In the '60s and '70s, folk music became a genre that seemed to transcend generations. Though there were troubadours who shook things up like Bob Dylan, there were dozens of others who just loved to tell stories through songs, and artist Harry Chapin was one of them. Though Chapin may not be a regular radio favorite, his song "Taxi" left an indelible mark on the music industry that still endures today.
"Taxi" tells the tale of a cab driver who picks up a woman, and halfway through the drive, the pair realizes they used to be lovers. It's a simple tale spun through the lens of himself, the driver, that truly resonated with crowds. In fact, when Chapin made an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, the station received so many call-ins about the performance that they booked Chapin for a second consecutive night for an encore—a first in Tonight Show history.
How Real-Life Financial Hardship Inspired Harry Chapin's 'Taxi'
The song itself was born out of a tumultuous time. His wife and fellow writer, Sandy Chapin, relayed the story to Songfacts, as Harry tragically (and maybe almost poetically) died in a 1981 car accident.
"He had been working in film, that was how he made his living," she recalled to the outlet. "Harry's plan at the time was to make enough money in five or six months that he would not have to work for five or six months, during which time he would write screenplays, and he was going to write everything. He was going to have an Emmy and a Tony and an Oscar and a Grammy and so forth. He was going to write the Great American Novel, he had a lot of plans for writing."
Unfortunately, as is often the case in the creative industry, things fell through and left the singer (and soon-to-be dad) in a tight financial spot. So that's when he applied for a taxi license.
Related: Heartwarming Bob Dylan Song May Actually Be a 'Dig' at a Fellow Iconic Folk Singer
"He needed a job, he wanted to still be able to write, so he applied for a cab license. And I was something like eight months pregnant. I felt very positive about it, because I thought, 'Wow, it would be a great experience, because people in cabs will tell him stories, and he'll get all kinds of characters for songs.' I think he was feeling pretty low about it, and wrote the song 'Taxi' with the idea that the people he had told his dreams—that he was gonna make a great film—were gonna get into the cab, and so he ended up being a cab driver after all the big talk. And one of whom would be the girlfriend that he had while he was at Cornell. Sue was a real person."
Funnily enough, Chapin never ended up having to drive a cab as he landed film work the day he was destined to start. Though the song itself is part fiction and part reality, it wholly captivated audiences. Since its debut has been covered time and time again, most notably by artists Melissa Etheridge and Mike Sinatra, the grandson of Frank Sinatra.
The song was so beloved and profound that in 1980, Chapin wrote a follow-up song aptly titled "Sequel" that met up with the lovers years down the road. Sandy took credit for the idea to do a part two of the song.
"I was thinking of a novel that I had read, too. This is all a very long time ago, you know. [laughing] I think it was by Graham Greene, an English writer. But anyway, it was like a turnaround in a relationship. There was a relationship where one of the two people was much stronger and sort of the caretaker of the other, and then the tables were turned, and the woman became the stronger person, and so forth. So with that idea, I said, 'Wouldn't it be interesting to see what happened to these people maybe 20 years later?' I just tossed out the idea. And as usual, Harry was on the road and busy doing other things. And then at one point he said, 'Why don't you try to write it?' And I didn't do anything with it. Then he sat down and wrote the sequel."
"Taxi" ultimately peaked at No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100, with "Sequel" peaking at No. 23. Chapin is most notably credited for "Cat's in the Cradle," which he co-wrote with his wife.
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