Samba de Verão

Samba de Verão is a 1964 bossa nova and jazz standard by Marcos Valle, with Portuguese lyrics by his brother Paulo Sérgio Valle and English lyrics by Norman Gimbel. Valle's own recording reached number 9 on the pop chart in Rio de Janeiro in 1964. He has said he and his brother wrote it in their bedroom at their parents' house in Rio when he was 21, almost 22. They were listening to a lot of bossa nova by Jobim, Roberto Menescal and Carlos Lyra, lived close to the beach, and were surfers, and he says the song carries that romantic portrait of Rio.

The American hits

The first English vocal version was by the Sergio Mendes Trio with Wanda de Sah on Brasil '65. The big American hit in 1966 was an instrumental by the keyboardist Walter Wanderley, produced by Creed Taylor for the album Rain Forest. It entered Billboard's Easy Listening chart in the issue dated 13 August 1966 and reached number 3, and it peaked at number 26 on the Hot 100. Thom Jurek of AllMusic wrote that it is regarded as perhaps a more definitive bossa tune than The Girl from Ipanema. Vocal versions as So Nice followed from Johnny Mathis and Connie Francis, which both reached number 17 on the Easy Listening chart, and Vikki Carr, who reached number 32.

Later versions

More than 180 artists have recorded it under its various titles. Valle came back to it himself in 1969 with Samba de Verão 2 on Mustang Côr de Sangue, and again on the 1983 album Marcos Valle, where he plays Rhodes and Korg synthesizer and Serginho do Trombone adds Moog and Yamaha CS 80.