Brasil 66 - Canto de Ossanha [Let Go]?
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No -- it was recorded by the Sandpipers, also on A&M.
Brasil_66_Fan
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Regarding the Sandpipers' version, the backround vocals, percussion, drums & piano sure sound like Brasil '66 to me. Joao Palma's drumming style is so distinctive that I'd bet on it, and the harmonies of the girls.....
Brasil_66_Fan said:
This might be why I loved the song so much when I heard it on the radio at age 12. It wasn't until years later that I figured out that so much of the music I liked was Brazilian. I just knew I liked it. And I wasn't a big Sandpipers fan.
Harry said:
Thanks for the link, Harry! I don't think I've actually heard the record since '68!
I'm with Brasil_66_Fan on the drumming. I think the girls aren't Lani and Karen, but soundalikes.
The arrangement and the rest of the instrumentation sounds about right. Could Sergio have gotten a backing track down, decided to pass, and the Sandpipers have simply recorded lead and female backing vocals?
I've never owned a copy of The Wonder Of You album...are there liner notes that might shed some light?
Billboard magazine's spotlight review of the LP (May 3, 1969 via Google Books) says Allen Stanton produced and Nick DeCaro did the arrangements.
Stanton produced for Johnny Cymbal, The Byrds, Ruby and The Romantics, Doris Day and others. He's credited as producing several Sandpiper LPs, as well as A&M albums for Jimmie Rodgers, the Baja Marimba Band and the "Signs Of The Zodiac" series.
DeCaro, of course, was himself an A&M artist.
And if it feels like we've been here before, we have...almost exactly eight years ago:
http://www.amcorner.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=525&sid=9cc01e2373c0e458db5d5683755863e4
http://www.amcorner.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=525&sid=9cc01e2373c0e458db5d5683755863e4
I haven't heard the song in quite a while but, listening right now, I think it could be some Brasil '66 people playing on there. The drumming definitely sounds like early B'66 and some of the other percussion sounds just like what's on the fast parts of the song "Festa" from FOOL ON THE HILL.
But, it could just as easily be good session musicians too.
I don't think it's Lani or Janis or Karen on background vocals though. Those voices sound different to me.
Could this song have been recorded during the time when Sergio had "Let Go" his old band? Maybe they were all free agents at the time and played some A&M studio sessions.
Interesting to speculate at least. Heck, we had Renee Armand stop by here -- maybe someday one of the Sandpipers will drop in and we can ask him.
But, it could just as easily be good session musicians too.
I don't think it's Lani or Janis or Karen on background vocals though. Those voices sound different to me.
Could this song have been recorded during the time when Sergio had "Let Go" his old band? Maybe they were all free agents at the time and played some A&M studio sessions.
Interesting to speculate at least. Heck, we had Renee Armand stop by here -- maybe someday one of the Sandpipers will drop in and we can ask him.
Mike Blakesley said:
The single came out in late October of 1968...so Sergio had made the changes.
Listening to it again just now (for only the second time in 42 years), it strikes me that I would have liked it even better as a Sergio record...I think it would have benefitted from a cooler vocal treatment by Lani and Karen. At a couple of points, this one sounds like it's trying a little too hard. The flutes get a little shrill near the end, too.
I am surprised at the resistance to this record at the time. I only heard it two or three times on KMPC in Los Angeles, but assumed most MOR stations around the country were playing it.
Maybe not, though. Going through the back issues of Billboard on Google Books, it took two weeks from its release and review in Billboard to enter the Adult Contemporary chart...at #39, where it sat for two weeks before going to #38 and then to #36. It fell back to #38 the following week, and that was that.
And it's not like the competition was especially tough...but Paul Mauriat's theme from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", a Maurice Chevalier/Jimmy Durante single and Nick DeCaro's own single all blew past "Let Go".
Even though I now think Sergio could have done it better (with either Brasil '66 or Bossa Rio), at the time, I'm sure everyone at A&M (at least the ones still pursuing adult contemporary airplay and sales) thought it had "hit" written all over. The surprise and disappointment must have been huge.
Oddly enough, I tried to figure out why I recognized this song - then I remembered that I had PBS on recently and they had a show in tribute to, of all things, Mitzi Gaynor and her TV variety specials. The number I saw, with glitter and big band and over-the-top faux-Fosse dancing boys and everything, was...."Let Go"! It's on youtube - extremely wacky...
CherryStreet
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And oddly enough Mitzi Gaynor was at the Society of Singers Tribute to Lani & Herb at the Beverly Hills Hilton as you well know! 
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