Brasil '65

BRASIL ’65

Sérgio Mendes (born February 11, 1941) is a Brazilian musician. He has over 55 releases, and plays bossa nova heavily crossed with jazz and funk. Mendes formed the Sexteto Bossa Rio and recorded Dance Moderno in 1961. Mendes moved to the U.S. in 1964 and cut two albums under the Sergio Mendes & Brasil '65 group name with Capitol Records and Atlantic Records. (More from Wikipedia)

Four of the five songs on Side 1 of the Queen Anne’s Lace album are covers, and familiar ones at that: “The Fool on the Hill” opens the album and is a fine if spare rendition of the Beatles song that was almost lost among the torrent of creativity that was the Magical Mystery Tour album of 1967 – besides the songs from the ill-fated Beatles TV movie of the same name, Magical Mystery Tour, some of the band’s best singles were also included: “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Hello Goodbye”, "All You Need is Love", and others. It probably would have had a shot at being a successful single, except that “The Fool on the Hill” had already been a Top 5 hit in 1968 for Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66 (a self-defeating band name that had already been renamed once from Brasil ’65).

(August 2010)