a thousand miles

About the record

"A Thousand Miles" is a piano-driven pop song supported by a full orchestral arrangement, in which its protagonist (Carlton) pines for her lover, from whom she has separated. She admits "I need you and I miss you... you know I'd walk a thousand miles if I could just see you". Carlton said that she wrote the song about somebody whom she had a crush on, but admitted that he was unaware of her unreciprocated feelings for him.^[1] 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".^[2]

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".^[3] Most other critics gave Be Not Nobody mixed reviews, but generally praised the song. All Music Guide wrote: "as it moves from its solo piano opening to bombastic orchestral-backed choruses, the result isn't overwhelming, it's sweet, multi-layered, and appealing".^[4] Sean Richardson of the Boston Phoenix made favourable comparisons between "A Thousand Miles" and Michelle Branch's debut single "Everywhere", said "it's a good-natured reverie, with none of the troubled soul searching that characterizes the work of Tori and Fiona. She occasionally evokes her piano-playing predecessors by raising her girlish voice to a howl, but she's better off being herself".^[5] Adrien Begrand of PopMatters magazine said the song was "catchy and hard to dislike", but characterized it as "the sort of girly-voiced, introspective pop that is made to please people who are looking for singer/songwriters who look and sound profound, but actually have nothing to say".^[6]

Composition and recording

Carlton wrote the song's piano riff in the summer of 1998 at her parents' house in Philadelphia; her mother, who had been listening to her, said "Vanessa, that's a hit song".^[2] 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".^[1] She returned to her parents' home and finished it in an hour one evening, naming it "Interlude".

Some years later, Carlton recorded a demo tape (which featured several tracks, including "Interlude") and sent it to various producers and labels in the hopes that one of them would sign her. Some expressed interest, but Carlton did not agree with their suggestions for alternative titles for the song. One of the tapes found its way to Ron Fair, head of A&M Records, who recalled that "It was extraordinary, but also in some respects kind of screwed up as a record. It didn't press the emotional buttons the way I envisioned it".^[1] Carlton met with Fair for a piano session to alter the arrangement of the song, "so the heartbeat came in a different way" Fair said.

During the session, more time signatures and transitions were inserted into the song, and the timing of the repetition of the chorus was changed. Additionally, the instrumental opening was shortened and an orchestra section was added by Fair; the lyrics, however, remained the same. He explained: "It has a lot of starts and stops to it, which makes it hard to achieve a flow, but I wanted to make a really dramatic record. The song is like a mini musical of its own".^[1] "A Thousand Miles" took fourteen sessions to record, and was the first song recorded for Be Not Nobody. As well as conducting the orchestra, Fair also organized a small band for its recording: John Goux played guitar on the track, Lee Sklar played bass guitar, and Abe Laboriel Jr. played drums. Carlton later said, "after listening to it I realized I was going to make an album that I was very proud of".^[1]

The selection of the song's title was accompanied by a minor disagreement between Carlton and Fair, who was reportedly "adamant" about changing it. Fair said, "Vanessa Carlton is an incredible talent, but she's also very stubborn... I had to say, 'Look, I'm the president of the label, we're not calling it "Interlude". ' When you're trying to launch a career, people need a handle to pick things up from, and the word 'Interlude' is never in the song".^[1] In its finished form, the song was first heard during a scene in the Reese Witherspoon film Legally Blonde (2001), and was featured on the film's soundtrack under the title "A Thousand Miles (Interlude)". The final title of the song, "A Thousand Miles", was based on a suggestion by Fair's nephew. After the song's completion, Fair said that he listened to it repeatedly and "it made me weep. That's usually my litmus test. If I cry, I know it's a hit".^[1]

Despite this, he was concerned that the song's piano basis would put it at a disadvantage in the marketplace if it was to be released as a single. Fair played "A Thousand Miles" in front of his superior Jimmy Iovine, the co-chairman of Interscope, Geffen and A&M Records. 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.^[1]

Promotion and chart performance

In the U.S. "A Thousand Miles" was released as a CD single on February 12 and debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 later that month; it peaked at number five for three weeks in May and remained on the chart for forty-one weeks.^[7] The album Be Not Nobody was released on April 30 and, partly because of the popularity of "A Thousand Miles", debuted within the U.S. top five with first-week sales of over 101,000 copies.^[8][9] The single was successful on several other Billboard formats and topped the ARC Weekly Top 40 for four weeks in June, becoming the biggest hit of the year on that chart. It was 2002's sixth most-played single on U.S. radio (ranking sixth on the Hot 100 2002 year-end chart^[10]), and sold well in other countries (where it was promoted and released over the summer months). It was a top five hit in France, and managed to reach the top ten in other parts of Europe such as the United Kingdom, Italy and the Netherlands. It was most popular in Australia, where it became the sixth most successful single of the year^[11] and held the number-one position on the ARIA Singles Chart for two weeks, from August 11 to August 24. It replaced a Junkie XL remix of "A Little Less Conversation" by Elvis Presley, and was itself replaced by Avril Lavigne's "Complicated". It also reached the top twenty in Germany. E! Online said the song was "a bona fide hit for good reason. Catchy pop on the surface, it has melodic complexity beneath that bodes well for repeated listening".^[12] It failed to chart in Japan.

Carlton told the website ContactMusic of the first time she watched the single's music video, in which she is seen playing the piano whilst traveling through a variety of settings:

"I was in the studio and had just taken a break, when someone ran in the room and said, 'you're on MTV!' We put it on and I just stared at the screen. After a few minutes, I just covered my eyes and started to laugh. It seemed so surreal. The night after that, I heard the song on the radio for the first time. It was all so unbelievable".^[13]

It received heavy airplay on the channel following its premiere on the top-ten video programme Total Request Live in early January, and was popular enough to be retired from the show's countdown (see List of Total Request Live retired videos).^[14] There was speculation that bluescreen techniques had been utilized during its creation, but according to Carlton it was "100 percent real". She also said she felt that Marc Klasfeld (the video's director) "captured who I was in that video",^[2] and he was selected to directed the video for the album's follow-up single, "Ordinary Day".

Both the album and single were given substantial promotion on the internet. AOL Music reported that a twenty minute selection of video content involving Carlton that the website had hosted, including the "A Thousand Miles" video and Carlton's performance of the song for Sessions@AOL, drew over one million requested downloads and streams prior to the release of Be Not Nobody.^[15][16] The Sessions recording of "A Thousand Miles" was later included on the album Sessions @ AOL, released in October 2003. The single version of the song is featured on the hits compilation Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 10 in the U.S., and the fifty-third volume of the NOW! series in the UK.

Awards and legacy

"A Thousand Miles" won in the "Can't Get You out of My Head" category at the VH1 "Big in 2002" Awards,^[17] and it was nominated for three Grammy Awards: "Record of the Year", "Song of the Year" and "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)". It lost "Song of the Year" and "Record of the Year" to Norah Jones' "Don't Know Why", while the "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)" award went to "Mean Old Man" performed by James Taylor. The song became popular amongst U.S. troops serving in Iraq (see 2003 invasion of Iraq), and in April 2003 the Chicago Sun-Times reported that it had become the most requested song on the radio station BFBS Middle East. Carlton responded, "Perhaps, 'A Thousand Miles' conveys the feelings and longing and desperation that the U.S. soldiers feel for their loved ones. I don't know. But whatever peace I am able to bring to the hearts of the people at war is a contribution that I am proud of".^[18][19] By May 2003 the website Musicnotes had sold a record 10,000 pieces of digital sheet music for "A Thousand Miles", and it won the website's "Song of the Year" award.^[20] The song's production team was nominated for a 2003 Technical Excellence & Creativity Award in the category of "Outstanding Creative Achievement in Record Production — Single or Track".^[21]

"A Thousand Miles" continued to receive regular rotation on Adult Contemporary and Adult Top 40 radio stations two years after its original release, and Billboard magazine has named it "one of the most enduring songs of the millennium".^[22] A November 2004 review in The Village Voice compared the song's continuing popularity to The Beatles' "I Am the Walrus" (1967), describing it as "a ditty whose 'If I could fall into the sky/Do you think time would pass me by?' might be her generation's 'Sitting on a cornflake/Waiting for the van to come'".^[23] Hip hop musician Kanye West said of "A Thousand Miles" on his iTunes celebrity playlist that "this must be the white song that all black people like",^[23] and Carlton said that other rappers such as Fabolous and Ja Rule "really like this song".^[24] An African-American posing as a white teenage heiress in the comedy film White Chicks (2004) refers to it as "like, the whitest song ever", while the girls who are listening to it with him declare it their "jam".

As of 2006 the song is Carlton's most successful single, and her only top twenty hit in the U.S.; her next highest peaking single, "Ordinary Day", went no higher than the top thirty. Carlton 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."^[25] A writer for the Boston Phoenix said that with the song Carlton "won favor with smart but awkward teenage girls who didn’t see themselves in more evidently constructed teen-pop personalities like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera",^[26] and Slant magazine said it "helped pave the way for an industry beginning to take a turn away from bubblegum pop".^[27]

Credits

• Vocals and piano by Vanessa Carlton
• Drums by Abe Laboriel Jr.
• Guitar by John Goux
• Bass by Leland Sklar
• Vibes, organ and harmonica by Ron Fair
• Percussion by Luis Conte

Formats and track listings

These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "A Thousand Miles".

