\n<\/p>\n
One night in 1984, Compay Segundo, the Cuban singer and guitarist, heard in his dreams what would become his signature song.<\/p>\n
\u201cI woke up hearing those four sensitive notes,\u201d Segundo recalled later on. \u201cI gave them a lyric inspired by a children\u2019s tale from my childhood, \u2018Juanica y Chan Chan.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
A hypnotic account of peasant life in Cuba, \u201cChan Chan\u201d has a peculiar power, with four circular, mesmerizing opening chords<\/strong> that make it instantly recognizable. It gained a regional following when it was cut by the guitarist and singer Eliades Ochoa. But a recording of the song, in 1996, by a group of celebrated Cuban musicians who had been assembled for an album to be called \u201cBuena Vista Social Club,\u201d would become a phenomenon<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Now more than 25 years after its release<\/a>, the best-selling world music album of all time has made it to Broadway in a new musical also titled \u201cBuena Vista Social Club.\u201d \u201cChan Chan\u201d is among eight of the album\u2019s 10 songs featured in the show and, perhaps not surprising for such a dramatic and mysterious track, it plays a crucial role in a pivotal moment in the story.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As the album of mostly older Cuban standards became a global sensation upon its release in 1997, Segundo\u2019s song \u2014 about sifting sand by the sea and clearing a straw path along a journey to Cuban towns \u2014 became a standout all its own. \u201cChan Chan\u201d<\/a> was never released as a single, but the opening track has been streamed more than 250 million times on Spotify, almost three times more than anything else on the album. (That number is roughly the same as Toni Braxton\u2019s \u201cUn-Break My Heart\u201d and Hanson\u2019s \u201cMMMBop,\u201d both No. 1 hits in 1997.)<\/p>\n So the creative team of the \u201cBuena Vista\u201d musical \u2014 now playing at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater, after premiering Off Broadway in 2023 at Atlantic Theater Company<\/a> \u2014 was well aware of what the audience\u2019s expectations would be for this particular song. The problem, though, is that while \u201cChan Chan\u201d is the album\u2019s most recognizable \u201chit,\u201d it\u2019s moody and atmospheric \u2014 not the kind of high-energy showstopper that\u2019s easy to build an opening number around or place as a finale.<\/p>\n \u201cWe knew we had to use it,\u201d said Marco Ramirez, who wrote the book for the show, which bounces between 1956 and 1996. He said they were thinking of the show as a concert, and debated: \u201cDo we open with it and get it out of the way? Do we save it for the end of the show? Do we save it for the encore \u2014 like, \u2018Aha, we didn\u2019t forget!\u2019 It was kind of fluid where we would put it.\u201d<\/p>\n In Ramirez\u2019s first draft, \u201cChan Chan\u201d was what he called a \u201c\u2018Moby Dick\u2019 story\u201d for Segundo, who was 89 at the time of the \u201cBuena Vista\u201d sessions \u2014 his attempt to write a song for the ages. \u201cIt was basically \u2018One Song Glory\u2019 from \u2018Rent,\u2019<\/a> except that it was Compay Segundo saying, this is how you live forever, through your music.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n