The Girl From Ipanema

When I read the challenge, I wondered if I should choose something like rock anthem “Fat Bottomed Girls” by Queen, go with a crooner like “Hey There Lonely Girl” by Eddie Holman or the pop-sweetheart Cyndi Lauper’s song, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” There’s so many choices. But I like to try to pick something no one else will have chosen, so I am going with a 60’s ‘bossa nova’ song, “The Girl From Ipanema.”

Heloisa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto – now known as Helo Pinhero, was 17 years old and a regular on the Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro in 1962 when it is said she caught the eye of composer Antonio Carlos Jobim as she strolled to the Veloso bar-café to buy cigarettes for her mother, leaving to the sound of wolf-whistles. Jobim composed the melody on a piano and poet Vinicius De Moraes created the lyrics, with the English lyrics being created by Norman Gimbel, who also co-wrote “Killing Me Softly with His Song.” The song was rooted in bossa nova, but was also influenced by the blues, jazz, and the popular sounds of the times. The song made Helo Pinhero famous. She is a Brazilian businesswoman, former model, and two-time Brazilian Playboy Playmate.

The first commercial recording was in 1962 by Brazilian bossa nova singer, Pery Ribeiro. What is known as the Stan Getz recording, a famous saxophonist, featuring Astrud Gilberto, became an international hit. During a recording session in New York City with João Gilberto, Antônio Carlos Jobim, and Stan Getz, the idea of cutting an English-language version came up. 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. She was never credited, and received no royalties for her part.

The song was featured in the 2016 Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro and Spotify reported the song had been streamed on its service 40,000 times a day in the days following the opening ceremonies.

While Astrud Gilberto’s version of the song is perhaps the best known, the tune has been covered an estimated 150 times, including by Madonna and Amy Winehouse. Pinheiro said her favorite version of the song is the one by Frank Sinatra.

Here is perhaps why the song resonates so powerfully with a wide audience:
In Revelação: a verdadeira Garôta de Ipanema (“Revealed: The Real Girl from Ipanema“), Moraes wrote that she was “the paradigm of the young Carioca [a resident of Ipanema]: 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.”

This is the girl that inspired this classic! As a teenager, Helo Pinheiro was a regular on Rio’s Ipanema Beach. Picture credited to TODAY

The 1964 performance by Stan Getz with Astrud Gilberto and the Stan Getz Quartet in a scene from the comedy-musical feature film “Get Yourself a College Girl.”

and, for good measure, here is a recording by Frank Sinatra with the composer Antonio Carlos Jobim