A very happy birthday to the lovely Nancy Sinatra, who turns 83 today. I had almost forgotten that she did this song, but I remember Dad walking around and singing the chorus, not realizing the song was "Sugar Town" and not "Sugar Fly." Or maybe he did and just liked his words better. Anyway,the song reached #5 in the US and Canada (#1 on the Adult Contemporary chart in the US), #8 in the UK, and #14 in Australia in 1966. This is a performance on The Ed Sullivan Show from October 1966.

A happy 83rd birthday to singer Tom Jones! He had 19 Top 40 hits in the US and 36 in the UK, appeared in Las Vegas from 1967 thru 2011, and since 2012 has been a judge and coach on The Voice UK. He sang the theme song for the 1965 James Bond movie Thunderball. Here, he performs it on a 1965 episode of The Ed Sullivan Show. The song reached #25 in the US, #10 in Canada, and #35 in the UK.

I got the news this morning that Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto, who sang the hit song "The Girl From Ipanema," passed away yesterday at the age of 83.

In 1963, saxophonist Stan Getz was working on an album with Brazilian guitarist and singer João Gilberto and performer and songwriter Antônio Carlos Jobim, which became the 1964 album Getz/Gilberto. When they did "The Girl From Ipanema," Glberto suggested that his wife Astrud sing the English version of the song. While she knew English, she had never sung professionally, but she sang it anyway. (I had always heard that she didn’t know English and learned it phonetically. Shows what I know.) The song went on to reach #1 on the easy Listening chart and #5 on the Hot 100, ws a hit around the world, and earned the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1965.

Another song from that album that she sang was "Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars)."

Astrud Gilberto was a beautiful woman with a beautiful voice. Que ela descanse em paz.