See Sérgio Mendes.

Sérgio Santos Mendes (born Niteroi, 11 February 1… Read Full Bio ↴See Sérgio Mendes.

Sérgio Santos Mendes (born Niteroi, 11 February 1941) is a Brazilian musician. Born the son of a physician in Niteroi, Brazil, Mendes attended the local conservatory with hopes of becoming a classical pianist. As his interest in jazz grew, he started playing in nightclubs in the late-1950s just as bossa nova, a jazz-inflected derivative of samba, was taking off. Mendes played with Antonio Carlos Jobim (regarded as a mentor), and many U.S. jazz musicians who toured Brazil.

Mendes formed the Sexteto Bossa Rio and recorded Dance Moderno in 1961. Touring Europe and the United States, Mendes recorded albums with Cannonball Adderly and Herbie Mann and played Carnegie Hall. Mendes moved to the U.S. in 1964 and cut two albums under the Brasil '65 group name with Capitol Records and Atlantic Records. When sales were tepid, he replaced his Brazilian born vocalist Wanda Sa with the distinctive voice of Chicago native Lani Hall (who learned Mendes' Portuguese material phonetically) and switched to Herb Alpert's A&M label and released Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66. (Hall would later marry Alpert). The album ultimately went platinum based largely upon the success of the single Mas Que Nada and the personal support of Alpert, with whom Mendes toured regularly. Though his early singles with Brasil '66 (most notably Mas Que Nada) met with some success, Mendes really burst into mainstream prominence when he performed the Oscar nominated Burt Bacharach/Hal David song "The Look of Love" on the Academy Awards telecast in March 1968. Brasil '66's version of the song quickly shot into the top 10, eclipsing Dusty Springfield's version from the soundtrack of the movie, and Mendes spent the rest of 1968 enjoying consecutive top 10 and top 20 hits with his follow-up singles, "The Fool on the Hill" and "Scarborough Fair." Though he continued to enjoy adult contemporary chart successes with Brasil '66 through 1971, he would not experience the mainstream chart hits he enjoyed in 1968 until his comeback album in 1983 generated the biggest single of his career, "Never Gonna Let You Go." However, from 1968 on, Mendes was arguably the biggest Brazilian star in the world, enjoying immense popularity worldwide and performing in venues as varied as stadium arenas and the White House, where he gave concerts for both President Johnson and President Nixon.

Mendes' career in the U.S. stalled in the mid-70s, but he remained very popular in South America and Japan. (This disparity became a Seinfeld in-joke.) His two albums with Bell Records in 1973 and 1974, followed by several for Elektra from 1975 on, found Mendes continuing to mine the best in American pop music and post-Bossa writers of his native Brazil, while forging new directions in soul with collaborators like Stevie Wonder, who wrote Mendes' R&B-inflected minor hit, "The Real Thing." In 1983, he rejoined Alpert's A&M records and enjoyed huge success with a self-titled album and several follow-up albums, all of which received considerable adult contemporary airplay with charting singles. By the time Mendes released his Grammy-winning Elektra album Brasileiro in 1992, he was the undisputed master of pop-inflected Brazilian jazz. The late-1990s lounge music revival brought retrospection and respect to Mendes' oeuvre, particularly the classic Brasil '66 albums. He has released over thirty-five albums, and still plays his bossa nova heavily crossed with jazz and funk. His newest album, Timeless released in 2006, featured Chali 2na of Jurassic 5, will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas, Q-Tip, Justin Timberlake, and Pharoahe Monch.

(Text taken in whole from the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergio_Mendes on March 30, 2006)

Look of Love
Sergio Mendes Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

The look of love
Is in your eyes
A look that time can't disguise

The look of love
Is saying so much more than just words could every say
And what my heart has heard
Well, it takes my breath away

I can hardly wait to hold you
Feel my arms around you
How long I have waited
Waited just to love you
Now that I have found you

You've got the look of love
It's on your face
A look that time can't erase
Be mine, tonight
Let this be just the start of so many nights like this
Let's take a lovers vow
And seal it with a kiss

I can hardly wait to hold you
Feel my arms around you
How long I have waited
Waited just to love you
Now that I have found you

Don't ever go (don't ever go)

Don't ever go (don't ever go)
(Don't ever go, don't ever go, don't ever go, don't ever go, don't ever go)

Overall Meaning

Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66's song, The Look of Love, is a romantic ballad about the deep affection shared between two people in love. The opening lines "The look of love is in your eyes, a look that time can't disguise" speaks to the idea that no matter how much time passes, the love shared by the couple remains unchanged. The lyrics encapsulate the emotions felt by the singer - that the look of love on his partner's face makes his heart skip a beat and takes his breath away.

The next few lines "Is saying so much more than just words could every say, and what my heart has heard well, it takes my breath away" expresses that the look of love goes beyond spoken language and communicates a depth of emotion otherwise difficult to articulate. The singer goes on to express excitement about finally having the opportunity to hold his partner after a long wait, and how being with her is just the beginning of many wonderful nights. The plea to "don't ever go" at the end serves as a testament to the commitment and sincerity of the singer's feelings towards his partner.

Overall, the lyrics paint a vivid picture of a passionate and deeply emotional love that transcends words and time. It speaks to the universality of love and the human desire to find a deep connection with another person.

Line by Line Meaning

The look of love
The expression of love

Is in your eyes
It can be seen in your eyes

A look that time can't disguise
This love is genuine and can't be hidden with time

The look of love
The expression of love

Is saying so much more than just words could ever say
The expression is saying more than spoken words ever could

And what my heart has heard
The heart hears and understands

Well, it takes my breath away
The beauty of the expression is breathtaking

I can hardly wait to hold you
I'm eager to embrace you

Feel my arms around you
To hold and comfort you

How long I have waited
I have been waiting for this moment

Waited just to love you
The entire wait was just to love you