10 Best Vanessa Carlton Songs

Vanessa Carlton is largely known as a one-hit wonder. The Pennsylvania-born pianist and singer hit the big time with her debut single ‘A Thousand Miles’.

Technically Carlton had a couple more hits. She was featured on Counting Crows’ cover of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Big Yellow Taxi’. Her second single ‘Ordinary Day’, written when she was 17, also reached the Billboard Top 30. But generally, she’s been ignored since her debut album, even though she’s matured as a songwriter.

With her piano playing and nasal voice, Carlton sounds a little like Carole King. She played King in 2019 in the Broadway production of Beautiful. Carlton’s less distinctive than her female contemporaries, like Tori Amos, but she’s a talented pianist and songwriter.

Here are ten of the best songs from an overlooked artist.

10 Best Vanessa Carlton Songs

#10 Hands on Me

from Heroes and Thieves, 2007
Carlton’s musical vision has become more expansive as she’s matured. But Heroes and Thieves, her third album, remains her strongest set of songs. ‘Hands on Me’ was the record’s second single – like every Carlton single after her debut album, it was unsuccessful.

Carlton often uses strings – they’re great here, adding some melodic ideas without taking the edge off this fast-paced song.

#9 Heroes and Thieves

from Heroes and Thieves, 2007
Incongruously, Carlton’s third album was released through The Inc. Records, formerly known as Murder Inc. Records. The label is known for streetwise artists like Ja Rule and Ashanti.

By this time, Carlton had become a first-rate pop/rock artist. ‘Heroes and Thieves’ is a great piano-pop song, with a memorable piano figure serving as the song’s hook.

#8 Hear the Bells

from Rabbits on the Run, 2011
Carlton was struggling with her health after hitting a brick wall in his musical career. She later said “The alcohol was out of control, I was on all these pills. I really was not feeling good. I was also dealing with stuff with my family. I hadn’t talked to my mom for a couple of years. That was really hard. You can really get lost in, like, vodka and cocaine.”

‘Hear The Bells’ was about her physical healing. She also stated that it “is the story of a person navigating their recovery, and making many stops along the way… angry winter walks through the city, meditating in a church cemetery, floating on the sea with lots of wine in you in Costa Rica, finding a Chinese witchdoctor… until you realize the remedy was pretty much there all along. Though I still float on seas and I boil my Chinese herbs every morning.”

Rabbits on the Run also marks her first record as an indie artist, turning down the pressure on her career and making the kind of music she wanted. It’s more ethereal and pretty than before.

#7 Willows

from Liberman, 2015
Liberman is Carlton’s prettiest record, delving further into a pastoral English sound. But it’s hard to pick individual highlights out, as it’s subdued and presented as a full-record experience. ‘Willows’ is my favourite track, with its pretty piano arpeggios.

The lyrics are inspired by Carlton’s childhood home in Pennsylvania, surrounded by willow trees. 

#6 The Only Way To Love

from Love Is An Art, 2020
Some of Carlton’s songs on Love is an Art are too restrained and sophisticated to make a big impression. But ‘The Only Way To Love’ is an impeccable pop song dressed in arty clothing. There’s a killer chorus and more piano than most of the rest of the record.

Carlton told Vice magazine that the song reflected what she’d learnt reading a book ten years earlier. The book was named Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love.

#5 A Thousand Miles

from Be Not Nobody, 2003
If you only know one Vanessa Carlton song, it’s ‘A Thousand Miles’. She has a lot of other songs that are more mature, but it’s hard to deny the catchy tinkling piano riff. Carlton has told reporters that she hated the song for years but is now reconciled to it. She often uses it as a concert opener.

My husband describes it as lightning in a bottle. I look at her [the song] like — she’s a beast, you know, she is of me, but also separate from me.

Vanessa Carlton, Billboard magazine

#4 Future Pain

from Love Is An Art, 2020
Carlton’s sixth studio album is her most experimental. Producer Dave Fridmann furnishes her with an art-rock sound that’s closer to The Flaming Lips than you might expect. The best part of the song is the surprise instrumental coda that drops after a pause. It’s led by a catchy piano riff from Carlton.

#3 I Don’t Want To Be A Bride

from Rabbits on the Run, 2011
Carlton recorded her fourth and fifth albums in Peter Gabriel’s Real World studios. There’s a robust tune on ‘I Don’t Want To Be A Bride’, but the lyrics are the most interesting feature. It’s an anti-love love song, with Carlton declaring that:

I don’t wanna be a bride
Apologies to each other
I wanna be your girl
And spend this life with you

I Don’t Want To Be A Bride, Vanessa Carlton

#2 Nolita Fairytale

from Heroes and Thieves, 2007
Again, it’s difficult to understand why Carlton didn’t keep having hits – aside from listener fatigue at the uber-success of ‘A Thousand Miles’. ‘Nolita Fairytale’ is a great lead single, with a propulsive piano riff and a great tune. It’s written about Carlton’s life in the New York suburb of Nolita.

The lyric “Stevie knows and I thank her so” refers to Stevie Nicks. Nicks acted as a mentor for Carlton. She asked Carlton to serve as her tour opener after ‘White Houses’, the lead single from her sophomore album, flopped. Nicks also acted as the celebrant at Carlton’s wedding, and they often spend Christmas together.

#1 White Houses

from Harmonium, 2005
‘White Houses’ was a flop for Carlton after the success of Be Not Nobody. It was the lead single for her sophomore album Harmonium and barely scraped into the Billboard Top 100.

It wasn’t helped by an MTV ban on the song’s video. The crass, cartoonish ‘My Humps’ from the same year escaped censure. But Carlton’s honest and realistic portrayal of sex was blocked.

My first time, hard to explain
Rush of blood, oh, and a little bit of pain
On a cloudy day

White Houses, Vanessa Carlton

Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham guests on guitar. The details of the song are reminiscent of Taylor Swift.

The video features Carlton dancing – she was a ballet dancer through her childhood and teens, enrolling with the School of American Ballet.

Did I miss your favourite Vanessa Carlton song?

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