Songfacts®:

• This song contains lyrics in Spanish which tell the story of a couple - Chan Chan and Juanica - who are building a house and go to the beach to get some sand.
• The group was named after a private club in Havana, Cuba that was a popular place for music in the 1940s. About 20 Cuban musicians were involved in the project along with American guitarist Ry Cooder. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Bertrand - Paris, France, for above 2
• Cuban bandleader Compay Segundo wrote this in 1987. He recorded it himself and it became a very popular song among Latin musicians. In an interview with PBS, Segundo said: "It's a number that has four notes, and four chords. There's very few numbers that you can sing the whole song with four notes. I've been to Santa Clara-Las Villas province and everybody up there knows it; I've been to Santiago de Cuba and everybody there knows it too. I go by a school and when a kid sees me, he says, 'Look, it's Compay Segundo,' and starts singing, 'I'm going from Alto Cedro to Marcane then from Cueto, I'm going to Mayari.'"
• Compay Segundo: "I didn’t compose Chan Chan, I dreamed it. I dream the music. I sometimes wake up with a melody on the head, I hear the instruments, all very clear. I look over the balcony and I see nobody, but I hear it as if it was played on the street. I don’t know what it was. One day I woke up listening to those four sensible notes, I put them a lyric inspired on a children tale from my childhood, Juanica y Chan Chan, and you see, now it’s sung everywhere." >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Bertrand - Paris, France