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)
The Island
Sergio Mendes Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
On a desert island
Bathe me in the waters
Warm me in the moonlight
Taste me with your kisses
Find those secret places
Touch me till I tremble
Free my wings for flying
Keep your arms around me
Like there's no tomorrow
On a little island
Not a soul can see us
Show me how to love you
Teach me how to please you
Lay your dreams beside me
Only stars will listen
To our cries and whispers
You were made to love me
And I was made to love you
Keep your arms around me
Loose yourself inside me
Make it last forever
I can see the island
Shining in the distance
Now we're getting closer
Keep your arms around me
Love we're almost there!
The lyrics of Sergio Mendes’s “The Island” describe a desire to escape to a secluded location with a loved one. The song’s opening line, “make believe we’ve landed on a desert island,” sets the tone for the rest of the lyrics, which focus on the sensuous experience of being alone on a tropical island with a partner. The song’s protagonist imagines himself and his lover living away from the gaze of society, free to explore each other both emotionally and physically. The lyrics are intimate, with the singer urging his lover to “touch me till I tremble” and to “keep your arms around me like there’s no tomorrow.”
The song’s lyrics communicate a sense of desire, longing, and intimacy. The singer desires physical touch and seeks emotional connection with his lover. The chorus expresses an urgency for the lover to “keep your arms around me” and reminds us of the fleeting nature of life, as there may not be a tomorrow to enjoy each other’s embrace. The final line, “love we’re almost there,” brings a sense of anticipation and longing.
Line by Line Meaning
Make believe we've landed
Let's imagine that we've arrived somewhere.
On a desert island
This is a deserted island with no one around.
Bathe me in the waters
Wash me with the water surrounding us.
Warm me in the moonlight
Let me feel the heat of the moonlight on my skin.
Taste me with your kisses
Express your love for me through kissing me.
Find those secret places
Explore my body and find its secret places.
Touch me till I tremble
Touch me in a way that makes me tremble with passion.
Free my wings for flying
Allow me to be free and fly high with love and passion.
Catch me while I'm falling
Be there to catch me and help me when I fall.
Keep your arms around me
Hold me close and never let go.
Like there's no tomorrow
As if this is our last chance to love each other, let's make it count.
On a little island
This is a small island that no one knows about but us.
Not a soul can see us
There is no one around to see our love but us.
Show me how to love you
Teach me how to love you in the way you want to be loved.
Teach me how to please you
Show me what you like and teach me how to please you.
Lay your dreams beside me
Share your dreams with me and let us build a future together.
Only stars will listen
Only the stars will witness our love and hear our whispered desires.
To our cries and whispers
Our love is so intense that even our cries and whispers are heard.
You were made to love me
You were specially designed and created to love me.
And I was made to love you
I was specially designed and created to love you in return.
Loose yourself inside me
Get lost in our love and our passion for each other.
Make it last forever
Let our love and passion last for all eternity.
I can see the island
I can see the island that we imagined earlier.
Shining in the distance
The island is shining with the light of love and passion.
Now we're getting closer
Our love and passion is bringing us closer to the island.
Love we're almost there!
Our love has brought us so close to our destination and our passion for each other will keep us moving forward.
Contributed by Reagan K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Tom Valveede
SERGIO MENDES IS A GIFT FROM ABOVE!!! HIS MUSIC IS TIMELESS AND WONDERFUL! SUBLIME!! ♥️🎶♥️⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐🎉♥️🎶♥️