's Diner" of the song is Tom's Restaurant in New York City, a mid-20th-century diner on the corner of Broadway and 112th Street. Singer and songwriter Suzanne Vega was reputedly a frequent patron during the early 1980s when she was a student at nearby Barnard College. The diner later became famous as the location used for the exterior scenes of Monk's Café in the popular 1990s television sitcom "Seinfeld."


Also: This was the first song converted to MP3. Karlheinz Brandenburg used a CD recording of Suzanne Vega's song "Tom's Diner" to assess and refine the MP3 compression algorithm. This song was chosen because of its nearly monophonic nature and wide spectral content, making it easier to hear imperfections in the compression format during playbacks. Some refer to Suzanne Vega as "The mother of MP3."

No comments: