A Thousand Miles

Today marks the twentieth anniversary of Vanessa Carlton's debut single, "A Thousand Miles". Released as the lead single off her debut album, Be Not Nobody, it has become one of the biggest hits of the 2000s. In case neither artist nor song title ring a bell for you, then surely you would be able to recognize its defining piano riff. It has since then become one of the most recognizable piano pop songs (if not, THE piano pop song).

The iconic piano riff, which is the arguably the song's most defining trait, was also its first draft. Initially named "Interlude", Vanessa intended the song to be just the piano riff amongst the album tracks. After a writer's block, she later completed 'Interlude' into a full song. She sent a demo tape (which included 'Interlude') to various labels, and eventually reached Ron Fair of A&M, who became her producer and label head, and fine-tuned the song as we know it today.

The song was made its public debut on the soundtrack of Legally Blonde (2001). Upon the song's release, it ascended to the charts and peaked at #5 on Billboard, and ended up becoming one of the biggest pop hits of 2002. In some countries, like Australia, it even peaked at #1. At the 2003 Grammys, the song was nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Instrumental Arrangement with Vocals.

 Another thing that propelled the song to success was its music video, which featured Vanessa riding a mobile piano across a town. (And as pointed out by a special video by VICE, the MV was NOT filmed using a green screen). The song has since then become a mainstay of 2000s pop culture, the most notable instance was perhaps its use by Terry Crews in the film White Chicks.

As a long time fan of Vanessa myself, while I much prefer her more artsy lyricism on her later work, the song did become successful for a reason. Its lyrics capture the universally relatable sentiment of longing for a loved one without becoming vague or trite, and it does so with an catchy yet complex melody. In later years, songs like "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles and "Call Me Maybe" have been seen as parallels to A Thousand Miles in many ways.

I recommend as a resource for the song.

And that's it! Do you guys have any memories or thoughts on this song? Feel free to share it below!

So in Vanessa Carlton's breakthrough 2001 hit, "A Thousand Miles", she clearly is bargaining with fate regarding her love interest saying, "You know I'd walk a thousand miles if I could just see you tonight." But she ignores the obvious fact that it is physically impossible to walk a thousand miles and still see someone that same night.

The only way this would not be considered a plot hole is if, in exchange for seeing [you] tonight, the singer would somehow agree to be indebted to walk a thousand miles over a certain period of time. So the more literal interpretation of the chorus would be something like, "'Cause you know I'd agree to walk a thousand miles if I could FIRST see you tonight". But this type of bargain seems ludicrous to any logical thinker, so the assumption must be that at least one thousand miles must be walked before [I] could just see [you] tonight, highlighting the distance required to see the love interest and the singer's willingness to traverse such a span in order to see them. Which circles back to my first criticism, so I think my plot hole claim still stands.

What a fucking banger though.