Tall and tan and young and lovely
The girl from Ipanema goes walking
And when she passes, each one she passes goes - ah
(La Garota de Ipanema, The Girl from Ipanema, Vincius de Moraes)
The Girl from Ipanema - an empassioned song about a guy feeling sorry for himself as he watches a beautiful girl walk past, ignroing him completely - was the song that put Bossanova on the map. With plenty of major 7th chords and the silky vocals of Joao Gilberto, accompanied by Stan Getz on sax, The Girl from Ipanema became a jazz classic in no time.
Bossanova in Brazil though is seen as almost too sickly sweet for words. Once you get a basic grap of Portuguese then you realise that all the declarations of eternal love and intense longing are too hopelessly romantic for words.
Bossanova emerged 50 years ago and is seen by some as a natural progression of samba with a strong emphasis on the new instrument of the times, the guitar. Bossanova lacked the cutting ege of social comment that made samba so dear to the people though and tended to be pretty much a middle class phenomenon, those who didn't have to worry about what they'd eat that day and could mope around with idyllic heartache.
When Brazil was taken over by the military though it did finally get a bit of bite to it with songs critical of the ruthless dictatorship that was the rage all over South America. In the modern days of democratic Brazil, bossanova has done much to shape MPB, the modern Brazilian pop and artists like Milton Nascimento and Djavan acknowledge that bossanova played a formative part of their musical education.
And the Girl from Ipanema herself?
Helo Pinheiro became a celebrity in her own right, thanks to the song, and finally made a comback a few years back by posing with her daughter for Playboy.
Well, that's Brazil for you.