“Chan Chan” by Buena Vista Social Club

"Chan Chan" opens Buena Vista Social Club's 1997 album on World Circuit, and it became the group's signature song, the one that carried it around the world. Compay Segundo wrote it back in 1984 and had already recorded it more than once, but the version that stuck was cut in March 1996, when he, Eliades Ochoa and a crew of veteran Cuban musicians gathered for the project with Ry Cooder producing.

It's son cubano at a lazy, loping walk. Ochoa sings lead and plays guitar, Compay and Ibrahim Ferrer add backing vocals, Compay also plays congas, Cooder plays guitar, Orlando "Cachaíto" López holds the bass, Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal lifts it with trumpet, and Carlos González, Alberto "Virgilio" Valdés and Joachim Cooder fill in the percussion on bongos, maracas and udu. Jerry Boys recorded and mixed it.

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