Elizete Cardoso

How did bossa nova start? With a depressed Joao Gilberto locked in a bathroom, teaching himself to sing and strum as softly as possible; with Vinicius de Moraes penning a series of poems; with Tom Jobim setting the poems to music and inviting Elizete Cardoso to record them. The result was 1958's Cancao do Amor Demais. The world heard Gilberto's hiccuping guitar for the first time on "Chega da Saudade," and bossa nova was born. While Cardoso's singing is more dramatic than the preternatural cool that would soon become bossa nova's hallmark, this album remains a cultural landmark.