| "The Girl from Ipanema" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Single byStan Getz andJoão Gilberto | |
| from the albumGetz/Gilberto | |
| B-side | Blowin' in the Wind[1] |
| Released | March 1964 (1964-03) |
| Recorded | March 1963 |
| Studio | A&R Recording, New York City |
| Genre | |
| Length | 2:44 (radio edit) 5:24 (album version) |
| Label | Verve |
| Composer | Antônio Carlos Jobim |
| Lyricists |
|
| Producer | Creed Taylor |
"Garota de Ipanema" (Portuguese pronunciation:[ɡaˈɾotɐdʒipɐ̃ˈnemɐ]), or "The Girl from Ipanema", is a Brazilianbossa nova andjazz song. It was a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s and won aGrammy for Record of the Year in 1965. It was written in 1962, with music byAntônio Carlos Jobim and Portuguese lyrics byVinícius de Moraes, with English lyrics written later byNorman Gimbel.[5]
The first commercial recording was in 1962 byPery Ribeiro. TheStan Getz recording, featuring the vocal debut ofAstrud Gilberto, became an international hit. This version had been shortened from the version on the albumGetz/Gilberto (recorded in March 1963, released in March 1964), which had also included the Portuguese lyrics sung by Astrud's then-husbandJoão Gilberto. In the US, the single peaked at number five on theBillboard Hot 100, and went to number one for two weeks on theEasy Listening chart.[6] Overseas it peaked at number 29 on theUK singles chart, and charted highly throughout the world.
Numerous recordings have been used in films, sometimes as anelevator musiccliché. It is believed to be the second-most recorded pop song in history, after "Yesterday" bythe Beatles.[7] In 2000, the 1964 release byStan Getz &Astrud Gilberto on Verve Records was inducted into theGrammy Hall of Fame.[8] It was inducted into theLatin Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001.[9] In 2004, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by theLibrary of Congress to be added to theNational Recording Registry.[10]
The song was composed for a musical comedy titledDirigível ("Airship"), then a work in progress ofVinicius de Moraes. The original title was "Menina que Passa" ("The Girl Who Passes By"); the first verse was different. Jobim composed the melody on his piano in his new house in Rua Barão da Torre, inIpanema. Moraes wrote the lyrics inPetrópolis, near Rio de Janeiro, as he had done with "Chega de Saudade" ("No More Blues") six years earlier. While firmly rooted in bossa nova, "The Girl from Ipanema" includes influences fromblues andTin Pan Alley.[11]
During a recording session in New York withJoão Gilberto,Antônio Carlos Jobim andStan 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 any of the mannerisms of trained singers, proved a perfect fit for the song.[12] However, she was never credited or received any royalties, and received only $120 for her part.[13]
Thekey the song is played in has varied depending upon the origin of the recording. While the original Ribeiro version was in thekey of G, most Brazilian performances useD♭ and most American versions useF.[11] Astrud Gilberto and Getz appear as themselves and perform the song in the 1964 filmGet Yourself a College Girl.
Frank Sinatra recorded the song with Jobim in 1967 for their albumFrancis Albert Sinatra & Antônio Carlos Jobim.[14]Ella Fitzgerald recorded it for her two-disc set of Brazilian musicElla Abraça Jobim, released byPablo Today in 1981. Ethel Ennis and Nat King Cole have also both recorded the song. A version by Gary Criss titled "The Girl From Ipanema / Brazilian Nights" from his album "Rio De Janeiro" reached number 19 in the CanadianRPM dance charts in August 1978.[15]Eliane Elias included the song in her albumsEliane Elias Sings Jobim (1998) andBrazilian Classics (2003).
Ipanema is a fashionable neighborhood located in the southern region of the city ofRio de Janeiro.
The song was inspired byHeloísa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto (now known as Helô Pinheiro), a seventeen-year-old girl living on Montenegro Street in Ipanema.[16] Every day, she would stroll past the Veloso bar-café, not just to the beach ("each day when she walks to the sea"). She would sometimes enter the bar to buy cigarettes for her mother and leave to the sound ofwolf whistles.[17] In the winter of 1962, the composers saw the girl pass by the bar. She has become famous since the song was released.
InRevelação: a verdadeira Garôta de Ipanema ("Revealed: The Real Girl from Ipanema") Moraes wrote that she was "the paradigm of the youngCarioca: 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."
The legacy of "The Girl from Ipanema" was acknowledged by multiple aspects of the2016 Summer Olympics andParalympics held in Rio de Janeiro: the Olympic and Paralympic mascots were respectively namedVinicius and Tom after the song's co-writers by a public vote,[18] while the Olympics'opening ceremony featured a segment themed around the song and the architecture ofOscar Niemeyer. Jobim's grandsonDaniel Jobim performed the song during the segment, which also featured an appearance by Brazilian supermodelGisele Bündchen.[19][20]Spotify reported that the song had been streamed on its service 40,000 times per day in the days following the ceremony (a 1200% increase), while in the U.S., the song reached #5 onBillboard'sWorld Digital Songs chart the following week.[21][22]
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Italy (FIMI)[30] | Gold | 50,000‡ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[31] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
In 2001, the song's copyright owners (the heirs of their composer fathers) sued Pinheiro for using the title of the song as the name of her boutique (Garota de Ipanema). In their complaint, they stated that her status as The Girl from Ipanema (Garota de Ipanema) did not entitle her to use a name that legally belonged to them.[32][33] Public support was strongly in favor of Pinheiro. A press release by Jobim and Moraes, the composers, in which they had named Pinheiro as the real Girl from Ipanema (Garota de Ipanema) was used as evidence that they had intended to bestow this title on her. The court ruled in favor of Pinheiro.[34]
In a separate legal dispute,Astrud Gilberto suedFrito-Lay fortrademark infringement for using the song in a TV advertisement for its baked potato chips. Gilberto argued that:
[A]s the result of the huge success of the 1964 recording, and her frequent subsequent performances of "Ipanema," she has become known as The Girl from Ipanema and is identified by the public with the 1964 recording. She claims as a result to have earned trademark rights in the 1964 recording, which she contends the public recognizes as a mark designating her as a singer. She contends, therefore, that Frito-Lay could not lawfully use the 1964 recording in an advertisement for its chips without her permission.[35]
InOliveira v. Frito-Lay Inc. (2001), her claims were rejected by theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.[35]
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When sung by female artists the song has often been rendered as "The Boy from Ipanema". Such artists have includedJulie London (1964 single),Peggy Lee (1964),Ella Fitzgerald andThe Supremes (1965),Shirley Bassey (1966) andEartha Kitt (1974).Petula Clark sang it in 1977 onThe Muppet Show. Crystal Waters recorded her version in 1996 for the various artistsRed Hot + Rio compilation and was later included on her1998 greatest hits set. Diana Krall recorded another version on her 2009 albumQuiet Nights.
The reason for "The Boy from Ipanema" version is partially caused by an awkward translation occurring when female vocalists sing: "But each time when she walks to the sea, she looks straight ahead not athe." Some singers have corrected this by singing: "But each time when she goes for a swim, she looks straight ahead not at him."[citation needed]
A parody of the song, with different lyrics written byStephen Sondheim, is entitledThe Boy From....Another parody is "The Girl With Emphysema" by comedianBob Rivers.
The phrase "Boy from Ipanema" — but nothing from the song — appears in Norwegian recording artistAnnie's "Anthonio". Likewise, the phrase "Girl from Ipanema" appears inThe B-52's' 1985 single "Girl from Ipanema Goes to Greenland," again without any musical reference to the original song.
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