"Desafinado" (song)

Composed by Jobim with lyrics by Newton Mendonça, "Desafinado" — literally "out of tune" — is bossa nova's playful self-defense, answering critics who called the new style flat and tuneless. Its melody deliberately wanders through difficult intervals while the lyric pleads for a music of feeling over perfect pitch. An instrumental version by Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd later became a US hit, helping ignite the bossa nova craze abroad.