Some people will say "its just a regular acapella" and i will say "this is the first ever mp3 made"

This was used to make the first mp3. It was well known for being a good audio test to see how natural a human voice is on a speaker, and the man trying to make it had heard the song on the radio, and immediately knew he should use this song.

I could be wrong but i feel like i *understand* this song. Normal day, things can feel melancholy. Other peoples intimacy can make you a bit shy. An aesthetic can remind you of a magical time long ago. And just like that, time to go to work. I saw it in her eyes and i feel seen and just like, I understand this piece of poetic art. And thank you for this. Absolutely fantastic writing.

Wow… this song is so different Acappella. First time I’ve heard anything but the radio version! Cool!

The best version of this song. Someone feeling somewhat isolated from the world while thinking about fond memories. Life just moves on and you have to stay with it. Amazing.

This is a normal day, but the way she draws attention to these little incidents that cause mild, awkward discomfort in our regular interactions is really incredible. The lady on the other side of the window, the intimacy of another couple, the sense of another person watching us, the effort to not notice what we notice (like the woman messing with her skirt/stockings), and so on. Really brilliant. How we handle these awkward situations will make a big difference in our lives. Now I'm going to try to pay more attention to these in my life and think about how to handle them better. So, this is a song that may actually improve my life. Thanks, Suzanne!

She was 23 when this song was written, 25 when it was released the first time, 31 when it became a smash hit. Can you imagine?

There's something so eerie about this song, even though she's just singing about a normal day. I have a vague memory of hearing this as a child and thinking it was a bit creepy, it might be a false memory though but I don't think it is because I heard this again a few years ago and recognized it, then I heard it again a few months ago and I was just so captivated. This song doesn't even need music, it still has a rhythm and it takes a lot of talent to make acapella this interesting. I can just see everything happening and it feels like I'm inside her thoughts or something...

As a male server who also serves a lot of coffee, the beginning lines give me the chills

I've no joke been looking for this song for 28 years. So nice to finally find it. Well done Suzanne Vega. A Greatly written and composed song.

The level of control, finesse and timing is astonishing. I'm never quite sure if it's supposed to be eerie or sort of breezy and light.

The facial expressions really make this, you can't just idly listen

I think this is one of the most beautiful, intimate songs ever written. Precisely because it’s about someone’s normal day.

Thank you lady for helping invent the MP3

In college years almost half a century ago, I frequented places in the same area for coffee. Sometimes, this was a start-up dose of caffeine, at other times a chance to camp out at a table with free refills and pages of books littered with debris from croissants. Hearing this song a cappella reminds me that I usually went out for coffee by myself, though it would be a stretch to say going out for coffee in NYC was a way to be alone. After all, at one place, I would take in ambient conversations, the trompe l'oeil of mirrors, the windows contrasting my stationary routine with the flux of the street. Being at a place where you can have coffee doesn't necessarily create spectacle, but it can turn you into a kind of spectator. That itself creates the sense of a story. You might even think of it as a narrator in your head, like a double in a mirror, familiar enough to be mistaken for yourself, yet also distanced enough to be a generic stranger. In my own mindful perceptions, I have no distinct memory of church bells. There were at least a couple of times when I went inside the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the source of bells mentioned in the song, but the landmark was more often a point of reference. Even if I didn't exactly take notice of the cathedral, it could somehow loom at the edge of awareness while I was on the other side of Amsterdam Avenue, at a table with books and coffee in the Hungarian Pastry Shop. And, yes, for the songwriter, the ring of bells without her consciously tuning in, could dial up a personal memory from the past. Though "Tom's Diner" (or Tom's Restaurant) is better known from the "Seinfeld" series, I think of it as just another version of the same prototype, a kind of ancillary landmark. Years later, I noticed a parallel in Boston's "Mission Hill" section of Roxbury, named for a Romanesque Revival basilica whose bells punctually mark time every 15 minutes. There's no Amsterdam Avenue or Broadway here, but there is Tremont Street, with its own mix of people and traffic. And, almost directly across the street from the church entrance, there's another ancillary landmark with its own long history and tables for coffee--"Mike's Donuts." There's a subdued tension in the song between all those mindful perceptions and the singer's invisibility, with her retrospective introspection, while the person who's pouring coffee at the counter looks with anticipation at someone else. In a throng of real-time minutiae, the songwriter' can be visible yet overlooked, physically present yet plunged into the outwardly invisible zone of her past. She's like the "Night Hawks" perched in the famous painting by Hopper, an outward semblance of reticence, impenetrable enough to suggest something else on the other side of a split consciousness.

