Uploaded September 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
Norman Gimbel and Antônio Carlos (Tom) Jobim were both 35 when they met after the landmark bossa nova concert at Carnegie Hall in November of 1962. Gimbel was a self-taught songwriter from Brooklyn who already had a successful career writing hits for Broadway musicals. Jobim, who grew up in Ipanema, was well-known in Brazil for his collaborations with the poet Vinicius de Moraes (the team had produced “No More Blues,” Black Orpheus, and “The Girl from Ipanema," along with the original 1961 version of “How Insensitive,” sung by João Gilberto, another titan of Brazilian music). Gimbel got straight to work on English lyrics for a selection of songs written by Jobim, (known as the father of bossa nova), and other young Brazilians in NYC at the time. A few months later Peggy Lee was in the Capitol studios at Hollywood and Vine making one of the first recordings in English of this new wave of Brazilian music. “How Insensitive” appears on "In Love Again," released September, 1964.
Norman Gimbel and Antônio Carlos (Tom) Jobim were both 35 when they met after the landmark bossa nova concert at Carnegie Hall in November of 1962. Gimbel was a self-taught songwriter from Brooklyn who already had a successful career writing hits for Broadway musicals. Jobim, who grew up in Ipanema, was well-known in Brazil for his collaborations with the poet Vinicius de Moraes (the team had produced “No More Blues,” Black Orpheus, and “The Girl from Ipanema," along with the original 1961 version of “How Insensitive,” sung by João Gilberto, another titan of Brazilian music). Gimbel got straight to work on English lyrics for a selection of songs written by Jobim, (known as the father of bossa nova), and other young Brazilians in NYC at the time. A few months later Peggy Lee was in the Capitol studios at Hollywood and Vine making one of the first recordings in English of this new wave of Brazilian music. “How Insensitive” appears on "In Love Again," released September, 1964.
