Monday, July 9, 2018

"The Girl from Ipanema", feel the Bossa Nova


Enjoy her sweet voice!

As for the visual performance and her expressions, maybe she did not look professional. I was reminded by my friend (thank you, Orrin!) that she at that time had just begun to sing to the public. She was not a professional singer at all before this song.
On Wikipedia: The Girl from Ipanema
"Garota de Ipanema" ("The Girl from Ipanema") is a Brazilian bossa nova jazz song. It was a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s and won a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1965. ...
During a recording session in New York with João Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Stan Getz, the idea of cutting an English-language version came up. Norman Gimbel wrote the English lyrics. João's wife, Astrud Gilberto, was the only one of the Brazilians who could speak English well and was chosen to sing. Her voice, without trained singer mannerisms, proved a perfect fit for the song. Ethel Ennis and Nat King Cole have also both recorded the song. 
I think in the following version, her visual performance was much more professional.



Astrud Gilberto, Amsterdam 1966.
By Kroon, Ron / Anefo [CC BY-SA 3.0 nl], via Wikimedia Commons

English Lyrics of Astrud's version (Source: https://genius.com/Astrud-gilberto-the-girl-from-ipanema-garota-de-ipanema-lyrics)

The Girl From Ipanema

Tall and tan and young
And lovely the girl from Ipanema
Goes walking and when she passes
Each one she passes goes: Ahhh!

When she walks she's like
A samba that swings so cool
And sways so gently that when she passes
Each one she passes goes: Ahhh!

Oh, but he watches so sadly
How can he tell her he loves her
Yes, he would give his heart gladly
But each day when she walks to the sea
She looks straight ahead, not at he

Tall and tan and young
And lovely the girl from Ipanema
Goes walking and when she passes
He smiles, but she doesn't see

Oh, but he watches so sadly
How can he tell her he loves her
Yes, he would give his heart gladly
But each day when she walks to the sea
She looks straight ahead, not at he

Tall and tan and young
And lovely the girl from Ipanema
Goes walking and when she passes
He smiles, but she doesn't see
She doesn't see
No, she doesn't see
But she doesn't see
She doesn't see
No, she doesn't see
---

Original Portuguese song and lyrics: "A Garota de Ipanema"

https://blogs.transparent.com/portuguese/lyrics-translation-the-girl-from-ipanema/

More on Wikipedia

"The girl from Ipanema" was an actual girl! Amazing!
Also On Wikipedia: The Girl from Ipanema
The song was inspired by Heloísa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto (now known as Helô Pinheiro), a seventeen-year-old girl living on Montenegro Street in Ipanema. Daily, she would stroll past the Veloso bar-café, not just to the beach ("each day when she walks to the sea"), but in the everyday course of her life. She would sometimes enter the bar to buy cigarettes for her mother and leave to the sound of wolf-whistles. In the winter of 1962, the composers saw the girl pass by the bar. Since the song became popular, she has become a celebrity. 

Male singers' performance

I think this song should be also great for male singers to sing. Here is a performance by Frank Sinatra and Tom Jobim.

Of course, Frank changed the lyrics a little bit: from "he" to "I".



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