The Song "Aquarela do Brasil" (also known as "Brazil")
 

This is a thread for discussing that wonderful tune known to most of the world simply as "Brazil" which was written by Ary Barroso in 1939. The song has a little history to it, here fetched from it's wikipedia article :

Those of you who think you do not know this are probably wrong as it is quite famous and have been recorded by a number of times by many different artists.

The english lyrics go something like this :




Out of the many recordings of this song, I have a few more dear to my heart than others. This thread is of course for discussing the song, but also for posting your favourite versions if you have one or a few!

A recording I like quite a lot was done for Terry Gilliam's movie Brazil in which the song played an important role symbolizing the main characters hopes and dreams and the movie's escapist theme. One of the reasons I like it is that it's sung by Kate Bush, my favourite female artist ever :D As a song to listen to, there are arguably better versions but I'll save those for later.

For now, enjoy Michael Kamen and Kate Bush's 1985 version!



And let me know what your favourites are! :)

I see noone else have posted, but I'm not gonna give up just yet.

The song became popular after Disney used it in their 1942 movie "Saludos Amigos". Supposedly, there was a worry that some of the latin american governments could side with the nazis during world war 2, so aside from being just another Disney movie, this film was a part of an attempt from the US at establishing a friendly neighbour relationship with the latin american countries. Supposedly!

This is the part from that movie containing much use of Aquarela do Brasil. The version in the movie is quite good (sung by Aloysio Oliveira) and the film itself is very entertaining, so it's well worth the watch. :)

Legendary jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt recorded a very famous version from 1947 which is another favourite of mine for the album Quintette du Hot Club de France. Check it out!

Great song. I love the Cornelius version myself.

I was starting to think noone knew this song :p: Great post, Jans! That's definetly one of the stranger versions I've heard!

Another version which is in my personal library is a more straightforward guitar version by the shadows. Here it is in somewhat poor quality. :)

I quite like this version myself:



I'm not sure where this singing group is from but they are quite good!

^Brilliant and a lot of fun Burning Down :D

Frank Sinatra's big band version, although perhaps not super valuable as a curiostiy, is one I find it hard not to like.

Wow, I'm looking at the wiki article now and I didn't realise there were that many Brazil covers. And I had no idea Cornelius covered it... their version is pretty damn cool actually. I've always known about the Django and Kate Bush versions (she's also my fav female artist). Great song.

There are plenty more out there, many more than what's listed in the wikipedia article I'm sure! This thread could potentially go on for quite a while.

Here's Antonio Carlos Jobim's version bossa nova style from the 1970 album Stone Flower. Another nice one :)



:D :beer:

Brazil
 

Let's not forget Walter Wanderly's version. It's pretty good too. Heck! they're all good. It's a classic piece.:shycouch: