I didn't get around to writing about the basics of Jobim's life with the first two volumes in this series, so let me do that now. Jobim was born in 1927 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the 1940s, he made a living playing piano in bars and nightclubs in Rio. His first song to be recorded by someone happened in 1953. But he didn't have significant success until 1958, when Joao Gilberto recorded what would become one of his most famous songs, "Desafinado (Out of Tune)." Then, in 1964, he really hit it big with "The Girl from Ipanema." A version of that song by Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto reached the Top Five in the U.S. singles chart. But its success went way beyond that. In fact, it has become the second most recorded song of all time, behind only "Yesterday" by the Beatles.
This song led many people to discover not only other songs written by Jobim, but songs from Brazil in general, especially bossa nova music. For a couple of years, there was a sort of bossa nova craze in Western countries, especially in the jazz world. Jazz musicians in particular fell in love with Jobim's songs, because they were both musically complicated and interesting while being tuneful and catchy. Many of his songs became standards. Looking at the website secondhandsongs.com in 2025, which tallies cover versions, I count 34 songs written or co-written by Jobim that have been covered over 100 times. It may not sound like a lot, but that's a crazy amount. By comparison, only 18 songs by Bob Dylan have been covered over 100 times. Or consider Carole King, one of the most successful songwriters of all time. Only eight of her songs have been covered over 100 times.
Jobim released several dozen albums, with about half of them being collaborations with other famous musicians. He often collaborated with singers, since he wasn't much of a singer himself. His own albums didn't sell that well, but his collaboration albums often did. Overall, he had much more success with other musicians covering his songs.
Here's his Wikipedia entry, if you want to know more:
Antônio Carlos Jobim - Wikipedia
He died in 1994 at the age of 67. As a result, all of the songs here are from well after his death. Most of them were written in the 1950s to 1970s, and it just so happens these are the versions that Fabio from Rio and I liked the best (since all three of these albums were put together by Fabio and myself). As with the two previous volumes in the series, the focus was on songs sung in English, when in fact there are even more covers of his songs in other languages, especially Portuguese, which is spoken in his home country of Brazil.
Thanks again to Fabio of Rio for his helping putting this Jobim albums together. I already had plans to make Covered albums from Jobim on my own. But they wouldn't have been nearly as good without Fabio's input, since he's much more familiar with this type of music than I am.
This album is 46 minutes long.
01 I Love You [Eu Te Amo] (Alessandra Maestrini)
02 Somewhere in the Hills [O Morro Nao Tem Vez] (Lisa Sanchez & Jon Eriksen Quartet)
03 Forever Green [Sempre Verde] (Trudy Kerr)
04 Photograph [Fotografia] (Stephanie Patton)
05 Little Bird [Passarim] (Daniel Vincke)
06 Once I Loved [O Amor em Paz] (Baila Nova)
07 This Happy Madness [Estrada Branca] (Delicatessen)
08 Useless Landscape [Inutil Paisagem] (Emma Pask)
09 Meditation [Meditacao] (Nicole Magolie)
10 One Note Samba [Samba de Uma Nota So] (Arpi Alto)
11 Wave (Natalie Jacob, Tamir Hendelman, Anthony Wilson & Kevin Winard)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/uUAZTVi5
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/kSoOFxh4c0rb9Nm/file
The cover photo is cropped from a photo of Jobim with Sting. I don't know when it was taken, but I'd guess it's from the 1990s, because the two of them collaborated on a song around then which was released in 1996. The original version was black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program.
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