Chan Chan

Compay Segundo wrote Chan Chan in 1984. He said he did not compose it but dreamt it, waking with four notes in his head, and he gave them a lyric inspired by a children's tale from his youth, Juanica y Chan Chan. The song is set on a beach and follows two characters, and its chorus names Alto Cedro, Marcané, Cueto and Mayarí, towns near each other in Holguín province. The first recording was made at EGREM in Havana in 1985. He recorded it with Eliades Ochoa and Cuarteto Patria in Santiago de Cuba in 1989, again in 1992 with Pablo Milanés, and in Madrid in November 1995.

The Buena Vista version was recorded in March 1996 with Ochoa singing lead and Segundo on second voice. It is a four-chord son, and Ry Cooder called it the calling card of the Buena Vista project. It opens the album and the Carnegie Hall concert of 1998, and appears in the Wenders film.