"Chega de Saudade", also known as "No More Blues", is a bossa nova song. It is often considered the first bossa nova song to have been recorded. "Chega de Saudade" and "The Girl from Ipanema" were both composed by Antônio Carlos Jobim with lyrics by Vinícius de Moraes.

Overview

The song was first recorded in 1957 by Brazilian singer Elizete Cardoso and released on her 1958 album Canção do Amor Demais. However, her release of the song received little attention. João Gilberto made the second recorded version of the song, also in 1958. Released as a single, Gilberto's version became a hit and consolidated bossa nova as a permanent genre in the Latin music lexicon. In addition to its release as a single, the song also appeared on Gilberto's first album, Chega de Saudade. The title can be translated roughly as "enough longing", though the Portuguese word saudade carries a more complex meaning than "longing". The word implies an intensity of heartfelt connection that is yearned for passionately, not unlike feeling withdrawal symptoms from a drug that makes one feel good. Another good analogy for saudade might be an intense homesickness. Chega de, in this case, means "enough of, no more of", and has an implication similar to the colloquial expressions "enough with ..." or "enough already". The song's form is 68 measures long; 32 measures in a minor key are followed by 36 measures in the parallel major key. (Cardoso's recording, for example, begins in D minor and moves to D major.)

Covers and versions

Recognition

The song was voted by the Brazilian edition of Rolling Stone as the 6th greatest Brazilian song.