The Girl from Ipanema: Difference between revisions
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==Background== |
==Background== |
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[[Image:Helo Pinheiro.jpg|thumb|right|150px|[[Heloísa Pinheiro]]]] |
[[Image:Helo Pinheiro.jpg|thumb|right|150px|[[Heloísa Pinheiro]]]] |
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The Myth: |
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The song was inspired by [[Heloisa Pinheiro|Heloísa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto]] (now Helô Pinheiro), a then 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 inspired by [[Heloisa Pinheiro|Heloísa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto]] (now Helô Pinheiro), a then 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. |
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Today, "Montenegro Street" is called "Vinicius de Moraes Street", and the "Veloso Bar" is named "A Garota de Ipanema". There is also a [[Arpoador Park|"Garota de Ipanema" Park]] in the nearby Arpoador neighborhood. |
Today, "Montenegro Street" is called "Vinicius de Moraes Street", and the "Veloso Bar" is named "A Garota de Ipanema". There is also a [[Arpoador Park|"Garota de Ipanema" Park]] in the nearby Arpoador neighborhood. |
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The Truth: |
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From Bossa Nova: The Story of the Brazilian Music That Seduced the World, by Ruy Castro |
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It has already been explained, but people find it hard to accept the truth: Jobim and Vinícius did not write "The Girl from Ipanema" | "Garôta de Ipanema" in the Veloso bar (today called Garota da Ipanema), which was on the street that used to be known as Rua Montenegro and is now Rua Vinícius de Moraes, at the intersection with Rua Prudente de Moraes (no relation). It was never the duo's style to write music sitting at a table in some bar, although they had probably spent the best hours of their lives in them. Jobim composed the melody meticulously on the piano at his new home in Rua Barro da Torre, and it was originally intended for a musical comedy entitled "Dirigível" | "Blimp," which Vinícius already had worked out in his head but had not yet committed to paper. |
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Vinícius, in turn, had written the lyrics in Petrópolis, near Rio, as he had done with "Chega de Saudade" six years earlier, and it took him just as much work. To begin with, it wasn't originally called "Garota da Ipanema," but "Menina que passa" | "The Girl Who Passes By," and the entire first verse was different. |
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As for the famous girl, Jobim and Vinícius did in fact see her pass by as they sat in the Veloso bar, during the winter of 1962— not just once, but several times, and not always on her way to the beach but also on her way to school, to the dressmaker, and even to the dentist. Mostly because Heloísa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto, better known as Helô, who was eighteen years of age, five feet, eight inches tall, with green eyes and long, flowing black hair, lived in Rua Montenegro and was already the object of much admiration among patrons of the Veloso, where she would frequently stop to buy cigarettes for her mother—and leave to a cacophony of wolf-whistles. |
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—Bossa Nova: The Story of the Brazilian Music That Seduced the World, by Ruy Castro, Pp. 239-240. |
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==Other performers== |
==Other performers== |
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Revision as of 13:49, 20 September 2006
"The Girl from Ipanema" ("Garota de Ipanema") is a well known bossa nova song, 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.
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.
Background
The Myth:
The song was inspired by Heloísa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto (now Helô Pinheiro), a then 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.
The Truth:
From Bossa Nova: The Story of the Brazilian Music That Seduced the World, by Ruy Castro
It has already been explained, but people find it hard to accept the truth: Jobim and Vinícius did not write "The Girl from Ipanema" | "Garôta de Ipanema" in the Veloso bar (today called Garota da Ipanema), which was on the street that used to be known as Rua Montenegro and is now Rua Vinícius de Moraes, at the intersection with Rua Prudente de Moraes (no relation). It was never the duo's style to write music sitting at a table in some bar, although they had probably spent the best hours of their lives in them. Jobim composed the melody meticulously on the piano at his new home in Rua Barro da Torre, and it was originally intended for a musical comedy entitled "Dirigível" | "Blimp," which Vinícius already had worked out in his head but had not yet committed to paper.
Vinícius, in turn, had written the lyrics in Petrópolis, near Rio, as he had done with "Chega de Saudade" six years earlier, and it took him just as much work. To begin with, it wasn't originally called "Garota da Ipanema," but "Menina que passa" | "The Girl Who Passes By," and the entire first verse was different.
As for the famous girl, Jobim and Vinícius did in fact see her pass by as they sat in the Veloso bar, during the winter of 1962— not just once, but several times, and not always on her way to the beach but also on her way to school, to the dressmaker, and even to the dentist. Mostly because Heloísa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto, better known as Helô, who was eighteen years of age, five feet, eight inches tall, with green eyes and long, flowing black hair, lived in Rua Montenegro and was already the object of much admiration among patrons of the Veloso, where she would frequently stop to buy cigarettes for her mother—and leave to a cacophony of wolf-whistles.
—Bossa Nova: The Story of the Brazilian Music That Seduced the World, by Ruy Castro, Pp. 239-240.
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 (1965)
- 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)
- Bebel Gilberto
- Sitti Navarro (Philippines) - Portuguese/English version
- Michael Bolton (2006)
- The Supremes - Boy from Ipanema
- Tony Mottola – instrumental.
Other media
A Brazilian musical film, "Garota de Ipanema", inspired by the song, was released in 1967.
Trivia
- The B-52's have a song called "The Girl from Ipanema Goes to Greenland" on their 1986 album Bouncing off the Satellites.
- Director John Landis has, on more than one occasion, used an instrumental version of the song in his films (e.g. in the elevator during the climax of The Blues Brothers)