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From album
Getz / Gilberto
Stan Getz · 1964 · Track 4
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The story behind
The first time you hear Desafinado in the version by Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd, what strikes you most is that playful air the piece has, as if the music were challenging your ear to follow it without losing the beat. It’s not just the relaxed rhythm of bossa nova, but that subtle blend between jazz and samba that sounds so natural it’s hard to believe it was once criticized for being “out of tune.” The song was born as an ironic response to those who claimed Bossa Nova sounded as if its performers couldn’t sing in tune, and it ended up becoming an anthem that defined a style. Its title, which in Portuguese plays with the idea of being “out of tune,” became so recognizable that even today many identify it by that name, though in English it was rebaptized as Slightly Out of Tune or Off Key to adapt it to other audiences.
Recorded in 1962 for the album Jazz Samba, this version sneaked into the Billboard charts as an unexpected phenomenon: it reached number 15 on the pop chart and number 4 on the easy listening chart, something rare for a jazz album at the time. The track also crossed the Atlantic and settled at number 11 in the United Kingdom, proving that the fusion Getz and Byrd proposed had appeal beyond the borders of the United States. But the most important recognition came in 1963, when Getz won the Grammy for “Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Small Group” for this very version. Later, in 1965, the album Getz/Gilberto —which included an instrumental version of Desafinado— would make history by winning the Grammy for Album of the Year, becoming the first jazz record to achieve it. Even decades later, in 2001, the song was inducted into the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame, cementing its place as a classic that transcended generations.