Salchichas y Huevos (Eng: Sausages and Eggs) by Jimmy Sabater doesn’t exactly hide what it’s cooking. It’s risqué, audacious, and can easily be read as chauvinistic – or worse. Much of that comes down to the wordplay and the stack of double meanings the lyric leans on, and it’s understandable that some listeners might find it offensive. The innuendo is everywhere. Salsa has always been the most sensual of the tropical genres, and if there’s one track that pushes right up to the line of what’s considered suitable for public airwaves, it’s Salchichas y Huevos.
From the title onward, the song leans unapologetically into sexual suggestion, using food as an almost laughably transparent substitute. The story on the face of it seems simple enough (though if you read the saucy lyrics below, the wink-wink, nudge-nudge version is anything but straightforward): he meets a woman, she looks him up and down (with interest), he takes her dancing at the Pozo Club, and later they head back to his place. At dawn she asks for “sausages and eggs,” and by that point the metaphor has all but slapped you across the face. The longer it goes on, the hotter the frying pan gets – if you catch the drift.
I hesitated longer than I care to admit before including it here, but eventually the music won the argument. The percussion and rhythm are simply too good to ignore because of a polemical sexual suggestion. And truth be told, the song is a curious specimen – a time-capsule snapshot of early salsa clásica, back when the genre was still raw, streetwise, and proudly irreverent, before it splintered into countless subgenres and softened into what critics later called salsa rosa – polished, romantic, and decidedly less fiery than salsa brava or the original New York–Puerto Rican school from which Sabater emerged.
Musically, Salchichas y Huevos shows what Sabater and the New York salsa scene did best. The percussion is front and centre, with congas, bongos, and timbales driving a steady, irresistible rhythm. The horns cut in with sharp, lively lines, and the piano keeps everything moving with a clean, catchy montuno. There’s even a light touch of jazz in the way the horns and rhythm play off each other. Overall, it has that unmistakable late-night club feel – sweaty, playful, and made for dancers who know exactly what’s going on in the lyrics.
Jimmy Sabater, born in Puerto Rico, was a singer, percussionist, and entertainer who played a key role in New York’s Latin music scene in the 1960s and 70s. He worked with groups like the Alegre All-Stars and moved within the wider Fania-era world, even if he never became one of its biggest stars. Sabater was known for mixing humor, bravado, and rhythm, and Salchichas y Huevos captures that blend well – playful, sexual, and driven by pure salsa groove.
Ay vuela paloma, paloma de Pozo / Fly, dove, dove of Pozo
No hace mucho que lluegue a conocer / Not long ago I met
Una muñeca que estaba en algo / A doll who was up to something
Me miro de arriba abajo / She looked me up and down
La sangre se me alteraba / My blood started racing
Lo que tenia ella por bembes / What she had for lips
Eran petalos de rosa / Were rose petals
Era una mami una mami bien hermosa / She was a hottie, a really beautiful hottie
La cual se enamora cualquiera / The kind anyone could fall in love with
La invite a bailar al Club de Pozo / I invited her to dance at the Pozo Club
Que queda en la 102 / Which is on 102nd Street
Y ella me lo acepto / And she accepted
Quede muerto de la risa / I was cracking up
Despues del baile nos fuimos a casa / After the dance we went home
Y esto fue lo que ella me pidio / And this is what she asked me for
Coro:
Salchicha con huevo / Sausage with egg
Me pidio al amanecer / She asked me for at dawn
Como soy caballero / Since I’m a gentleman
Le dije mami / I told her
Ven a mi casa, va a mi casa / Honey, come to my house, come to my house
A mi casa papear / To my house to eat
Coro:
Salchicha con huevo / Sausage with egg
Me pidio al amanecer / She asked me for at dawn
El que se duerme / He who falls asleep
Se lo lleva la corriente / Gets carried away by the current
Eso fue lo que me quiso / That’s what she was trying
Dar entender el pollo / To make me understand, that girl
Coro
Me dejo con hambre / She left me hungry
Se le quemo el sarten / She burned the frying pan
Y ella me dijo papito / And she told me, daddy
Hay fuego en el 23 / There’s fire in the 23rd
Quema! / Burn
Quema, quema, quema, quema, quemariqüini / Burn it, burn it, burn it, burn it, quemariqüini
Eso es un trombon! / That’s a trombone!
Coro
Si te encuentras con un pollo / If you run into a chick
Que su encanto es papear / Whose charm is in eating
Dale salchicha con huevo / Give her sausage with eggs
Para ponerla a gozar pa’ seguirla / To make her enjoy it and keep her going
References:
1. Jimmy Sabater – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
Hi Matt! It wouldn’t be salsa if it wasn’t a bit raunchy! Have a great weekend!
That is so true Sharon.
Thank you, you too!
Groovy stuff. I generally like salsa. I only speak a few words of Spanish, so it’s easy for me to cheerfully ignore any lyrics that may be inappropriate. 😂
I think there are few articles I’ve worked on for as long as this one. But it was well worth it, given its place in traditional salsa. The percussion and rhythm here are truly something special.
Last evening, my wife and I visited a Dominican friend of hers at their house, and they mostly played Latin music, such as salsa and bachata – and did karaoke! Since other than a few words no hablo espaniol and hardly know any Spanish song, I threw in some Beatles, some Elvis and even some Paul Anka – it probably was less than pretty, but we all had a ball!😂
When I was reading you comment about your visiting your Wife’s Dominican friend – I thought this would have been a grand opportunity to see what they thought of the risque content of Sausages and Eggs. Oh well. I’m glad you still had such a great time.
I can listen to this stuff all day long.
I know exactly what you mean. The groove and rhythm are so infectious, but it takes a while to get going. It takes its time, just like the story he’s telling — and when it lands, it’s a doozy.