In May 1964, the Stan Getz Quartet with vocalist Astrud Gilbert appeared at New York's Cafe Au Go Go. The gig was recorded for a live album, but when Getz Au Go Go was released by Verve in December, several of the tracks had been redone in the studio for better sound. One of them was The Telephone Song, with drummer Helcio Milito added along with guitarist Kenny Burrell, bringing the group to a quintet. Crowd noise was added. Here's Gilberto singing the song...
To promote the album, the Stan Getz Quartet appeared in February 1965 on ABC's Shindig, the teen jukebox show broadcast from Los Angeles. But instead of Gilberto appearing, Ruth Price sang The Telephone Song in what appears to be one of Gilberto's signature Pilgrim-collar dresses. Here's the clip...
What happened? Where was Gilberto? I reached out to vibraphonist Gary Burton, who was a member of the Stan Getz Quartet (and who is now on his final pre-retirement tour—go here for dates and locations). Here's what Gary said:
"Astrud was recovering from the flu and missed a couple of weeks of gigs. On Shindig, a national TV show, the quartet wouldn't have been sufficient on its own performing the Telephone Song, so Ruth Price filled in. And yes, that's Joe Hunt on drums and Gene Cherico on bass in the clip."