Bossa Nova
The 8 Best Bossa Nova
Tracks of All Time
Samba reduced almost to nothing in the beach apartments of Rio at the end of the fifties: a whispered vocal, a guitar playing a rhythm that implies the percussion rather than stating it, and jazz harmony underneath.
- Origin
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1958
- Tempo
- 110–140 BPM
- Also known as
- bossa, new wave, joão gilberto
- Tracks
- 8
- Updated
- 2026-08-30
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Number 1: João Gilberto / Chega de Saudade
1958 · Odeon
The record everyone agrees started it. Gilberto's guitar and voice sit so far back in the mix that the engineers thought something was wrong, and Brazilian music changed in two and a half minutes.
Number 2: Antônio Carlos Jobim / Garota de Ipanema
1962
Written at a bar table about a girl walking to the beach, and now perhaps the second most recorded song in existence. Familiarity has not damaged the harmony.
Number 3: João Gilberto / Desafinado
1959 · Odeon
A song about singing out of tune, which is a defence of the whole style against the critics who said exactly that. Jobim's joke, delivered deadpan.
Number 4: Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz / Corcovado
1963 · Verve
Astrud had never recorded before and was in the studio because she was married to João. The unschooled flatness of her delivery is exactly what the song needed.
Number 5: Antônio Carlos Jobim / Insensatez
1961
A descending line borrowed from Chopin, and the most desolate thing Jobim wrote. Vinicius de Moraes's lyric accuses the listener directly.
Number 6: Elis Regina and Antônio Carlos Jobim / Águas de Março
1974 · Philips
A list of objects — a stick, a stone, the end of the road — and the two of them audibly delighted with each other. Frequently voted the best Brazilian song ever written.
Number 7: João Gilberto / Samba de Uma Nota Só
1960 · Odeon
One note, held while the chords move underneath it. Jobim demonstrating that the harmony was always doing the work, and doing it as a pop single.
Number 8: Baden Powell / Berimbau
1963
Bossa turning back towards Bahia and capoeira rather than towards jazz. Powell's guitar is percussive in a way Gilberto's deliberately is not.