Saturday, October 15, 2016

BATTLE OF THE BANDS: THE GIRL FROM IPANEMA

Gentle Readers . . . and Maxwell,

It's time for the October 15, 2016, Battle of the Bands.

Our host, Mr. Stephen T. McCarthy, provides us with this information about the bloghop:

The whole thing is really quite simple: You select two different versions of the same song (versions  you feel might give each other some competition in the voting) and you post them on the 1st and the 15th of each month. On the 7th and 21st of each month, you add your own personal vote to the mix, total up all the votes and announce the winner on your blog.

Beyond that, just try to have fun with it and let your readers/voters have fun with it.




All right! Let's have fun!

I think some Band-Aids have used The Girl From Ipanema in the past, but I hope they didn't use either one of these versions.

Friday afternoon I sat in my girl Sam's chair as she improved upon my golden tresses (although it's difficult to make them even better). Sam Sam introduced me to Amy Winehouse, and when I requested more on Friday, this is the song Sam played. Thus, our first contender is the late, great Amy Winehouse:




Now we have Mr. Smooth, a singer whose records my parents played, records I loved to hear while I played with my dolls and put puzzles together. Our second contender is the late, great Nat King Cole:




Now it's your turn. Do you prefer The Girl From Ipanema by Amy Winehouse or by Nat King Cole? Please vote in your comment and tell us the reason for your choice.

I hope you'll visit our fearless leader, Mr. Stephen T. McCarthy, to get the entire list of Battle of the Bands participants. Maybe you'll even sign up to join us.

I'll be back on October 21 to count the votes and announce the winner.

Now, would you like to meet the real girl from Ipanema?





Infinities of love,

Janie Junebug

48 comments:

  1. Hard to argue with "the King" but I'm going to do just that. Amy's version completely drew me in with a modern sound nodding to the original bossa nova sound. A vote for Amy Winehouse.

    Arlee Bird
    Tossing It Out

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  2. Nat King Cole hands down! Amy sounded like she was bored or possibly not quite sober--sloppily singing sections of the song.

    Interesting that they found the girl, but how do they know for sure it was her? They didn't offer any prooF from the song writers or anything?

    Interesting choices this week. :)

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    1. The composers said all along that she inspired the song.

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  3. Hi, Janie; What a great interview. The "Girl" has aged beautifully, hasn't she? As much as I adore Amy Winehouse, I have to give this one to Nat King Cole. So smooooth! ☺

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    1. I'd like to age that well, but I was never a gorgeous model who inspired a well-known song. She had physical attributes on her side.

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  4. While I do enjoy Amy Winehouse, I felt this song was best performed by Nat King Cole. May they both rest in peace. Great battle! And it was fun to 'meet' the girl from Ipanema, too!

    ~Mary

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    1. I've seen the girl from Ipanema on TV a few times over the years. She was a model and a Brazilian Playmate.

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  5. That was so neat to meet the real Girl from Ipanema! Great clip.

    Your battle is a tough one. On the one hand you have Nat's classic version and on the other hand you have the contemporary version from Amy and it's a hard decision... but I'm going with Amy Winehouse on this one. Such a tragic loss there. Very talented.

    Fun battle Janie!

    Michele at Angels Bark

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    1. I love Amy and Nat, so I think it's a pretty even battle.

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  6. Amy gets my vote. Nat was smooth and classy, but Amy makes me sigh. Her voice is vibrantly clear and tinkling as she glides through the melody, so young and lovely on her way to the sea.

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  7. Nat King Cole! Mr. Smooth, indeed. I just love this arrangement.

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  8. I think Amy Winehouse had the perfect jazz voice, so I vote for her.

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  9. We shall see if I am wrong about this, but I suspect Nat King Cole will run away with this one. I've learned the hard way to be very careful about who I pit against this powerhouse. He is so smooth. So... give me Nat!

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  10. No contest as far as I'm concerned! Love Amy Winehouse, love her scat interpretation, love the bi vibe! I vote for Amy!

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    1. Bi vibe! I didn't know how to describe it. Thank you.

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  11. Nat Cole was so mellow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Loved meeting the real girl!!

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    Replies
    1. Every song he ever sang was mellow. What a stylist.

