A self-taught guitarist and singer, Gilberto moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1950 and joined the vocal group Garotos da Lua ("The Boys of the Moon") as their lead singer. After a year and a half, he was kicked out of the group for his lack of discipline and spent the next several years in a marginal existence. Eventually, he found his way, creating a new way to express himself in voice and on the guitar. The result of his obsessive experiments became known as bossa nova.
Bossa nova is a refined version of samba, deemphasizing the percussive aspect of its rhythm and enriching the melodic and harmonic content. Rather than relying on the traditional Afro-Brazilian percussive instruments, bossa nova usually utilizes a drum set. João Gilberto often eschews all accompaniment, using only his guitar, which he uses as a percussive as well as a harmonic instrument. The singing style he developed is almost whispering, economical, and without vibrato. He creates his tempo tensions by singing ahead or behind the guitar.
This style, which Gilberto introduced in 1957, created a sensation in the musical circles of Rio's Zona Sul, and many young guitarists sought to imitate it. It was first heard on record in 1958 when João Gilberto accompanied singer Elizete Cardoso in a recording of "Chega de Saudade", a song by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes. Shortly after this recording, João Gilberto made his own debut single of the same song, followed by the 1959 LP, Chega de Saudade. The song became a hit, launching Gilberto's career and the bossa nova craze.
Besides a number of Jobim compositions, the album Chega de Saudade featured older sambas and popular songs from the 1940s and '50s, all performed in the distinctive bossa nova style. This album was followed by two more in 1960 and 1961, by which time the singer featured new songs by a younger generation of performer/composers such as Carlos Lyra and Roberto Menescal.
By 1962, bossa nova had been embraced by such North American jazz musicians as Herbie Mann, Charlie Byrd, and Stan Getz, who invited Gilberto and Jobim to collaborate on what became one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, Getz/Gilberto. Through this album, Gilberto's wife, Astrud, became an international star, and the Jobim/de Moraes composition "The Girl from Ipanema" became a worldwide pop music standard for the ages.
João Gilberto continued to perform through the 1960s but did not release another studio album until João Gilberto en México, recorded in 1970 during a period of residence in Mexico. João Gilberto, aka the "White Album" (1973), featured hypnotic minimalist execution and is widely considered to be his best album. The year 1976 saw the release of The Best of Two Worlds, a reunion with Stan Getz, featuring singer Miúcha, sister of Chico Buarque, who had become Gilberto's second wife in April 1965. Amoroso (1977) backed Gilberto with the lush string orchestration of Claus Ogerman, who had provided a similar sound to Jobim's instrumental recordings in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As had been the case for all of Gilberto's albums, the album consisted mostly of Jobim compositions, mixed with older sambas and an occasional North American standard from the 1940s.
Having lived in the US since 1962, João Gilberto returned to Brazil in 1980. The following year saw the release of Brasil, with guests Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, who in the late 1960s had founded the Tropicalia movement, a fusion of Brazilian popular music with foreign pop. The 1991 release, João, with orchestrations by Clare Fischer, was unusual in its lack of even a single Jobim composition, instead featuring songs in English, French, Italian, and Spanish, plus old sambas and the solitary contemporary song "Sampa" (Caetano Veloso). Also released in 1991 was the album Canto Do Pajé by Veloso's sister Maria Bethânia on which Bethânia and Gilberto sing an intimate duet Maria/Linda Flor (Barroso, Peixoto, Vogler, Costa, and Pôrto) accompanied solely by his guitar. João Voz e Violão (2000) was an homage to the music of Gilberto's youth as well as a nod to producer Caetano Veloso.
Evenly interspersed with these studio recordings have been the live recordings, Live in Montreux; João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira; Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar; Live at Umbria Jazz, and Live in Tokyo.
While all of Gilberto's albums since Getz/Gilberto have been released on CD, the first three domestic albums were released in 1988 by EMI on a single CD entitled The Legendary João Gilberto: The Original Bossa Nova Recordings (1958-1961). The disc also included three tracks from the singer's 1959 Orfeu Negro EP: "Manhã de Carnaval," O Nosso Amor, and A Felicidade, the latter two merged into a single medley track to fit within the recording time of a CD. After its release, Gilberto successfully sued to have the title removed from sale as an unauthorized release of his artistic works.
João Gilberto has long had a reputation as an eccentric recluse and a nearly neurotic perfectionist. He lives in an apartment in Leblon, Rio de Janeiro, refusing all interviews and avoiding crowds. He has been known to walk out on performances in response to an audience he considers disrespectful or out of theaters possessing acoustics below his standards, and at times demands that the air conditioning be turned off at concert venues. Yet he continues to perform to sell-out crowds in Brazil as well as in Europe, North America, and Japan.
