Ten years ago today, Vanessa Carlton was charting a third week at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 with her debut single, “A Thousand Miles.”

Hard to believe there’s now a decade in the distance since the Pennsylvania-born singer-songwriter arrived on the scene. Like many musicians before her, Carlton traveled a bumpy road to the release of “A Thousand Miles” and her debut album, Be Not Nobody. During her senior year at the American School of Ballet in New York, the then 17-year old began turning her attention to music instead. A homemade tape of her piano-vocal compositions caught the attention of some music industry folks, so she stayed in the city after graduating, performing in downtown clubs and waitressing.

Soon after recording a more professional set of demos, Carlton was signed by Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Interscope/Geffen/A&M. Heading into the studio, those initial sessions did not go well. “After I got signed, I was drowning, completely drowning,” Carlton told Billboard in 2002. “I was surrounded by the wrong people who didn’t quite understand the music. You have to find people that will bring out the absolute best in you if you’re going to work as a team. I wasn’t there yet. It was a tricky situation because I write all my own songs. I’m not a producer yet. And I especially wasn’t then. I was very young and didn’t know how to work in a studio. You have to go down a couple wrong paths before you find the diamond path.”

Little came from that year and a half of recording, but after A&M president Ron Fair heard Carlton’s original demo of “A Thousand Miles” (sketches of which dated back to 1998), he decided to shepherd the project himself. “I was able to connect with her musical soul because she touched a nerve in me going back to my love for Laura Nyro and Carole King, the archetype of female piano goddess bearing her soul with an orchestral angle to it.”

That singer-songwriter bloodline clearly courses through “A Thousand Miles,” which was quickly embraced by MTV and pop listeners. Now, as then, it was a amazing achievement, considering Carlton’s company on the chart included Ashanti, P. Diddy (feat. Usher), Fat Joe (feat. Ashanti), Usher, and Eminem. Not exactly a golden age of music, and all a very long way from the piano-centric sound of “A Thousand Miles.”

Swap 2002’s hip-hop for 2012’s dance-pop and it’s a lesson recently repeated by the left-field success of Adele and Gotye. Quality tunes that don’t follow the current formula can break through if given the chance (and some regular rotation).

Carlton collected a trio of Grammy nominations for “A Thousand Miles” (Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists). Though she lost out to Norah Jones and James Taylor, she didn’t really go home empty-handed. Carlton had written a signature song that also became a modern classic, something many artists never achieve, no matter the decade.

Though she’s never managed to match the success of “A Thousand Miles,” Carlton is still recording and touring. Last year she released her fourth album, Rabbits On The Run, and recently shared plans to follow up with an effort she’s described as “electronic dance-pop.” That project could head in any number of directions, but I’m confident Carlton will find a way to separate herself once again from the current pack.

Purchase Vanessa Carlton – “A Thousand Miles” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.