• U.S./Canadian CD single

1. "A Thousand Miles" — 3:59
2. "Twilight" (live) — 4:07

• UK enhanced CD single

1. "A Thousand Miles" — 3:59
2. "Paradise" (piano/vocal version)
3. "Red Ditty"
4. "A Thousand Miles" (music video) — 3:59

• Australian CD single

1. "A Thousand Miles" — 3:59
2. "Twilight" (live) — 4:07
3. "Wanted" (Ripe mix)
4. "A Thousand Miles" (music video) — 3:59

Charts

See also

• ARC Weekly Top 40 number-one hits of 2002 (U.S.)
• List of number-one singles in Australia during the 2000s

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Moss, Corey. "Road To The Grammys: The Making Of Vanessa Carlton's 'A Thousand Miles'". MTV. February 14, 2003. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
2. ^ ^a b c Stas, Heather. "Vanessa Carlton: It's Not Easy Being Not Nobody". VH1. May 13, 2002. Retrieved May 28, 2006.
3. ^ Taylor, Chuck. "Vanessa Carlton: 'A Thousand Miles'. Billboard. March 23, 2002. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
4. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Be Not Nobody". All Music Guide. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
5. ^ Richardson, Sean. "DIY divas: Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton". Boston Phoenix. May 16—23 2002. Retrieved May 28, 2006.
6. ^ Begrand, Adrien. "Vanessa Carlton: Be Not Nobody". PopMatters. September 19, 2002. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
7. ^ Billboard. Issues dated from March 2 to December 14, 2002.
8. ^ Gray, Brandon. "'Spider-Man' Spins Onto Music Sales Chart". Box Office Mojo. May 9, 2002. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
9. ^ D'Angelo, Joe and Su, Liane. "Vanessa Carlton Way Ahead Of The Curve After Debuting At #5". MTV. May 10, 2002. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
10. ^ "2002 Year End Charts: The Billboard Hot 100 Singles & Tracks". Billboard. December 28, 2002. Retrieved May 28, 2006.
11. ^ "ARIA Charts – End Of Year Charts – Top 100 Singles 2002". ARIA. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
12. ^ "Reviews: Vanessa Carlton, Be Not Nobody. E! Online. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
13. ^ "Vanessa Carlton". ContactMusic. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
14. ^ "Retired Videos (1998—2003)". AbsoluteTRL.net. Retrieved May 28, 2006.
15. ^ "AOL Music Announces Launch of All-new Sessions@AOL Show". Business Wire. June 13, 2002. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
16. ^ "Vanessa Carlton's Freshman Album 'Be Not Nobody,' Featuring the Hit 'A Thousand Miles,' Debuts In The Billboard Top 5". May 8, 2002. Retrieved March 19, 2006
17. ^ Moss, Corey. "Run, DMC Break Down At VH1 Awards; Ice Cube, Vanessa Carlton Confused By Trophies". VH1. December 5, 2002. Retrieved May 28, 2006.
18. ^ Hermann, Andrew. "Singer shoots to No. 1 with troops". Chicago Sun-Times. April 6, 2003. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
19. ^ Roeper, Richard. "Let's not tie patriotism to lame criminal ballad". Chicago Sun-Times. April 9, 2003. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
20. ^ "Musicnotes, Inc. Presents Multi-Platinum Singer/Songwriter Vanessa Carlton With First Annual "Musicnotes Song of the Year Award"". Musicnotes. May 6, 2003. Retrieved June 28, 2006.
21. ^ "2003 Nominees: Outstanding Creative Achievement". Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards. Retrieved June 28, 2006.
22. ^ "Billboard Single Reviews (Reuters)". Billboard. August 13, 2004. Retrieved May 28, 2006.
23. ^ ^a b Caramanica, Jon. "The Sound of the City". The Village Voice. November 9, 2004. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
24. ^ "Carlton Says Hip Hoppers Like 'Thousand Miles'". RapDirt. June 9, 2002. Retrieved May 28, 2006.
25. ^ "Vanessa Carlton: Cast Your Fate To The Wind". VH1. December 20, 2004. Retrieved June 28, 2006.
26. ^ Wood, Mikael. "Vanessa Carlton: Harmonium". Boston Phoenix. March 18—24 2005. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
27. ^ Cinquemani, Sal. "Vanessa Carlton: Harmonium". Slant. Retrieved May 28, 2006.

References

• "Vanessa Carlton: 'A Thousand Miles'". Top40-charts.com. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
• "Vanessa Carlton: Billboard Singles". All Music Guide. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
• "Vanessa Carlton". Rock on the Net. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
• "Vanessa Carlton". Oricon. Retrieved June 10, 2006.