Is it strange that I can still "sing" along after 35 years? I must have listened to that album countless times back in 1987. Love(d) it. Every single song.

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 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 Has gotten 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 It's time to catch the train

Best word I can use to describe this song is disillusionment. Like the characters going through their world in a 3rd person view, drifting through life rather than feeling it. Alienation

The first time I heard this song it was the acapella version and I've never been able to listen to anything but since

I was always like, "Why does listening to the bells of the Cathedral make her think of someone's voice? This version answers it. She is remembering the rendezvous the night before.

Took me 30 years to know that the Doo doo-doos are basically sound of train rolling haha

What's amazing to me is how this so perfectly captures that area of the city, and it singles out Tom's Restaurant brilliantly cause it's the worst service I've ever had and they literally only survive on their fame from this song and from Seinfeld. Terrible service, food barely acceptable.

I saw Suzanne Vega in concert at the Moore Theater in '87 and she is one of the few artists to sound BETTER in person, no recording can d her Justice. So good in fact, it was on the verge of a life changing experience. Thank you.

This song makes me feel like I know it but it's my first time listening to it. The nostalgia and feeling of newness it fires up in me is almost eeriely comforting.

Avevo scoperto questa canzone e questa artista quando ero ragazzino circa 30 anni fa. Mi ricordo che questa melodia mi aveva toccato nell'anima, e mi ero innamorato di questa voce dolcissima e anche un po' misteriosa. E anche il suo viso dolce e pulito rispecchia la bellezza delle sue canzoni. Pochi anni fa ha fatto un concerto in provincia di Udine e sono riuscito a vederla e avere il suo autografo. È una poetessa della musica!

She is a great singer, with a very personal style. I love the times it evoke. I hope you sing again for the public, Suzanne Vega

I remember hearing the radio version of this song when I was a kid and always remembered it as time went by. This is the first time I've heard the acapella version, and it's beautiful yet eerie. To strip away all the music and make something pure like this is rarely seen nowadays. It's very interesting. I hope everyone who has heard the radio version sets out to hear this one too.

Do not argue with the man who pours the coffee...

wow yall, i had the cassette when she first released it was a bonus track at the very end unlisted….i guess i never really understood how many unique peices of music i had as a teen. i even had an original jimi hendrix experience ( the album) album that my uncle got when hendrix was new. wish i still had all of that vinyl…..who remember laurie anderson? or love tractor? jefferrson airplane after bathing at baxters….good times

Как же она хороша!! Ангел!! Муза! Гений чистой красоты!!!

So calming, I would listen her all day long.

Honestly this song is relatable in a lot of ways. It’s get mad weird sitting at a diner alone with other people around.

Suzanne. I’m aware you’ll never see my comment, but listening to this again has given me goosebumps. I only have your work on vinyl, and I haven’t owned a record player for more than 20 years. I think I’m answering my own question, hello Richer Sounds!

I fell asleep before turning off the radio on my nightstand. Then I had a series of bizarre dreams. The last of the dreams had a soundtrack, and it was the first half of this - I hadn't heard this before. I woke up at "oh, this rain it will continue" and the first thing I think is "wait, this song is real?" And that's how I discovered Suzanne Vega.

What a beautiful, haunting song and made me cry when it first came out. Not sure what Vega's intentions were but have always felt like this song very effectively depicts the difference between the two classically understood types of time: "chronos" (the neverending, pressured march of time as depicted by the steady beat and somewhat mundane daily ritual depicted) and "kairos" (the 'out of time' experience we have with our memories, or connecting with our deeper selves, having meaningful conversations with loved ones, being absorbed in creating art, etc). The slowing up, and actual stopping of the song when a cherished memory is being experienced, reinforces this feeling. Then chronos (the steady beat) takes over again because "it's time to catch the train." I've used this song to explain the difference to people and whatever Vega's meaning is, that's how I experience it.

WHY IS THIS SO HYPNOTIC??? LIKE I CAN'T GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD IT'S CRAZY

It is always nice to hear you, Suzanne!

Still resonates in 2022. Thanks Vega!

This seems genious, yeh! Better than cover versions. Catching a moment in a life :)

This song ages like a fine wine

Looking at comments, I believe some people are making it all more complex than it needs to be. This is a simple scene, a snippet out of an ordinary day, with details that identify it as a specific day for the author.

Thankyou for this song and the MP3 Succuess! ❤❤❤

Beautiful voice ✨

That was ridiculously soothing to hear🤌🏿🤌🏿🤌🏿

This is how you tell a song through music. It's actually so beutiful

Still gooses me after all these years

Always lovely

Stunning. Thank you for your beautiful songs. This is my favourite.

