This song was written several years ago during my college days. At the time, I thought it would be fun to create a song in a Bossa Nova style. Probably the most famous song in this style is The Girl From Ipanema, which was made popular in 1964 by Astrud Gilberto & Stan Getz.

Over the years, the song has a developed a reputation for being sort of the default for cheesy elevator music. So I decieded to give myself a little liberty and try some ideas in the mix that are sort of considered cheesy.

First, I started with my old keyboard on the “bossa nova beat” setting. Super cheesy. The sound of the drum machine by itself was lacking so I added some real percussion to fill out the sound and give it a little groove: a wood scrapper block, some maracas and a jembe.

To fit the jazzy, bossa nova sound, the guitar tone is much warmer and bassy then I normally would play.

Next, I added a cheesy organ sound to tie it back to the elevator music sound.

The ending has a series of “ohs” for the harmonies. With each time the phrase a repeated, a new layer of harmonies is added so that by the end there are 10 voices singing.

This song was a lot of fun to put together. It’s a style I’d never really done before so it was an interesting challenge to try something new.

Lyrics:
I can’t celebrate when I know that your heart aches,
But we can turn it around,
I know that it’s late but there’s no time to debate,
Cause every minute counts.

Thinking of you like I do every year,
Just lounging around wishing that you were near,
So many obstacles stand in our way,
Just wishing that you would stay.

The promise that we made I am never gonna break,
When you are out of town,
I’m picturing a scene staring you right next to me,
And we are lounging around.

Thinking of you like I do every year,
Just lounging around wishing that you were near,
So many obstacles stand in our way,
Just wishing that you would stay.

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