Well now Billy Voltaire was a piano player up from Miami way
  He used to play in the bars, he could sound like the stars
  Ladies would pay and pay
  One night he did wind up playin' in Havana town
  Nobody knew, at least Billy Voltaire that these were his final sounds
  
  He met up with Meritta, a dancer in from the Coast
  Half woman, half child, she drove him half wild
  He loved that lady the most
  One night he did find her in the arms of Shrimper Dan
  So he pulled a knife, took poor Danny's life
  And then he turned his own cold hand
  
  Chorus:
  And it's just a Cuban crime of passion
  Messy and old fashioned
  Yeah, that's what the papers did say
  It's just a Cuban crime of passion
  Anjejo and knives a slashin'
  Yeah, but that's what the people like to read about
  Up in America, up in America
  
  Well they never found Meritta, some people say she got ill
  Billy Voltaire had no one to claim him, he was buried on pauper's hill
  And no one talks about 'em no more, it happened just a week ago
  But people get by and people get high
  In the tropics they come and they go
  
  Chorus