For a couple of decades, I was _aware_ that this was an a capella song which had been put to music by someone else after the fact, but I'd only ever heard the one from the charts... Hearing this version for the first time was eerie without the beats and samples, made even creepier by the silent pauses where my brain was expecting the "do do do-do duh-duh do do" bit. I had just gotten used to not hearing it when it came in _right_ at the end, and the smile as she does it makes me think this video was made _after_ the dance-y version because she knows the listener has been waiting the entire song for it...!

Teenage year's! It was always a dance 💃 house party favorite.

Mulher maravilhosa!!

Such a lovely song 💗

Linda demais 🤩

The first MP3 file was this acapella version. This song was converted to MP3 in 1995 by one of the creators of the format at the Franhoufer Institute and was one of the first high-quality audio files to be shared on the web.

СПАСИБА VEGA за все эти года твоей творческой деятельности и я всегда был рядом - слушал ранее ещё тогда, слушаю сейчас и буду слушать дальше!!!!!

Thank you! Nicely performed.

Just saw and heard this.Love it.

Excellent Work

Beautiful song and performer

無茶懐かしぃです！'87年に日本のCMで流れてた曲なのですよ👍

I love this it sounds so calming.

Brilliant 👏

Beautiful

this song gives me chills and makes me feel nostalgia. her voice is beautiful and the beats make it even better.

This song stays in my head for days each time I hear it.

This is simply perfection. Understated but clever, sincere and multilayered perfection.

Wonderful wonderful wonderful

I love this song. I wish there were more songs like it. It draws you in. I could listen to it over and over.

What an absolute masterpiece👏 I heard that very first version inside of here the very first time... Before, I always only heard there had to be that original version of the song as well - but I always only heard the DNA version... Compared to that second version, I really have to say that this original version is just genious... I can listen to it in repeat - and immediately get caught of Suzanne's incredible voice... Sooo AMAZING❤️ And while listening the voice on and on - and seeing the video with herself always moving around with such beautiful eyes, I immediately fall in love with her... Although the song is just about a normal day, I start dreaming... And start feeling so much better and relaxed... De de deee de de dedeee de... De de deee de de dedeee de... Finally, I really have to say: "Thank you so much, Suzanne Vega, for letting me being part inside your daily life! Your great song!"👏👏👏

Great voice

good stuff!

Tom's Diner" is a song written in 1982 by American singer and songwriter Suzanne Vega. It was first released as a track on the January 1984.

This is awesome

I don't know why this is so riveting ... but it is .... great stuff

This song I can relate to not due to loneliness but due to the chaos of the world. I have so many to accomplish in this world still and its seeming more impossible as I read the news and such. That's my deep connection to this song. As there is a newspaper mentioned in the song

This is basically like a poem with stream of consciousness.

Whenever I need refreshment I come here to listen her... A serene vibe it holds

Tha k you for sharing your gift

Duh duh dada... duh duh dada...

Such description. It's amazing that nothing rhymes in a normal pattern. Just an amazing job of capturing attention with descriptive lyrics

Chocalatey velvety voice. Mmmmm lovely 😍

Its just as beautiful to this day ❤❤❤🥺

oh great... now i have to read this beautiful womans history and listen to all her songs. sunlight, in case we never meet again, i miss you.

Beautiful song ❣️beautiful woman ❣️

Always have loved this version most. It just feels so....natural

Great

Muito bom

This version makes her naked and vulnerable compared to the version we all know where her voice is protected by the beat. The exposed nature of this song makes it more intimate for some reason.

This video gives me pangs of nostalgia, and oddly enough, it's more the red brick building more than anything else. I remember red brick buildings were in a lot of 80s 90s educational programs we'd watch in school and in stuff in PBS. Like, when I see the building, I think of like Reading Rainbow and Bill Nye and realize that that time will never happen again and I was really too young to really live in it, and the haunting melancholy song really compounds the feeling...

かわいい！

This is so beautiful. It is bring me to tears. I don't understand why this version touches me so.

Lovely

This is a true story, i was the coffee there

Me lembrei do VH1 , sempre passava esse clipe versão " pipocada " ficou excelente a remasterização

I LOVE THIS SONG! EVEN WITHOUT THE BELLS AND WHISTLES! 😊

🥰J'aime votre chanson et vous aussi beaucoup avec votre version sublime au festival Jazz in Marciac avec Gerry Leonard à la guitare et des arrangements musicaux tellement réussis !! ❤

Wonderfull

ok - this is the first time I've actually discerned the lyrics. Great work!

Oh how I love this

Genius. Love it❤