Synopsis
Shawn Colvin performs this introspective folk-rock song in an intimate, performance-centered video that keeps the focus on her expressive delivery. The imagery reflects the song's portrait of a complicated relationship: devotion, uncertainty, and the feeling of being drawn toward someone who remains difficult to understand. Rather than constructing a detailed storyline, the clip complements the song's elusive mood and poetic language, presenting Colvin as both observer and participant in an emotionally unresolved love song.
Factoids & Trivia
- "You and The Mona Lisa" was released as the third single from Colvin's 1996 album, "A Few Small Repairs," following the major success of "Sunny Came Home."
- The video was posted to VH1.com on September 16, 1997, and entered VH1's television rotation during the final week of that month.
- Colvin later explained that the title emerged spontaneously while she and John Leventhal were working on the song. She began singing the phrase "Nothing in between you and the Mona Lisa" as a piece of nonsense lyric, then built the song around it.
- The song was reportedly written for Colvin's niece, Grace.
- The single reached No. 24 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart and No. 31 on the Adult Pop Songs chart.
- The track's arrangement expands Colvin's acoustic singer-songwriter foundation with harmonica, horns, and a more pronounced rock edge.
- The official video was later made available through Shawn Colvin's official YouTube channel, where it is identified as a 1997 Sony Music release.