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)
Waiting For Love
Sergio Mendes Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Or a chance of love again
That made me explain
The secrets of my soul
I guess I only needed
Someone to hold
But I was gone without a trace
And it seems I've spent my whole life
Waiting for love
And when it comes
I always run away
Was it something on a dream
That touched my memory
Or a picture I didn't know I'd seen
That made me stop and stare
And then I lost him,
If he was ever there
'Cause I'm afraid of being close
Where I need to be the most
And it seems I've spent my whole life
Waiting for love
And when it comes
I always run away
And I'm afraid I've spent my whole life
Waiting for love
Til my last day has come
To run away
And it seems I've spent my whole life
Waiting for love
And when it comes
I always run away
The lyrics of Sérgio Mendes's song "Waiting For Love" depict a story of a person who is desperate to find love but keeps running away when it does come close. The song tries to explore the reasons why the person keeps running away and seeking for love without ever finding it. The lyrics use imagery from different sources, like the rain or a dream, to symbolize the different chances the person has had to find love but hasn't been able to seize them.
The lyrics mention the secrets of the soul, which implies that the person has trust issues that prevent them from getting close to anyone. The person mentions they were looking for someone to hold, indicating that perhaps they are longing for intimacy and affection, but fear is holding them back. The person is afraid of being close where they need to be the most, which suggests that they know that they need love to survive but are too scared to embrace it fully.
The chorus of the song repeats the phrase, "And it seems I've spent my whole life waiting for love, and when it comes, I always run away" to emphasize the theme of missed opportunities and emotional unavailability. The song ends on a melancholic note, expressing regret for a life spent waiting for love but never being able to accept it.
Line by Line Meaning
Was it something in the rain
Did a fleeting feeling come to me in the rain?
Or a chance of love again
Was it just the possibility of finding love once more?
That made me explain
That made me open up about my innermost feelings
The secrets of my soul
What I keep hidden deep inside from everyone else
I guess I only needed
Maybe all I ever wanted was just
Someone to hold
Someone to comfort me
But I was gone without a trace
I disappeared and left nothing behind
And the rain blew away
And the memories faded away
And it seems I've spent my whole life
It feels like I've been waiting my entire life
Waiting for love
Anticipating that real connection with another human
And when it comes
But when it finally comes to me
I always run away
I find myself pulling away instead of embracing it
Was it something on a dream
Did I only imagine it in a dream?
That touched my memory
Something that stirred up a long-forgotten memory
Or a picture I didn't know I'd seen
Or a photograph that had been stored away in my subconscious
That made me stop and stare
That made me take notice and pay attention
And then I lost him,
But then I let him slip away
If he was ever there
If he was ever truly present to begin with
'Cause I'm afraid of being close
The reason I keep holding back is because I fear closeness with another person
Where I need to be the most
At a time when I need someone the most
And I'm afraid I've spent my whole life
I'm afraid that all this time I've been holding back
Til my last day has come
Until my final day arrives
To run away
To always run away from any chance of love
Contributed by Zoe S. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@rudyvelez1741
….I do remember getting a call from upstairs our DZBM the Big 74 studio,,they said they needed somebody to meet & welcome Sergio Mendes & Brazil ‘77 at the MIA,,this was back in 1974,,I immediately, grabbed Alex to come along who seemed so excited,,I asked, “hey, what’s the panting all about, man?,,he answered,”been waiting for this chance, meeting Bonnie Bowden in person, she’s really pretty, that’s the big deal!”,,”well, this I gotta see” & we drove off to the airport,,we arrived just in time,,we saw Sergio & the rest of the band collecting their luggages,,introduced ourselves, talked a little, shook the guys’ hands, hugged the ladies, took some pictures,,then checked them in the hotel. Bonnie was pretty alright, very friendly too,,the next day we saw them perform & Bonnie sang the one hit song that I loved a lot,,,after all these years, it still gives me the quivers…”Waiting for Love”…fabulous!!
@paradise1875
This is my favorite too since in the 70's
@tynb4338
Such an experience!! Grabe the impact of 70s, 80s songs in my life. This cured me to survived a very traumatic childhood
@richarddelrosario1279
ds. song. reminds me. when. im 16yrs. now im. 69 yrs thnks. for uploading
@NandyDagondon
Another very beautiful song that is perfectly rendered by the perfect singer. Countless times I've listened to this.
@tweejie
😊😊
@vicenteaviles1912
I was barely 18 when I watched and enjoyed Sergio Mendez Brazil 77 concert in Manila. I was seated in the 2nd row and I was convinced Bonnie Bowden was an angel and forgot about my GF seated beside me for the entire show.
@luisaangeles1740
🤗🤗🤗
@raquelpalencia149
Wow...one of the most beautiful song from the 70’s love the song so much.thank u
@ramonpurugganan1592
This song is timeless. It's lyrics are not usual. Melody is not usual- Very unpredictable.