By 1967, Brazilian bossa-nova singer Astrud Gilberto had become a solo artist. She was finally out from under the menacing tyranny and harassment of tenor saxophonist Stan Getz. Astrud had been fronting Getz's groups ever since the album Getz/Gilberto came out in March 1964 and became a massive hit.
When Getz/Gilberto was recorded in 1963, Verve producer Creed Taylor had her sing English lyrics to two songs off the LP—The Girl From Ipanema and Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars). Creed's plan was to record the two songs as a demo 45 and send them out to pop-jazz singers of the day, like Sarah Vaughan, to see if they'd record them and make them hits. The plan was to build a jazz market for Getz/Gilberto before the album came out. But a funny thing happened.
After the single of The Girl From Ipanema reached radio stations and Getz/Gilberto came out in 1964, Astrud Gilberto became a megastar and her youthful, innocent voice helped make the bossa nova a global sensation. At first, Astrud toured with Getz to promote the LP. His treatment of her was demeaning and disgraceful. Most likely, their friction had a lot to do with her becoming better known than Getz and, in his mind, relegating him to a backup musician.
On her own as a solo artist, Astrud was in Italy in 1967. By then, another bossa nova song was rushing up the charts worldwide—Marcos Valle's Samba de Verão, also known as Summer Samba (So Nice). The song was first released by Marcos in Brazil on an Odeon single in Brazil in 1964.
The song then became a massive international hit after Creed had organist Walter Wanderley record it on Rain Forest in 1966. Then came A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness for Verve in 1967, which united Astrud and Wanderley. Among the songs recorded was Summer Samba (So Nice).
Back to that Italian tour. While promoting Astrud Gilberto: Canta in Italiano, her Verve album released in Italy, Astrud appeared on television twice singing Summer Samba in Italian backed by her Wanderley track. It's unclear whether she's singing or lip-syncing:
Here's Astrud singing in Italian on an Italian TV show co-hosted by Italian singer, dancer, actress, television presenter and model Raffaella Carrà (on the left) and Brazilian singer-songwriter, performer and actress Maysa Matarazzo...
And here she is singing the song in Italian on the Italian TV station RAI Uno...
Bonus. Here's Summer Samba from the 1967 album A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness...
Here's Walter Wanderley's Summer Samba from his 1966 album Rain Forest...
And here are three versions of the song by its composer, Marcos Valle. The first, from 1965, appeared on his album O Compositor E O Cantor and features the original Portuguese lyrics by his brother Paulo Sergio Valle; the second is a vocal duet by Marcos and his first wife, Anamaria, on his album Samba '68; and the third is an instrumental from Marcos's album Braziliance! in 1966 (the latter two were produced by Eumir Deodato)...
One more? Here's Eumir Deodato's recording of the song in 1964 on the organ...
And finally, here's organ great Walter Wanderley playing Call Me, with Victor M. on drums...
