“Tom’s Diner” is an a Capella pop song written in 1981by American singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega. It was first released as a track on the January 1984 issue of Fast Folk Musical Magazine.

The “Tom’s Diner” of the song is Tom’s Restaurant in New York City, which was later fictionalized as Monk’s Cafe in Seinfeld.

The song is written as a simple first person vignette of someone stopping at a diner for a cup of coffee. The song notes the newspaper as well as two women, one who enters the diner and one who stands outside in the rain. The ringing of bells at a nearby cathedral causes the singer to reminisce on an unnamed companion and a picnic previously. When the coffee is finished, it is time to leave the diner to catch a train.

Vega wrote the song based on a comment by her friend Brian Rose, a photographer, who mentioned that in his work, he sometimes felt as if “he saw his whole life through a pane of glass, and […] like he was the witness to a lot of things, but was never really involved in them.” She attempted to think and write in this fashion (including a male perspective) while sitting at Tom’s Restaurant, a diner on the corner of Broadway and 112th Street in New York City, which would later become famous as a location for some exterior scenes in the popular television sitcom Seinfeld. (The building belongs to Columbia University and houses some of its programs, as well as NASA‘s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.) The “bells of the cathedral” that she remarks hearing in the song are those of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, located one block to the east.” – Wikipedia

Listen on You Tube here ——>  Tom’s Diner, official Music Video

Susanne Vega #

x x x x

I am sitting in the morning
At the diner on the corner..
I am waiting at the counter
For the man to pour the coffee
And he fills it only halfway
And before I even argue
He is looking out the window
At somebody coming in..

x x x x

“It is always nice to see you”
Says the man Behind the counter
To the woman Who has come in
She is shaking her umbrella
And I look the other way
As they are kissing their hellos
I’m pretending not to see them
Instead I pour the milk..

x x x x

I open up the paper
There’s a story of an actor
Who had died while he was drinking
It was no one I had heard of..
And I’m turning to the horoscope
And looking for the funnies
When I’m feeling someone watching me
And so I raise my head..

x x x x

There’s a woman on the outside
Looking inside.. Does she see me?
No she does not.. really see me
Cause she sees her own reflection
And I’m trying not to notice
That she’s hitching up her skirt
And while she’s straightening her stockings
Her hair is getting wet

x x x x

Oh, this rain.. It will continue
Through the morning as I’m listening..
To the bells of the cathedral
I am.. thinking of your voice..

x x x x x x x

And of the midnight picnic
Once upon a time before the rain began..
I finish up my coffee..
( It’s time to catch the train )