THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,011) Renato E Seus Blue Caps — “Sem Suzana”/“Without Suzana”
This Brazilian “Young Guard” group specializing in Portuguese versions of Beatles songs gives us an utterly gorgeous and magical original ballad that John and Paul could have proudly called their own.
Yet, “Renato said in an interview with Lucinha Zanetti that he couldn’t stand this song…..and he didn’t know why he did it…..hahaha…..a musician thing.” (antoniothomeneto4366, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1c_hlHie1I)
Slipcue.com tells us that:
Renato e Seus Blue Caps were one of the best, and longest-lived, of the Jovem Guarda* teen-oriented Brazilian rock bands which flourished in the early 1960s. Swiping their band name from Gene Vincent’s original ’50s outfit, Renato Barros and his “Blue Caps” covered everything from surfbeat instrumental to Beatles-y pop, with plenty of cover tunes throughout, but also a notable amount of good original material. Renato and Co. were several notches above the average Brazilian teenybopper band — they were certainly not as wimpy as most, and could hit a blue-eyed soul groove roughly equivalent to that of the Spencer Davis Band.
https://www.slipcue.com/music/brazil/renato.html
Alvaro Neder adds:
One of the most important groups of the Jovem Guarda, Renato e Seus Blue Caps was formed to play in parties of the Piedade borough in Rio de Janeiro. In that period, the market for youth music was just being incepted and they were in the right place at the right time. Soon they were performing at the Rádio Mayrink Veiga. With their increased popularity, the group was invited by Carlos Imperial, who presented the program Os Brotos Comandam at TV Rio. Their first single, “Vera Lúcia” . . . was recorded in 1962 and became their first hit. The first LP came in 1965 . . . and featured another hit, “Menina Linda” ([a] version . . . of “I Should Have Known Better” by Lennon/McCartney). They also performed several times in the Jovem Guarda TV show . . . . Their other hits were “Até o Fim” ([a] version . . . of “You Won’t See Me” by Lennon/McCartney) and “Escândalo” ([a] version . . . of “Shame and Scandal in the Family” by Donaldson/Brown). After the end of the Jovem Guarda, they continued to perform in club dances around Brazil.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/renato-e-seus-blue-caps-mn0000895532#biography
Discogs goes deep
The “embryo” . . . are the three brothers of the family Barros, Renato, Paulo Cezar and Edson (Ed Wilson). In the late ’50s, influenced by the musical tastes of the family, and the Rock’n Roll Elvis, Little Richard and Bill Haley, the boys began to imagine that they could participate in radio programs, mimicking the song hits, something that was quite common at that time. . . . [They first] adopted the name “Rock Bacaninhas of Mercy,” an allusion to the neighborhood in which they were created, in Rio de Janeiro. . . . After participation in a program Chacrinha on TV Tupi, [they were] hired by the Copacabana, where they released two 78s and two LPs in 1962 (Twist) and 1963 . . . . [In] 62, Ed Wilson left for a solo career, and Erasmo Carlos, then secretary of Carlos Imperial, assumes the [role of] crooner . . . . [They were] known in Rio de Janeiro, due to frequent appearances on TV and radio . . . . In early 1965 . . . [they release a] Portuguese version [of] “I Should [Have K]nown [B]etter”[ by] the Beatles, which was called “Beautiful Girl”. Presented in the program Carlos Imperial, Rio on TV, the music . . . . enters the charts . . . . The year 1965 was a milestone for the band’s career. The success – unexpected – is steadily increasing . . . . [T]he LP “This is Renato and His Blue Caps” achieves excellent selling and give greater impetus to the popularity of the group. The band specializes in versions of Beatles songs and other international artists, but also develops his own style of interpretation and composition. Many versions [by] Renato were more successful here in Brazil than the original English. Also arise tours abroad, and the band reaches the height of its popularity at the end of 66, with the release of the LP “A rocking with Renato and His Blue Caps,” the [band’s] most successful and best-selling career . . . . Between 1965 and 1969, [they] released six LPs, all achieving high performance on the radio and selling.
https://www.discogs.com/artist/1568206-Renato-E-Seus-Blue-Caps
The band was still performing when Renato died in 2020.
* Wikipedia says that this “was primarily a Brazilian musical television show first aired . . . in 1965, although the term soon expanded to designate the entire movement and style surrounding it. The members of the program were singers who had been influenced by the American rock n’ roll of the late 1950s and British Invasion bands of the 1960s, although the music often became softer, more naïve versions with light, romantic lyrics aimed at teenagers.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jovem_Guarda)
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