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The piano riff every kid who took lessons tried to learn. Vanessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles" owned 2002 radio, then got a whole second life in White Chicks, with Terry Crews belting every word in absolute earnest. It belongs equally to burned CDs, karaoke nights, and the meme age that followed.
The 18-year-old with the piano and the Mark Romanek video that scandalized MTV. Fiona Apple's Tidal sold nearly three million copies, "Criminal" won a Grammy, and her 1997 VMA acceptance speech, which opened with "This world is bullshit," outlived the award.
A struggling New York session singer takes a trip to Memphis to cure his writer's block, hears Al Green preach, sings "Amazing Grace" with a retired schoolteacher named Muriel in a Mississippi café, and comes home with the song of his life. Number 13 in 1991, a Song of the Year nomination, and a Grammy for Best New Artist.