I could watch Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs‘ “Fast Car” performance at the Grammy’s all day long.
As you already know, Chapman’s beloved hit “Fast Car” was given a second life thanks to Luke Combs releasing a cover of the hit song on his 2023 album Gettin’ Old. Comb’s cover was actually nominated in the Best Country Solo Performance category that year, but ultimately lost to Chris Stapleton’s “White Horse.”
Combs rendition of the song might not have won, but Chapman’s original recording raked it in back at the 1989 Grammy Awards. Tracy released “Fast Car” in 1988, and the following year, she took home the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “Fast Car,” and Best Contemporary Folk Album for Tracy Chapman.
At the very core of things, the song is perfectly crafted and the lyrics are entrancing. That’s probably why the cover worked so well when Luke Combs finally decided to officially produce a studio version – even though his producer tried to talk him out of it. Not to brag, but Whiskey Riff posted a cover of Luke singing “Fast Car” back in 2018 and the reception from the fans was BONKERS. People had been begging for him to take it to the studio for years following that first time he shared it.
Funny enough though, even with all of the years of covering Chapman’s signature song live, Luke Combs was evidently getting the words wrong the whole time… and no one ever told him. That is until Tracy Chapman herself told Luke that in the pre-chorus of the track, he accidentally mixed up some of the words in his version. The country star revealed this story at one of his recent shows, saying:
“The last one, it says, ‘We’ve got a make a decision, leave tonight or live and die this way.’ And then it goes into the chorus for the first time. That’s the verse that, at the very end of the song, closes the song as well.
And she said, ‘So when you recorded the song, you said ‘Still gotta make a decision’ instead of ‘We’ve gotta make a decision.’ That was the first time that I knew that I recorded the song incorrectly.”
Holy smokes.
Listen, this is on us (the fans) as much as it’s on Luke Combs. We’ve all probably listened to both versions of the song countless times, and none of us ever caught it. Not even Luke Combs, or any of his producers, or anyone at his label. The only person that did catch it was – unsurprisingly – the person that originally penned the song: Tracy Chapman.
When she told Luke Combs, he was devastated:
“I remember when she said it, I wanted to crawl in a hole and die.”
Poor Luke.
That would be a touch embarrassing though, would it not? You are single-handedly responsible for breathing new life into an all-time-classic song, and you kind of got it wrong? Albeit by a word or two, but still.
Combs has been beating himself up about it ever since he found out, even though he revealed that Chapman ended up being cool about the whole thing:
“Luckily, she was awesome about it, and I think about it every single time I sing this song, and I will think about it every single time I sing this song for the rest of my whole life. She was so cool about it.
So the version you know, ‘Still gotta make a decision,’ is just not the words. I made that up in my head. It’s ‘We’ve got to make a decision.’ Tonight I will probably sing, ‘We’ve gotta make a decision’ because Tracy Chapman told me to, and damn it, I’m gonna do it.”
@andreagreenwood3♬ original sound – Andrea Greenwood
If you happen to see Luke Combs live anytime soon, pay attention to which version he ends up singing. Technically speaking, if he goes back to the original lyrics of the song that Tracy Chapman sang from here on out, that means that he’ll never actually sing his official cover version of “Fast Car” again. Mind-blown, right?
Luke at least got it right during the iconic Grammy performance:
