Suzanne Vega at Harvard's Sanders Theatre

Sanders Theatre

You might be tempted to write off Suzanne Vega as a one-hit wonder: Her 1987 hit "Tom's Diner" screams little besides "Late '80s college-radio nostalgia!" But the importance of the neo-folk singer's work within the context of American pop culture is weirdly influential -- even with a track like "Tom's Diner." Let's do the math: "Tom's Diner" was inspired by same the uptown New York restaurant that would later become the scene of innumerable meals eaten by the cast of Seinfeld. And a couple of years after Vega penned her tune, it was used as a audio-compression guinea pig -- making "Tom's Diner" the first song in bounced down to MP3 (and Vega the "Mother of the MP3"). More recently, the song's been eaten up by hip-hop stars, with Lil' Kim recording her own version in 2000, 2Pac posthumously remixing it, and Drake (of "Best I Ever Had"/Degrassi: TNG fame) sampling the track in "Juice." (Don't even tempt us to give you the Six Degrees of "Luka.") More recently, Vega's latest studio album, 2007's Beauty & Crime, won a Grammy. Now she's taking her folk-pop the road: See Vega's Celebrity Series performance tonight at Harvard's Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge | 8 pm | $39 - $49 | http://ofa.fas.harvard.edu

Filed under: MUSIC