Walter Wanderley

Brazilian organist Walter Wanderley helped popularize bossa nova music in the U.S. with songs like "Summer Samba (So Nice)," which became a Top 40 hit in 1966. Born in Recife, Brazil, on May 12, 1932, he collaborated with João Gilberto, Marcos Valle, and other Brazil-based artists during the early 1960s. Encouraged by Tony Bennett to move to America, Wanderley landed a deal with the jazz label Verve Records and released his U.S. debut, Rain Forest, in 1966. The album's fusion of bossa nova, lounge music, and easy listening was a hit with American audiences, and "Summer Samba (So Nice)" peaked at Number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 that summer. While Rain Forest climbed its way toward platinum status, Wanderley teamed up with Astud Gilberto — whose hit recording of "The Girl from Ipanema" had earned a Grammy Award in 1965 — for the collaborative album A Certain Smile, a Certain Sadness, which was released in September 1966. Wanderley continued recording albums at a rapid pace during the decade's final years, but struggled with alcoholism during the 1970s and '80s. He passed away in San Francisco on September 4, 1986.

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