Chicago 50 - No. 27 - Cell Block Tango

(L-R) Michon Peacock, Candy Brown, Graciela Daniele, Chita Rivera, Cheryl Clark, Pamela Sousa. Photo from Patricia Zipprodt's collection at NYPL

FRED EBB: As I recall, "Cell Block Tango" was a very difficult number to write. It's not so much a song as a musical scene for six women, and each has to tell her personal story in the course of a musical refrain that keeps repeating. It was difficult because each of the stories had to be entertaining and also meaningful. Each one had to be of a length that didn't go on too long and run the risk of being boring. We kept rewriting and rewriting those stories that the women told to go with the refrain-

He had it coming He had it coming

He only had himself to blame.

If you'd have been there

If you'd have seen it

I betcha would have done the same!

--Colored Lights: Forty Years of Words and Music, Show Biz, Collaboration, and All That Jazz