"Taxi" is a song written by Harry Chapin, released as a single in early 1972 to coincide with the release of his album Heads & Tales. It is an autobiographical ballad using first-person narrative to tell the story of a taxi cab driver meeting an old flame from his youth when he picks her up in his cab. Chapin debuted the song on NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, which prompted calls and telegrams from viewers requesting that Chapin return to the show. It was the first time in the show's history that host Johnny Carson brought a performer back the very next night for an encore performance. "Taxi" helped to establish Chapin's musical style and emerged as the singer-songwriter's early signature song, with Chapin often associated with taxi-related imagery. Jim Connors, music director and disc jockey at Boston AM radio station WMEX, is credited with discovering Chapin. The single charted on both Boston stations WMEX and WRKO in late February, reached number one on both stations in April and ranked 4 for the year on both stations. The single's early Boston success helped "Taxi" to hit big on Billboard's Hot 100, where in June 1972 it reached no. 24 during a then-lengthy 16-week chart run. Billboard ranked it 85 in its year-end singles list. In Canada the single reached no. 5. Content The narrator Harry is a cab driver in San Francisco whose last passenger on a rainy night is a woman in an expensive gown who asks to be taken to her home in an affluent section of town. Harry finds her familiar, but she seems not to recognize him until after she glances at his taxi license. She then greets him by name and he replies in kind: she is Sue, an old flame from Harry's youth. They had gone their separate ways to follow their dreams: Sue wanted to be an actress, and Harry wanted to learn to fly (hinting at Chapin's real-life experience at the United States Air Force Academy). When the taxi arrives at Sue's home, she vaguely offers to get together with him sometime, but Harry knows this won't happen. Sue gives him a $20 bill for a $2.50 fare and tells him to keep the change. (The fare would be .) Harry realizes they both got what they asked for: Sue is "acting" happy in a loveless marriage and sterile affluence,