Suzanne Vega - Tom's Diner (Original Version - HD 720p)

[derigel]

Fun Fact: the exterior of the real Tom's Diner was used for the exteriors of Monks Cafe in Seinfeld.

Another Fun Fact: Vega has said she wrote the song in 1981/2 and she based elements of the song on real events.
So... at one point she reads the funnies in the paper.
Only two newspapers in New York carried comic strips in 1981/2 And of those, in that period only the New York Post carried a front page about the death of an actor, William Holden. And Holden did indeed die from a fall resulting from his exessiv drinking. Which means the day the song reffers to has to be the day the story was published, which was Wednesday, November 18, 1981.

[i.cant.sleep.anymore]

As a kid I remember people talking about this song like she had a crush on another woman..like a lesbian love story. Listening to it now though, it definitely isn't. It's more of an introvert/social anxiety anthem. The whole time the narrator is trying to avoid eye contact or uncomfortable interactions. I really love it.

[VampirusX]

The pure clarity of her voice is incredible!
No wonder, that it was used to invent mp3!

[josielpontocom]

I am sitting in the morning
At the diner on the corner
I am waiting at the counter
For the man to pour the coffee
And he fills it only halfway
And before I even argue
He is looking out the window
At somebody coming in

"It is always nice to see you"
Says the man behind the counter
To the woman who has come in
She is shaking her umbrella
And I look the other way
As they are kissing their hellos
And I'm pretending not to see them
Instead I pour the milk

I open up the paper
There's a story of an actor
Who had died while he was drinking
It was no one I had heard of
And I'm turning to the horoscope
And looking for the funnies
When I'm feeling someone watching me
And so I raise my head

There's a woman on the outside
Looking inside, does she see me?
No, she does not really see me
'Cause she sees her own reflection
And I'm trying not to notice
That she's hitching up her skirt
And while she's straightening her stockings
Her hair is getting wet

Oh, this rain, it will continue
Through the morning as I'm listening
To the bells of the cathedral

I am thinking of your voice
And of the midnight picnic
Once upon a time
Before the rain began

I finish up my coffee
And it's time to catch the train

[PanchoPantera]

She’s talented! That bass in her voice

[rfarevalo]

Working at the Fraunhofer Society in Germany in the 90's, audio engineer Karl-Heinz Brandenburg was hard at work developing the MP3 audio compression scheme. Brandenburg used Vega's a cappella version of "Tom's Diner" to tune the compression system, playing the track before and after compression was applied to tell whether MP3 sounded good enough. He figured Vega's song would be a tough track to compress (as it was already favored by audiophiles), and would be a good test for whether MP3 was really listenable. Although many audiophiles ended up hating MP3, Brandenburg seems to have done pretty well for himself -- MP3 became an incredibly popular technology

[smertonosnyibratni]

My dad had this song on his cd when I was a kid. At first I thought this was a little bit of a weird song, but my dad was always good at not letting that stop him from liking something. We would sit there silent for a bit and just imagine the scene going on. Hearing it now, it's the same scene from when I was a kid, and I remember what it was like when he was alive. This song is extremely interesting. It's an entire art piece based around the seemingly mundane. The best artists can take all the simple and unnoticed things in life, and remind us of the beauty in them. That's what this song is doing. It creates a beautiful memorable story out of a simple trip to a diner. One that I have remembered since I was a kid and this song would come on in the car.

[theforceq]

This is the most detailed, fascinating, boring story I ever heard.
The Doo doo doo doo doo doo-doo doo part of the song made me think eerily about it. So from a child to a 38 year old man, sometimes I'd skip it. But Suzanne really paints a picture with her words... even the Doo doo doo doo doo doo-doo doo part has meaning.
Many of us have these thoughts on our daily commute! lol

[bigollaugh]

I love this version ....so haunting and bueatiful....

[RalphDratman]

Very nice. I like this version better than the DNA versions I have heard so far.

[gabesantiago]

Omg I WAS FREAKING TRYING TO FINED THIS SONG FOR
2 YEARS

[meencantatumusica]

This song just drives me crazy. I love it!!! I used to listen to it back in the 90s and yesterday I learned who the writer was. I didn't even know that the original version was acapella.

[MathTravels]

It would be awesome if someone did a remix of this by putting a beat behind her voice.

[imhotep]

Merci pour la version que j'entends pour la 1ere fois.

[BonJoviBeatlesLedZep]

The haunting nature of this song loses a little bit when you learn it's the diner from Seinfeld.

[wakeupscreaming]

She's lucky she did this song as an acapella, so that producers like DNA would discover it, sample it and put some funky beats (which is what all remixers were doing in the 80's) and then the song finally was successful.

[precious]

This song used to scare me so bad as a little kid I'm trying to see if I'm still scared as an adult something about it I don't know

[zyxwut]

I always thought of this song as kind of a stripped down 1980s version of the Beatles iconic classic, "A Day in the Life".

[johnmoore]

IN 1987 I WAS 18 I STILL JAM TO IT DETROIT EASTSIDE 2021.

[sherylcrow]

I have never watched this video! Amazing!