Who recorded it first
The Girl from Ipanema
Not a Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto original — Pery Ribeiro’s Odeon record was the first version released, in Brazil, in 1963
Almost everyone meets this song through the Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto recording, and treats that record as the song’s birth. It isn’t. “Garota de Ipanema” was written in 1962 by Antônio Carlos Jobim (music) and Vinícius de Moraes (Portuguese lyrics), performed in public for the first time on 2 August 1962 at the Au Bon Gourmet club in Rio, and the first version to reach the public on a record was the Brazilian singer Pery Ribeiro’s, issued by Odeon and collected on his LP Pery é Todo Bossa. Sources disagree on exactly when Ribeiro cut it — English Wikipedia says 1962, its own Pery Ribeiro article says January 1963, and the Instituto Moreira Salles discography dates the session to 26 March 1963 — so the safe claim is the one every source supports: his was the first commercial release, in Brazil, in 1963. Norman Gimbel’s English lyric came afterwards, for the international version. Getz and João Gilberto did not tape their Getz/Gilberto session until 18–19 March 1963, and Verve did not release the album until March 1964.
The record
Who released it first
Released Issued in Brazil by Odeon in 1963 — the song’s first commercial release — and collected on Ribeiro’s LP Pery é Todo Bossa. The exact dates are contested: Portuguese Wikipedia puts the single out in January 1963, while the Instituto Moreira Salles discography dates the session to 26 March 1963 and places the 78 (Odeon 14869-1) and the LP later that year. Weaker still, the streaming metadata on the album track gives 5 January 1963 with a ℗ 1963 EMI Records Brasil line — back-catalogue data, not a pressing date, and not evidence of when the disc reached Brazilian shops.
Charted No US or UK chart placing. It was a domestic Brazilian release sung in Portuguese and never issued into the American market.
Hear Pery Ribeiro’s original recording of “Garota De Ipanema” www.youtube.com · An auto-generated “Pery Ribeiro - Topic” upload whose description reads “Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group”, from the album Pery É Todo Bossa, ℗ 1963 EMI Records Brasil Ltda. Runtime 2:15 against the 2:13 MusicBrainz recording from the 1963 album — a match, not a later re-recording. Its 1963-01-05 date is streaming back-catalogue metadata and is not used here as evidence of the pressing date.How we checked it
English Wikipedia ↗ states that the first commercial recording was by Pery Ribeiro and dates it to 1962, and credits the music to Jobim, the Portuguese lyric to Vinícius de Moraes and the English lyric to Norman Gimbel. Its own Pery Ribeiro article ↗ disagrees, saying he recorded it “in January 1963 for Odeon”.
Portuguese Wikipedia ↗ gives the Brazilian side and dates the RELEASE, not the session: the Ribeiro (Odeon) and Tamba Trio (Philips) singles “foram lançados ao mesmo tempo em janeiro de 1963”. It also describes the song’s live run at the Au Bon Gourmet club in Rio.
The Instituto Moreira Salles discography ↗ dates Ribeiro’s session to 26 March 1963, with Lírio Panicalli’s string arrangement, issued by Odeon as the 78 rpm 14869-1 and on Pery é Todo Bossa. That is a week after the Getz/Gilberto session, which is why this page claims first RELEASE rather than first session. (The site blocks automated fetches; the details above were read from its indexed text.)
The song’s public première, on 2 August 1962 at the Au Bon Gourmet in Copacabana, was taped by the journalist Walter Silva. That tape — now in the Instituto Moreira Salles collection — is the earliest known recording of the song, but João Gilberto never authorised its release, so it has never been commercially issued.
The Getz/Gilberto entry ↗ dates the famous session to 18-19 March 1963 at A&R Recording Studios and the Verve release to March 1964 — both after Ribeiro’s record was already in Brazilian shops.
A MusicBrainz work entry ↗ ties every version to the same Jobim/de Moraes composition, and its Ribeiro recording carries a 1963 first release on Pery é todo bossa.
