« Vega's song Tom's Diner was used as the reference track in an early
trial of the MP3 compression system, earning her the distinction of being
"The Mother of the MP3". It was chosen because her a capella vocal with
relatively little reverberation was used as the model for Karlheinz
Brandenburg's compression algorithm. Brandenburg heard Tom's Diner in a
radio playing the song. He was excited and at first convinced it would be
nearly impossible to compress this warm a capella voice. »

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzanne_Vega#Tom.27s_Diner

Pour les néophytes en Suzanne Vega:
http://santoni.club.fr/12Inch-Accapella-SusanVega-TomsDiner_002.mp3

Miguel