El Cuarto de Tula

A tongue-twister with a fire drill inside it. Sergio Siaba's guaracha spins a whole neighborhood's panic — Tula fell asleep with the candle lit and her...

A tongue-twister with a fire drill inside it. Sergio Siaba's guaracha spins a whole neighborhood's panic — Tula fell asleep with the candle lit and her room's ablaze — into a chorus every dancer can shout back. The Sonora Matancera cut it early with Celia Cruz, and Eliades Ochoa was singing his guajiro-blues reading years before the world caught on. Then in 1997 the Buena Vista Social Club turned it into the record's great extended encore, trading soneos and solos until the fire becomes an excuse for a party. A song about disaster that nobody wants to end.

Composer

Sergio G. Siaba

Year

1950

Lineage

rumba/trabalenguas