The Girl from Ipanema

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"The Girl from Ipanema" ("Garota de Ipanema") is considered the best-known bossa nova song ever written, and was a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s. It was written in 1962, with music by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes with English lyrics written later by Norman Gimbel.

It is often claimed to be the second-most recorded popular song in history, topped only by The Beatles' "Yesterday". The first commercial recording was in 1962, by Pery Ribeiro. The version performed by Astrud Gilberto, along with João Gilberto and Stan Getz, from the 1963 album Getz/Gilberto, became an international hit. Numerous recordings have been used in movies, often as an elevator music cliché.

In 2004, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.

Contents

1 Background
2 Other performers
3 Other media
4 External links

Background

The song was inspired by Heloísa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto (now Helô Pinheiro), an 18-year-old girl who lived on Montenegro street in the fashionable Ipanema district of Rio de Janeiro. Every day, she would stroll past the popular "Veloso" bar-cafe on the way to the beach, attracting the attention of regulars Jobim and Moraes.

The song was originally composed for a musical comedy entitled Dirigível (Blimp), which was a work in progress of Vinicius de Moraes. The original title was "Menina que Passa" ("The Girl Who Passes by"), and the famous first verse was completely different.

In Revelação: a verdadeira Garota de Ipanema (Revealed: The Real Girl from Ipanema) Moraes wrote that she was:

"o paradigma do bruto carioca; a moça dourada, misto de flor e sereia, cheia de luz e de graça mas cuja a visão é também triste, pois carrega consigo, a caminho do mar, o sentimento da que passa, da beleza que não é só nossa — é um dom da vida em seu lindo e melancólico fluir e refluir constante."

which roughly translates to:

'"the exemplar of the raw Carioca: a golden-tanned girl, a mixture of flower and mermaid, full of brightness and grace, but with a touch of sadness, in that she carries with her, on her route to the sea, the feeling of that which passes by, of the beauty that is not ours alone — it is a gift of life in its constant, beautiful and sad ebb and flow."

Today, "Montenegro Street" is called "Vinicius de Moraes Street", and the "Veloso Bar" is named "A Garota de Ipanema". There is also a "Garota de Ipanema" Park in the nearby Arpoador neighborhood.

Other performers

The Ray Charles Singers
Boston Pops Orchestra
Gal Costa
Don Byas (1967)
Eliane Elias (1998)
Ella Fitzgerald - "The Boy From Ipanema"
Al Jarreau and Oleta Adams (1997)
KOMPRESSOR
Diana Krall
Peggy Lee
Lio (1991)
Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66
Ottmar Liebert (2001)
Mrs. Miller
Oscar Peterson (1965)
Pizzicato Five
Lou Rawls
Helge Schneider
Archie Shepp
Frank Sinatra (1967)
Nat King Cole
Rosemary Clooney with Diana Krall - Boy From Ipanema
Jarabe de Palo - "La chica de Ipanema"
State of the Heart (instrumental, 1997)
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass "South of the Border"
Gabriela Anders "Wanting"
Toydeath - "The Girl"
Anggun (2006)

Other media

A Brazilian musical film, "Garota de Ipanema", inspired by the song, was released in 1967.

External links

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