Sequel

A lot of people were taken by Chapin's 1972 hit balled "Taxi," and the story of its characters: Harry, a taxi driver, and his ex-lover Sue, now a successful but unhappy actress when he picks her up in a taxi he's driving. So years later, Chapin did this sequel, using the same music while continuing the story. The song peaked at #23, spurred by fans of the original. Sadly, Chapin's life didn't continue - he died in an automobile accident in 1981. This was his last hit.

Sandy Chapin, who was married to Harry, wrote a lot of poetry which Harry would turn into songs ("Cat's In The Cradle" is an example). She explains how this song came about: "I'm pretty sure I gave him the idea. 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 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." (Read more in our interview with Sandy Chapin.)