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Sergio Mendes music biography continued...

Brazil, Mendes studied music at a conservatory and harbored hopes of becoming a classical pianist. In the late 1950s, Mendes relocated to Rio de Janeiro, where in 1960 he formed the Hot Trio, a group that played at a local club. In 1962 the Hot Trio evolved into the Sexteto Bossa Rio, which toured Europe and America and recorded two albums for Atlantic Records. In 1964 Mendes moved to Los Angeles with a new band. A year later, he would record his breakthrough album, Look Around, which blended Brazilian music with covers of English-language pop from the likes of the Beatles and Burt Bacharach. The album went gold and the single "The Look of Love" was nominated for an Academy Award. With a new band christened Brazil 66, Mendes left Capitol to sign with trumpeter Herb Alpert and partner Jerry Moss's new label A&M in 1966. Their debut A&M album featured the hit single "Mais que nada." Sung in Portuguese, it went gold the following year. The group broke into the top 40 with three singles from the follow-up gold album Equinox, "Night and Day," "Constant Rain (Chove chuva)," and "For Me." The next release, Fool on the Hill, also went gold. Mendes cemented the group's renown with frequent television appearances and a concert tour with Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and the Baja Marimba Band, where critics hailed the band for its "rhythmic complexity, high production values, and intriguing vocals."



In 1969 Brazil '66 released Crystal Illusions, which included cover versions of the Otis Redding and Steve Cropper composition "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay" and the single "Pretty World." The group's other 1969 release, Ye-Me-Le, included a cover of the Jimmy Webb song that became a major hit for Glen Campbell, "Wichita Lineman." The band's most commercially successful period came to an end with the 1971 album Stillness. After this, Mendes tried reforming bands and also going solo with occasional successes like 1983's "Never Going to Let You Go." Today, Mendes continues to record and perform with some of the industry's top artists, proving that great music never goes out of style.