"Tom's Diner" is an a cappella pop song written in 1981 by American singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega. The first time it was featured on any of her own studio albums was as the first track of her own Solitude Standing album in 1987. It was later used as the basis for a popular remix by the British group DNA in 1990.
The song is written as a simple first person vignette of someone stopping at an unnamed diner for a cup of coffee. The song notes the newspaper as well as two women, one who enters the diner and one who stands outside in the rain. The ringing of bells at a nearby cathedral cause the singer to reminisce on an unnamed companion and a picnic previously. When the coffee is finished, it is time to leave the diner to catch a train.
"Tom's Diner" was also used by Karlheinz Brandenburg to develop the audio compression scheme known as MP3 at what is now the Fraunhofer Society.
Source: The Wikipedia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z66rDVkaK4w
(a cappella)
Suzanne Vega - Tom's Diner
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 and 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...
And I finish up my coffee and it's time to catch the trainhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-26hsZqwveA(music video)
There is no prosthetic for an amputated spirit
Lt Col Frank Slade (Al Pacino, Scent of a woman)