Discography:
1959 - Chega de Saudade (Odeon)
1960 - O Amor, o Sorriso e a Flor (Odeon)
1961 - João Gilberto (Odeon)
1962 - The Boss of the Bossa Nova (Atlantic)
1963 - The Warm World of João Gilberto (Atlantic)
1964 - Getz/Gilberto (Verve)
1965 - Herbie Mann & João Gilberto (Atlantic)
1974 - João Gilberto en Mexico (PolyGram)
1976 - Best of Two Worlds (Columbia)
1977 - Amoroso (Warner Brothers)
1981 - Brasil (Warner Brothers)
1986 - João Gilberto Live in Montreux (WEA)
1991 - João (PolyGram)
2000 - João Voz e Violão (Universal)
2002 - Live at Umbria Jazz (Egea)
2004 - João Gilberto in Tokyo (Verve)
S Wonderful
João Gilberto Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You should care for me
Awfully nice, it's paradise
How I long to be
You make my life so glamorous
You can't blame me for feeling amorous
Wonderful, marvelous
Wonderful, marvelous
You should care for me
Awfully nice, it's paradise
How I long to be
You make my life so glamorous
You can't blame me for feeling amorous
Wonderful, marvelous
That you should care for me
Wonderful, marvelous
You should care for me
Awfully nice, it's paradise
How I long to be
You make my life so glamorous
You can't blame me for feeling amorous
Wonderful, marvelous
That you should care for me
The lyrics of João Gilberto's song "S Wonderful" convey the feeling of being enamored with someone who fills your life with happiness and passion. The singer expresses that he is thrilled by the tender passion that his love interest evokes in him, and he was overwhelmed with emotion when they professed their love for him. This confession of love made the singer swear right there and then that he would be devoted to them forever. To him, this person makes every other man seem ordinary, and only this one special individual can fill him with joy.
The singer then goes on to express how wonderful and marvelous it is that this person cares for him. He expresses that his life has been made glamorous by this person, and he feels amorous towards them. He calls the love between them magnificent, elegant, and exceptional, and likens it to a four-leafed clover, something rare and special. The singer is filled with awe and gratitude that this person would care for him and be a part of his life.
Line by Line Meaning
Don't mind telling you, in my humble fashion
I hope you won't mind me saying this in my own modest and unpretentious way
That you thrill me through, with a tender passion
You deeply excite me with your gentle ardor
When you said you care, 'magine my emotion
When you declared your affection for me, you can only imagine how emotional I became
I swore then and there, permanent devotion
From that moment on I pledged myself to you with unwavering commitment
You made all other men seem blah
You made all the other men look dull and uninteresting
Just you alone filled me with ahhhhhhhh.
Only you had the power to fill me with such intense pleasure
'S wonderful, 's marvelous
you should care for me!
It's simply fantastic, It's marvelous that you should care for me!
'S awful nice, 's paradise,
'S what I love to see.
It's wonderfully pleasing, almost like paradise, It's exactly what I desire to experience.
You've made my life so glamorous,
You can't blame me for feeling amorous!
You've brought such glamour into my life that it's no wonder I feel so romantically desirous!
Oh 's wonderful, 's marvelous,
That you should care for me!
Oh, It's splendid, it's incredible that you hold such an affection for me!
'S magnificque, 's what I seek
You should care for me.
It's magnificent, It's precisely what I am searching for, it's you who should care for me!
'S elegant, 's what I want,
'S what I love to see.
It's sophisticated and graceful, it's precisely what I long for, it's what pleases me the most!
My dear, it's four leaved clover time,
From now on my heart's working overtime,
My love, it's an exceptionally lucky time for us, From now on, my heart is putting in extra effort and devotion!
'S exceptional, 's no bagatelle,
That you should care for
That you should care for
That you should care for me
It's superior and outstanding, it's not something to be taken lightly, that you should feel this way about me, It's truly remarkable!
Lyrics © DistroKid, Strictly Songs SPRL, Universal Music Publishing Group, Capitol CMG Publishing, Unison Rights S.L., Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Ira Gershwin, George Gershwin
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@AnaPerezV
Wonderful, marvelous
You should care for me!
Awfully nice, it's paradise
How I long to be
You make my life so glamorous
You can't blame me for feeling amorous!
Wonderful, marvelous
That you should care for me!
Wonderful, marvelous
You should care for me!
Awfully nice, it's paradise
How I long to be
You make my life so glamorous
You can't blame me for feeling amorous!
Wonderful, marvelous
That you should care for me!
Wonderful, marvelous
You should care for me!
Awfully nice, it's paradise
How I long to be
You make my life so glamorous
You can't blame me for feeling amorous!
Wonderful, marvelous
That you should care for me!
@chiaramaffei3739
"It's time, darling."
@AltheaHekate
That was SO very Sweet ... Where do you find men like that?;)(Just Saw movie again, love this beauty...)
@joujoe1473
Eat pray love best movie 😍😍
@alpinfernanda
aaaaaaahhhhhh ❤️❤️❤️
@WOTBS
Which movie ?
@alpinfernanda
@@WOTBS Eat Pray Love
@ethanrmadera
What's beautiful is that you can hear that he's smiling when he's singing in the beginning
@slane_design
Yes !!!!
@GjaP_242
"Once singing and smiling, he said 'Goodbye America'" 0:10
@GjaP_242
"Chega de rocks, fox-trotes e pinotes Que isso não me convém Eu vou voltar pra cuíca, bater na barrica Tocar tamborim Chega de lights e all rights The figthes, good nights Que isto não está mais pra mim Eu quero um samba feito só pra mim" 1:01
Haroldo Barbosa e Geraldo Jaques