“Desafinado” was originally composed as a response to critics who claimed that the bossa nova genre was created for singers who cannot sing. The song has multiple English-language adaptations.
Jon Hendricks, along with
The Richmond Organisation (credited under the pseudonym “Jessie Cavanaugh”), created lyrics that employ consonance to reframe the concept as a love song about lovers who have fallen “slightly out of tune.” These Hendricks lyrics were notably recorded by
Ella Fitzgerald on her
1962 single and by
Perry Como on his 1963 album,
The Songs I Love. A separate English adaptation, written by
Gene Lees and more closely aligned with the original Portuguese lyric (though not a direct translation), appears on select recordings. ==Chart performance==