A Thousand Miles

Album

Be Not Nobody

Label

A&M Records

Genre

Pop rock

Duration

0:00

Composer(s)

Vanessa Carlton

Entered Chart

Mar 2, 2002

Peak Date

May 18, 2002

Released

February 18, 2002

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

A&M 497676

B-Side

Released F

This describes the feelings of anyone who has lost someone they really loved. Carlton sings about how she would do anything to be with that person, or even to just to see them. It is about a person who is in an untouchable world because of the pain they have from their loss. >> This got Grammy nominations for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year, but like just about everything else that year, it lost both to "Don't Know Why" by Norah Jones. Carlton performed this on the show. This song features prominently in the 2004 movie White Chicks, starring Shawn and Marlon Wayans as FBI agents who go undercover as white girls. The agents are nearly busted when they're riding in a car with some real white chicks when "A Thousand Miles" comes on and they don't know the words like every white girl should. Later in the movie, we find out that it's the favorite song of another character in the film, who happens to be a big black guy (Terry Crews). The movie was trashed by critics and nominated for a Golden Raspberry award for Worst Movie, but some people love the film and lots of people saw it both in the theaters and on its many TV showings. When Songfacts spoke with Vanessa Carlton in 2011, we asked her how she felt about her song in the movie. She said: "I thought it was hilarious. Those guys are really nice, too. I ran into them backstage or something, and they asked me if they could use it. They're like fans, they're so cute. But the scene that was in was hilarious." When we asked how she feels about the song being used as a white girls anthem, she replied, "If you've seen it, that's not the message of it. That is not the way that they plug it in the film. It's actually the secret song of that big, black dude in the SUV, it's like his jam. But the irony is that people associate it with a white girl playing the piano. It's like his secret jam, so it's able to push through all of those micro genres and you can't profile who's going to like the song. That's what they were displaying in that scene. And I really liked that a lot." According to Terry Crews, he memorized the song and nailed the scene on the first take. The song was covered a cappella style by the cast during the movie Pitch Perfect 2. Kanye West included the song on his iTunes Celebrity Playlist. He said: "This must be the white song that all black people like, you know every year there's a song that black people like and this is that. I love the string arrangements." Vanessa Carlton wrote the lyrics after coming up with the song's piano riff in the summer of 1998 at her parents' house in Philadelphia. She revealed in a Vice documentary she penned the words about a Juilliard student she had a crush on while studying at the School of American Ballet. However, her love was unrequited. "I would never talk to this person," Carlton said. "I was very shy. I was like, 'There's just no way on God's creation that this would ever happen.'" Carlton refused to reveal the subject's name to Vice because he's a "famous actor" now, but her disclosure got various media outlets digging, including Pop Crush, who listed some of the few notable actors that graduated or attended Juilliard in the mid-'90s. Any one of Wes Bentley, Christian Camargo, David Conrad, Alan Tudyk or Glenn Howerton could be the mystery muse.

Making my way downtown walking fast
Faces pass and I'm home bound
Staring blankly ahead just making my way
Making a way through the crowd

And I need you
And I miss you
And now I wonder

If I could fall into the sky
Do you think time would pass me by?
'Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles
If I could just see you tonight

It's always times like these when I think of you
And I wonder if you ever think of me
'Cause everything's so wrong and I don't belong
Living in your precious memories

'Cause I'll need you
And I'll miss you
And now I wonder

If I could fall into the sky
Do you think time would pass me by?
'Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles
If I could just see you tonight

And I, I don't want to let you know
I, I drown in your memory
I, I don't want to let this go
I, I don't

Making my way downtown walking fast
Faces pass and I'm home bound
Staring blankly ahead just making my way
Making a way through the crowd

And I still need you
And I still miss you
And now I wonder

If I could fall into the sky
Do you think time would pass us by?
'Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles
If I could just see you

If I could fall into the sky
Do you think time would pass me by?
'Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles
If I could just see you, if I could just hold you tonight