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“Garota de Ipanema (The Girl from Ipanema)”
Song
Writer Antonio Carlos Jobim
Vinícius de Moraes
Norman Gimbel

"The Girl from Ipanema" ("Garota de Ipanema") is a well-known bossa nova song, a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s that won a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1965. 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.

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, reaching #5 in the U.S., #29 in the UK, and charting highly throughout the world. Numerous recordings have been used in movies, sometimes as an elevator music cliché (for example, near the end of The Blues Brothers).

In 2004, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.1

Although Astrud Gilberto's original version was "The Girl from Ipanema", when covered by other female artists the song has often been rendered as "The Boy from Ipanema", with gender-specific lyrics.


Contents

History

Helô Pinheiro is the "girl from Ipanema".

Myth has it The Girl from Ipanema was inspired by Heloísa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto (now Helô Pinheiro), a fifteen-year-old girl living in Montenegro Street of the fashionable Ipanema district of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Daily, she would stroll past the popular "Veloso" bar-café on her way to the beach, attracting the attention of regulars Jobim and Moraes.

In fact, the song originally was composed for a musical comedy titled Dirigível (Blimp), then a work-in-progress of Vinícius de Moraes. The song's original title was Menina que Passa (The Girl Who Passes By); the famous first verse was different. Jobim meticulously composed the melody on his piano in his new house in Rua Barão da Torre, in Ipanema. In turn, Vinícius had written the lyrics in Petrópolis, near Rio de Janeiro, as he had done with Chega de Saudade six years earlier.

The myth is truth in that the composers did know Helô Pinto, and later attributed the song's composition to her. In the winter of 1962, they watched her pass by the Veloso bar, not just to the beach, but in the quotidian course of her life. The Veloso bar, renamed "A Garota de Ipanema" - The Girl From Ipanema, by its owners, still exists in Ipanema. It is easy to imagine why they noticed her — Helô was a five-foot-eight-inch-tall (1.73m) gimlet-eyed brunette living in Rua Montenegro, already the objet du désir of many of Veloso patrons, where she would enter to buy cigarettes (for her mother) and leave to a flattering wolf-whistle soundtrack.2 Since the song became popular, she has become a celebrity.

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

"o paradigma do broto 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 mocidade que passa, da beleza que não é só nossa — é um dom da vida em seu lindo e melancólico fluir e refluir constante."

Translation:

'"the paradigm of the young Carioca: a golden teenage girl, a mixture of flower and mermaid, full of light and grace, the sight of whom is also sad, in that she carries with her, on her route to the sea, the feeling of youth that fades, of the beauty that is not ours alone — it is a gift of life in its beautiful and melancholic constant ebb and flow."

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

Copyright controversy

In 2005, the song's copyright owners (heirs of their composer fathers) sued Ms. Pinheiro for copyright violation for using her status as The Girl from Ipanema (Garota de Ipanema) — despite it being the original composers' creation — to promote her eponymous fashion boutique.3

Other media

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

The song was parodied by Stephen Sondheim and Mary Rodgers as "The Boy From...".

Jeff Weinstein recorded a parody version about Zsa Zsa Gabor titled "The Girl from Hungary" (after her altercation with a policeman.)

The song is sampled in Let Your Body Decide by The Ark.

Stone Temple Pilots sampled the song on one occasion.

In 1993, Madonna performed the song in Brazilian dates on her Girlie Show Tour.

In 2002, bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee of Rush (band) performed a small instrumental interlude of the song on the band's last tour date of their Vapor Trails Tour in Rio De Janeiro during their song "La Villa Strangiato" which was captured on their DVD "Rush in Rio".

The band The B-52's have a song titled "Girl from Ipanema Goes to Greenland".

The song can the heard on the tv episode My Friend with Money (scrubs) when the janitor dancing on the luxury hospital suite. It was also featured in episodes of The West Wing and Everybody Loves Raymond.

In 2007, Australian Idol Runner up, Carl Riseley performed a cover which features on his debut albumThe Rise.

In 2008, Sepultura did a Live Cover of it durning the Latin Grammy Awards.

Disco Version

In 1977 a disco version of The Girl from Ipanema by Astrud Gilberto was released, produced by Vincent Montana featuring a distinct Salsoul style disco sound.

In chevy chase's vegas vaction the song is used during a scene on the plane

"The Boy from Ipanema"

When sung by female artists the song has often been rendered as "The Boy from Ipanema". A few examples:

References

  1. ^ The Full National Recording Registry National Recording Preservation Board. http://www.loc.gov/rr/record/nrpb/nrpb-masterlist.html.
  2. ^ Bossa Nova: The Story of the Brazilian Music That Seduced the World, by Ruy Castro, pp.239-240.
  3. ^ Folha Online - Pensata - Marcio Aith - Herdeiros de Ipanema querem destruir a poesia - 13/08/2001
  4. ^ a b c http://www.songsofshirleybassey.co.uk/song/sng94005.html
  5. ^ The Boy From Ipanema at Wikia
  6. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Brazil-Rosemary-Clooney/dp/B00004TQYE
  7. ^ http://www.hotlyrics.net/lyrics/E/Ella_Fitzgerald/The_Boy_From_Ipanema.html
  8. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Collection-Eartha-Kitt/dp/B000JYW5MS
  9. ^ http://www.spaceagepop.com/ipanema.htm
  10. ^ http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/the_supremes/the_boy_from_ipanema.html

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