When Rolling Stone updated the list in 2021, 'Fast Car' was promoted to the 71st spot. It is Chapman's only song on the list, and the highest ranking song performed and solely written by a female artist. Rolling Stone ranked 'Fast Car' number 167 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. 'Fast Car' itself would reach number six on the Billboard Hot 100 the same week. This performance brought attention to Chapman's music, with sales for Tracy Chapman increasing greatly, enough for it to top the Billboard 200 chart on August 27, 1988. As the organizers readied the stage for the following act, Chapman performed 'Fast Car' and 'Across the Lines'. He left in a panic, forcing the event organizers to usher Chapman back to the stage with nothing but a microphone and her guitar. Just before surprise guest Stevie Wonder walked onstage, he learned that his keyboard's hard disk had gone missing. That July, Chapman appeared at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert, where she was initially scheduled to sing three songs. Release and promotion Įlektra Records released 'Fast Car' on April 6, 1988, one day after the parent album, Tracy Chapman. Dave Marsh said it was perhaps an 'optimistic folk-rock narrative', whose characters are in a homeless shelter. The song's arrangement was described by Orlando Sentinel writer Thom Duffy as 'subtle folk-rock', while Billboard magazine's Gary Trust deemed the record a 'folk/pop' song. According to Metro Weekly critic Chris Gerard, 'Fast Car' tells a grittily realistic story of a working poor woman trying to escape the cycle of poverty, set to folk rock music.

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