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Well, well, well... if it isn't one of my all-time favorite albums appearing on this #1001Albums list (and I'm still in 1963). I think that I first heard "The Girl from Ipanema" sometime in high school, and then I bought the "Nova Bossa: Red Hot On Verve" compilation with plenty of appearances by Getz and Gilberto, until I finally settled on this Getz/Gilberto release (my other all-time favorite is Giblerto's "Amoroso", but that's a 1977 release). Without a doubt, and equally lauded by many critics, this fusion of American and Brazilian jazz, with Stan Getz on the saxophone and João Gilberto on the guitar, is more than representative of the genre. Here, besides the silky musings of Gilberto on the pieces by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, we also hear the appearance by Astrud Gilberto, who... as the fun story is told, was the then wife of João, and arrived to US to accompany him on the recording sessions for this album. She wasn't even meant to be singing here, ladies and gentlemen, but Stan loved her voice so much, he has talked her husband to perform on the album (against his wishes, may I add). What an amazing story. Oh, then she divorced João and married Stan, who in turn quit Bossa Nova, and, hey, whatever... another femme fatale to add to my collection. So "Getz/Gilberto" and "Jazz Samba" are both top hits, and I'm curious if and how Jobim has benefited from this massive popularity in the US.