Garota de Ipanema on MusicBrainz — the composition and its recordingsKnow more about the original — or think we’ve got it wrong? Add a source →
Fact-check
Right song, wrong first record
The Getz/Gilberto single is one of the most-played recordings ever made, which is exactly why it gets mistaken for the beginning of the story rather than a chapter of it.
Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto, 1964
Recorded in New York on 18-19 March 1963 and released by Verve in March 1964. It reached number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won the 1965 Grammy for Record of the Year — but it was not the first recording.
Pery Ribeiro, 1963
The Brazilian singer made the first commercially released recording of “Garota de Ipanema”, for Odeon, and it appeared on his LP Pery é Todo Bossa. English Wikipedia dates the recording to 1962, its Pery Ribeiro article to January 1963 and the Instituto Moreira Salles discography to 26 March 1963; what nobody disputes is that his was the first version out on a record.
Antônio Carlos Jobim, Vinícius de Moraes and Norman Gimbel
Jobim wrote the music and de Moraes the Portuguese lyric, both in 1962. Norman Gimbel wrote the separate English lyric used on the Getz/Gilberto recording.
Tamba Trio
Portuguese-language sources record a Tamba Trio version issued on Philips at the same moment as Ribeiro’s in January 1963, the two labels releasing together to avoid a dispute.
Walter Silva’s Au Bon Gourmet tape
The song’s première at the Au Bon Gourmet in Rio on 2 August 1962 was taped by the journalist Walter Silva. It is the earliest known recording of the song and now sits in the Instituto Moreira Salles collection, but João Gilberto never authorised its release, so it was never commercially issued — which is why the first commercial recording is still Ribeiro’s.
Pery Ribeiro’s Odeon record was the first version of this song released to the public, in Brazil, in 1963. Getz and Gilberto made it famous with the Verve album released in March 1964.
Context
Why the cover swallowed the original
The interesting question is not why Getz and Gilberto had the hit — it is why the Brazilian original vanished so completely from the story. Part of the answer is that Pery Ribeiro’s record was a domestic Brazilian release on Odeon, sung in Portuguese, made for a Rio audience that already knew the song from the bossa nova circuit. It was never aimed at America and never travelled there.
The other part is that Getz/Gilberto arrived with everything the original lacked: an American label, a saxophone star, an English lyric written specifically for export, and a singer — Astrud Gilberto, at the microphone for the first time in her life — whose unpolished delivery turned out to be exactly the sound the record needed. A Grammy for Record of the Year does the rest. Once a song wins the biggest award in American music, the recording that won it becomes, in the popular mind, the recording that started it.
The chronology, step by step
- 1962 — Jobim writes the music and Vinícius de Moraes the Portuguese lyric.
- 2 August 1962 — the song is performed in public for the first time during the bossa nova run at the Au Bon Gourmet nightclub in Rio. The journalist Walter Silva tapes the show; that tape, the earliest known recording of the song, was never commercially released because João Gilberto did not authorise it, so the first commercial recording remains Ribeiro’s.
- 1963 — Pery Ribeiro cuts the first commercially released version, for Odeon. The session date is contested: English Wikipedia’s song article says 1962, its Pery Ribeiro article says January 1963, and the Instituto Moreira Salles discography says 26 March 1963.
- 1963 — the Ribeiro recording is issued in Brazil, on the Odeon 78 rpm 14869-1 and on his LP Pery é Todo Bossa. Portuguese-language sources date the single to January 1963 and note a near-simultaneous Brazilian release by Tamba Trio on Philips, timed to avoid a dispute between the labels.
- 18-19 March 1963 — Stan Getz, João Gilberto, Astrud Gilberto and Jobim record Getz/Gilberto at A&R Recording Studios in New York, produced by Creed Taylor, using Norman Gimbel’s English lyric.
- March 1964 — Verve releases Getz/Gilberto. The single edit reaches number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100.
- 1965 — “The Girl from Ipanema” wins the Grammy for Record of the Year, and the album wins Album of the Year.
Ribeiro got it onto a record first; Verve simply sang it louder, in English, to a bigger room.