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Vanessa Carlton
American singer-songwriter and pianist (born 1980)
Vanessa Lee Carlton is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress. Her 2002 debut single "A Thousand Miles" spent 41 weeks on the U.S.
Billboard Hot 100 and earned three Grammy Award nominations, becoming her signature song. It preceded her debut studio album, Be Not Nobody, released by A&M Records that same year and reaching No. 5 on the Billboard 200.
It further produced the singles "Ordinary Day" and "Pretty Baby". Her next studio album, Harmonium (2004), experienced similar success; its troubled production led Carlton to depart A&M in 2005.
Vanessa Lee Carlton was born on August 16, 1980, in Milford, Pennsylvania, the first of three children of Edmund "Ed" Carlton, a business jet pilot, and Heidi Lee, a pianist and school music teacher, who taught Carlton how to play piano from a very young age. She has a sister, Gwen, and a brother, Edmund.
Vanessa Carlton was born on August 16, 1980, the first of two daughters born to Ed and Heidi Carlton. Raised in Milford, Pennsylvania, her mother was a piano teacher, and exposed Vanessa to classical music from a young age. By age two, she began playing the piano, and at age 9 became obsessed with ballet. She joined the School of American Ballet at age 14, living in a dorm at Lincoln Center and enrolling in the Professional Children's School. During her time at the academy, she continued playing the piano and writing songs, nurturing her blossoming songwriting skills. Upon graduation, she moved to Hell's Kitchen, where she waitressed five nights a week and performed at local clubs on open mic nights, honing her craft and developing a stage presence. At home, she would often stay up until 4 a.m. recording demos on a four-track machine, and was signed to A&M Records in 2001. Her first video, for the song "A Thousand Miles," was released even as she continued recording her debut album, and it became an instant smash on MTV, as well as cracking the American Top Ten. This lead Rolling Stone magazine to name her as one of the 'Top Ten Artists to Watch in 2002.'
Also known as: Carlton, Carlton, Vanessa, V Carlton, V. Carlton, V.Carlton
From Discogs (free to use). Their entry
Liner notes
Vanessa Carlton, the records, oldest first
Be Not Nobody
2002 album
Harmonium
2004 album
Sisters in Song
2006 album
Heroes & Thieves
2007 album
Rabbits on the Run
2011 album
Hear the Bells
2011 ep
Blue Pool
2015 ep
Liberman
2015 album
Love Is an Art
2020 album
Veils
2026 album
Records from MusicBrainz; covers from the Cover Art Archive.
"A Thousand Miles" is song by American pop singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton, released as her debut single. Written by Carlton and produced by Curtis Schweitzer and Ron Fair, the song was serviced to American radio in February 2002 by A&M Records as the lead single from Carlton's first studio album, Be Not Nobody (2002).
Background and recording
Vanessa Carlton wrote the song's piano riff in mid-1998 at her parents' house in Philadelphia; her mother Heidi Lee, who had been listening to her, said, "Vanessa, that's a hit song." Carlton was unable to finish the song because of a case of writer's block and did not return to it for several months. While looking for a record label that would sign her, Carlton played the beginning of the song for a record producer, who said, "You have to finish that." She returned to her parents' home and finished it in an hour one evening, naming it "Interlude." She told VH1 in 2004, "I just sit down and write my songs ... It just kind of happened and it will never happen again like that."
Music and lyrics
"A Thousand Miles" is written in the key of B major and composed with a tempo of 95 beats per minute. Carlton says that the song was inspired by a crush she had on a Juilliard student (who is now a "very famous actor") whom she met while she was attending the School of American Ballet. She further stated that because she never actually spoke to her crush due to her shyness, she felt like she had "a better chance of falling up than ever having a relationship with this person". She has also called the song "a combination of reality and fantasy. It's about a love that so consumes you that you do anything for it. That's how I felt at that time."
Critical reception
"A Thousand Miles" was highly acclaimed by music critics. Billboard magazine opined, "it's the song's classical-tied piano hook that endures with urgency throughout the song that lends it spectacular charm, along with the artist's vulnerable vocal style... A truly auspicious opening." Most other critics gave Be Not Nobody mixed reviews but generally praised the song. AllMusic wrote: "as it moves from its solo orchestral-backed choruses, the result isn't overwhelming, it's sweet, multi-layered, and appealing". Sean Richardson of the Boston Phoenix made favorable comparisons between "A Thousand Miles" and Michelle Branch's debut single "Everywhere", saying, "it's a good-natured reverie, with none of the troubled soul searching that...
Music video
Fair played "A Thousand Miles" in front of his superior Jimmy Iovine, the co-chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Iovine was very impressed with the song and requested that a music video be filmed immediately for it. After the video had been completed it was presented to Tom Calderone, the Vice President of Programming for MTV, in early 2002. Calderone expressed a desire to begin broadcasting the video at once and Fair agreed to his request, even though the album was still in production at the time and Carlton's marketing "image" had not yet been developed.
