Mile Thousand
Mile Thousand
" A Thousand Miles " is a pop song written by American singer Vanessa Carlton and recorded for her 2002 debut album Be Not Nobody . It was co-produced and co-arranged by Carlton and Ron Fair, and was released as the album's first single in 2002. Her signature song, it became Carlton's breakthrough hit and one of the most popular songs of the year.
The song had widespread success worldwide, reaching number one in Australia, where it was most successful, the top five in the United States and Ireland, and the top ten in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and the Netherlands. It has been covered by numerous artists including actress Victoria Justice, Australian Metalcore band Never See Tomorrow, and singer-songwriter David Archuleta, as well as being sampled by rapper T.I. for the song "All Night". Also, a Spanish-language adaptation of the song entitled "Para estar junto a ti" was recorded by Costa Rican jazz and pop group Escats and included on their debut album Para quien quiera que seas, donde quiera que estés .
About the record
"A Thousand Miles" is a piano-driven pop song supported by a string orchestral arrangement, in which its protagonist (Carlton) pines for her lover, from whom she has separated. Carlton said that she wrote the song about someone on whom she had a crush, but admitted that he was unaware of her unreciprocated feelings for him. 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".
Composition and recording
"A Thousand Miles" is written in the key of B major. 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". 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".
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 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." 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." "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 Andy Nixon played drums. Carlton later said, "after listening to it I realized I was going to make an album that I was very proud of."
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". 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".
Despite this, he was concerned that the song's piano basis would put it at a disadvantage in the marketplace if it were to be released as a single. Fair played "A Thousand Miles" in front of his superior Jimmy Iovine, the co-chairman of Interscope Records, Geffen Records, 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.
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. The album Be Not Nobody was released on April 30 and, partly because of the popularity of "A Thousand Miles", debuted in the U.S. top five with first-week sales of over 101,000 copies. The single was successful on several other Billboard formats and topped the 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), and sold well in other countries (where it was promoted and released over the summer months). It was a top five hit in Ireland and 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 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". It failed to chart in Japan.
Carlton told the website Contactmusic.com of the first time she watched the single's music video, in which she is seen playing the piano while traveling through a variety of settings:
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. 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", and he was selected to direct 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 . 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.
Reception, 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, 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, and in April 2003 the Chicago Sun-Times reported that it had become the most requested song on the radio station British Forces Broadcasting Service 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". 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. 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".
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