Credit: Wikimedia

Tracy Chapman is the first Black woman to have sole songwriting credit on country number one

Tue 4 July 2023 9:31, UK

After Luke Combs covered her 1988 single ‘Fast Car’, Tracy Chapman has become the first Black woman to have the sole songwriting credit on a number one country hit. Combs’ effort currently sits at the top of Billboard’s Country Airplay chart.

As reported in Rolling Stone, Chapman is only the fourth Black woman to have any form of writing credit on a number one country hit. The others are Alice Randall, who co-wrote Trisha Yearwood’s 1994 release ‘XXX’s and OOO’s (An American Girl)’, Ester Dean, who co-wrote Lady A’s ‘Champagne Night’ in 2020, and Tayla Parx, who has a co-writing credit on Dan+Shay’s 2021 effort ‘Glad You Exist’.

Speaking to the same publication, Tayla Parx explained that Combs’ successful cover indicates how brilliant Chapman’s ‘Fast Car’ is. “Any song that sounds good on guitar, it can more than likely be a country song,” she said. “With a great song, you can take it and make it sound like seven different genres, so that says a lot about what type of song ‘Fast Car’ is: it can be a pop song, a country song, it can be whatever, because it’s just a great song.”

Combs’ rendition of ‘Fast Car’ is the second single from his new album, Gettin’ Old. Earlier this month, it rose from eighth to fourth on Billboard’s Hot 100, even climbing past the peak of Chapman’s original, which reached sixth. Regarding Chapman’s 1988 song, Combs described it as his “first favourite song probably ever”.

“I remember listening to that song with my dad in his truck when I was probably four years old,” Combs told Music Mayhem in a recent interview. “He had a cassette, a tape of it, and we had this old brown camper top F-150. We rode around that thing, and he had a tape cassette player in there, and I have the original cassette — my dad brought it to me a couple of years ago… I have the one, and I have it in my shop.”

Over the years, ‘Fast Car’ has been covered by many prominent artists, including Sam Smith, Jonas Blue and Jamila Woods. In April 2011, the original entered the UK top ten for the second time ever, at number four after Michael Collings performed it on Britain’s Got Talent. This was one position higher than its initial chart success in 1988.

Listen to Luke Combs’ cover ‘Fast Car’ below.