I hadn’t thought about this song for a long, long time, and then heard it as part of a set by a wonderful guitarist and vocalist on our December cruise. She was from Colombia, and had an wide range of Spanish language songs, as well as other Latin music, and some American pop music classics. She and I struck up an unlikely friendship, and she’d come sit with me on her breaks and we’d share our life stories.

The first version of Waters of March that I heard was from Art Garfunkel on his wonderful album Breakaway. I fell in love with it right away:

If you’re familiar with the Portuguese lyrics (and you speak Portuguese), you’ll see that they are 2 different songs. This is deliberate:  Antônio Carlos Jobim wrote English lyrics that omitted the parts of Brazilian culture that would be unfamiliar to non-Brazilian audiences, and since March is a winter month in the northern hemisphere, the English lyrics reflect a cold rain, instead of the warm end-of-summer rainy season in Brazil.

The rain provides more than just the title for the song as the shape of the music itself mimics the rain falling, rolling off roofs, running in gutters, and whatever else you can imagine falling rain would sound like in a song.

The definitive version of the song is by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Ellis Regina:

Isn’t that wonderful?

Joao Gilberto recorded it in the 1970s:

The next time I came across Waters of March was on the João Gilberto/Stan Getz collaboration Getz/Gilberto:  The Best of Two Worlds. I have no idea how I ended up with this album, tbh. (This post is quite a walk down Memory Lane for me, huh?) Here it is:

That’s Heloisa Buarque de Hollanda, Gilberto’s then-wife on vocals.

Yesterday I promised you more Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66, and I am a woman of my word:

It’s SO 1970s, it has to be in this list. And that’s Jobim on guitar.

How about a slightly funked up version from David Byrne and Marisa Monte?:

Here’s a recent version from South Korean singer Sogumm:

I like the spareness and the feeling of space in the room.

Here’s a version from my favorite member of Chicago, Robert Lamm:

Here’s a choral setting for SATB:

I don’t care for it.

Here’s a jazzy version with Al Jarreau and Oleta Adams:

If Oleta Adams’ voice seems familiar to you, it could be because she sang backup for Tears For Fears. I was lucky enough to see her with the band and she is amazing. Her eponymous debut album is stellar.

I’ll close with this great live version by Bossacucanova, a hybrid electronica/traditional bossa nova band. I like it. Enjoy your weekend!