# I Can't Stop Playing "Cell Block Tango"

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-stop-playing-cell-block-tango/156762
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [February 22, 2003, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-stop-playing-cell-block-tango/156762 "2003-02-22T11:33:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2003, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-stop-playing-cell-block-tango/156762/1 "2003-02-22T11:33:39Z")

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Pop.

I probably listen to it 5 times a day. I think I’m alienating my roommates. (They had it coming)

Six.

Yep.

Squish.

Aaron just put his headphones on. (If you’d have been there, I betcha you would have done the same.)

Uh uh.

I only saw the movie last night, but I’ve had the song for a few weeks.

Cicero.

I can’t figure out why it’s so compelling. I’m sure it has something to do with the girl who showed it to me (who I have a bit of a crush on), but that’s not all of it. Anyone else with an inexplicable obsession like this?

Lipschitz.

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### Author: ![greatZebu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@greatZebu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greatZebu)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2003, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-stop-playing-cell-block-tango/156762/2 "2003-02-22T11:45:20Z")

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As your roommate, I recommend immediate therapy.

If you don’t reform soon, someone might take the shotgun from the wall and fire two warning shots  
.  
.  
.  
into your head.

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### Author: ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2003, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-stop-playing-cell-block-tango/156762/3 "2003-02-22T11:51:42Z")

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Yup. Been humming it for the last several weeks (the movie previewed here in Orlando back in December). Caught myself singing parts of it out loud in wardrobe the other day.

The question is, when will you also start dancing to it around the house. Oh, it starts so innocently, a little foot shuffling in the kitchen, a slight sway of the arm while showering, a little hip twitch while driving to work. The next thing you know, you’re doing cartwheels over the back of the couch, skidding down the parquet hallway, and posing in front of the mirror.

Or is it just me who does this?

_Number Seventeen - The Spread Eagle_

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### Author: ![Consuela\_Bobuela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Consuela\_Bobuela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Consuela_Bobuela)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2003, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-stop-playing-cell-block-tango/156762/4 "2003-02-22T12:07:46Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by iamthewalrus(:3= \*  
> \*\*Pop.
> 
> I probably listen to it 5 times a day. I think I’m alienating my roommates. (They had it coming)
> 
> Anyone else with an inexplicable obsession like this?
> 
> \*\*

I am now doing number 17…the spread eagle!

I have the 1995 Broadway soundtrack with Bebe Neuwirth and Anne Reinking. It is so much better than those hacks in the movie version.

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### Author: ![XCchick22](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/e19b73/32.png) [@XCchick22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XCchick22)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2003, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-stop-playing-cell-block-tango/156762/5 "2003-02-22T12:54:25Z")

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Yep, I have the same problem as you, but I listen to a couple of the others too. I only have a couple of the songs on my computer, because I’m supposed to be getting the soundtrack for my birthday. So those couple songs I have I’ve had on an almost constant loop. I learned all of the words the first day that I heard the song (not the Hungarian part though), and I annoy my friends with it on a regular basis.

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### Author: ![NotWithoutRage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NotWithoutRage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotWithoutRage)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2003, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-stop-playing-cell-block-tango/156762/6 "2003-02-22T15:07:29Z")

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I’m a little more obsessed with “Class” and “They Both Reached for the Gun”, but “CBT” has gotten its fair play around these parts lately 🙂

The dirty bum, bum, bum, bum!

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### Author: ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2003, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-stop-playing-cell-block-tango/156762/7 "2003-02-22T15:35:25Z")

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You only have yourself to blame.

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### Author: ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2003, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-stop-playing-cell-block-tango/156762/8 "2003-02-22T17:45:24Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Consuela Bobuela \*  
> \*\*I have the 1995 Broadway soundtrack … \*\*

It’s called a Cast Recording. This very much hurts your creditability in evaluating the relative merits of the two.

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### Author: ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2003, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-stop-playing-cell-block-tango/156762/9 "2003-02-22T19:10:33Z")

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_Mit keresek, én itt? Azt mondják, hogy a híres lakom lefogta a férjemét én meg lecsaptam a fejét. De nem igaz én ártatlan vagyok. Nem tudom mert mondja Uncle Sam hogy én tettem. Probaltam a rendörségem megmagyarazni de nem ertettek meg…_

What do I seek here? It is said that the news where I live is I grabbed my husband and I smashed his head. But it is not true I am innocent. I don’t know because Uncle Sam says how I did. I tried to explain to the police but they did not understand and…

Translation from Hungarian by Jomo Mojo 🙂

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### Author: ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2003, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-stop-playing-cell-block-tango/156762/10 "2003-02-22T19:12:23Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> It’s called a Cast Recording. This very much hurts your creditability in evaluating the relative merits of the two

Shoot, here I was thinking that _I_ was the Show Tune Queen.

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### Author: ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2003, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-stop-playing-cell-block-tango/156762/11 "2003-02-22T19:32:22Z")

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Artistic Differences

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### Author: ![susan\_foster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@susan\_foster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan_foster)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2003, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-stop-playing-cell-block-tango/156762/12 "2003-02-22T21:43:12Z")

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They had it comin’!

I love this song - but I also fell in love with Class, and do wish they had had it in the movie. I saw the movie a few weeks ago - still can’t decide what was my favorite number. Didn’t think Mary Sunshine really had a true reason to be a named character in the movie - in the play she was more of a true part of the plot. Did like the movie better than the play.

Susan

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### Author: ![Greywolf73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Greywolf73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greywolf73)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2003, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cant-stop-playing-cell-block-tango/156762/13 "2003-02-22T21:49:36Z")

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_“Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes, oh yes, oh yes, both reached for the gun, the gun, the gun…”_

Wha?

Me obsessed? Never!

_hits repeat on CD player_