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  12. LOVE JANIE ~
    This a fabulous song. I have always loved it, and it's been on my "TO BOTB SOMEDAY" list from the beginning. I'll still use it someday because I've always had two different performers in mind for it.

    I was surprised that I actually liked the Amy Winehouse version. It was really different, oddly different, but the song is so inherently great that I have doubts that anyone could mess it up too badly.

    My vote, however, MUST go to OLD KING COLE. I've heard countless Cole recordings, and even own some (he was my Pa's favorite singer) but I don't think I'd heard his take on '...Ipanema' before, and it was damned good 'n' smooth. That's one of the best OLD KING COLE records I've ever heard, so thanks for the introduction to it.

    ~ D-FensDogG
    'Loyal American Underground'

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    1. I'm glad I found the Nat King Cole version. I knew I wanted Amy, but I was undecided about the second contender. I'm curious to see whose version you'll use.

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  13. One Summer after the divorce I bought every Stan Getz/Bossa Nova Jazz album I could find and played them all summer.
    I really don't care for either, do not like at all Amy's and Nates is better than most so I vote for Nat King Cole.

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. I played a lot of Alanis Morisette before I got divorced. After the divorce I enjoyed the peace and quiet.

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    2. sorry, it's morissette

      oh, the shame

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  14. I really like Nat King Cole's version, so this is a tough one. But I'm going to vote for Amy Winehouse!

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    1. Amy told me a long time ago, "That Martha is a cool chick." She was so right.

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  15. Janie, What a fun battle! I loved the history behind the song, too. I'm giving my vote to Mr. Smooth. It's just hard to go up against someone with those kind of vocals. Have a good week, my friend! Oh yeah, did you have any damages from that last bad hurricane?

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    1. We had lots of branches and leaves down. It wasn't that hard to clean up because my son did most of it. If I'd had to do it, I would have said it was horrible.

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  16. Amy Winehouse gets my vote. She had an amazing voice and so much talent. She also had so many troubles but she gets my vote.

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  17. Nat King Cole is the Sultan of Smooth, the King of my Dad's Sunday afternoon radio fix. Much as I like the Wine house version, I have to give my one-and-only vote to NAT KING COLE.

    Take care, girl! {{{Hugs}}}

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    Replies
    1. Let's go sit in the Wine House. Do you want white or red?

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    2. White...the White (Wine) House...

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  18. Amy Winehouse gets my vote. I like her voice, and I thought it was very smooth.

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    1. Amy appreciates your vote because Nat is doing quite well.

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  19. Thanks for the back story; I hadn't heard it before, Janie.

    Amy Winehouse gets my vote, dearheart.

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  20. I'm giving it to Nat King. Nobody compares.

    Love ya.

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  21. Can I give my vote to Diana Krall?
    What do you mean she's not a contender???
    Okay, just joking around. I'm afraid I did not like Amy's version at all. Much to fast and I don't like how she sings. On the other hand, Nat King has always been one of my favourite singers. To be honest, if he were up against Diana Krall, it would have been VERY hard for me to not pick him. But like this battle, I think he still would have won. Please give my vote to Nat King.
    PS - Thanks for posting that extra video. So cool to see the interview.

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    1. I'm glad you enjoyed the video. I have to come up with some Diana Krall for you.

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  22. The real Girl from Ipanema looks like she could still turn heads at well over seventy. She's gorgeous.

    At first I didn't like Amy Winehouse's version, but it kind of grew on me, and when I heard Nat King Cole's version, I likedf hers better, so give my vote to Amy. It's not Astrud Gilberto, but that's okay.

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    1. Astrud Gilberto was wonderful, but I like to be different and try to find something most people haven't heard.

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  23. I had no idea about the actual girl so that is cool....she looks great and we know that she never has had any work done ever( big wink). This was tough for me because, at first I liked Amy's singing but then she seemed to go off somewhere at the end and it found it a bit irritating. I love Nat King Cole but he seemed a bit sleepy. In the end I go for Cole because I could listen to it again whereas Amy's version would eventually grate.

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    1. Of course she's never had surgery (wink, wink). Nat King Cole always sounded sleepy.

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