Perhaps one of the hippest
sambas ever recorded, has apeared on hundreds of albums, and is most notably recorded by
Sergio Mendes with Brasil '66. This has been recently used in a car commercial and was on the original
Austin Powers sound track.
The title translates as "
More than nothing," which actually means "
More than Anything." After several attempts to translate it, I turned to
Taschenrechner, who was able to get it out of
Portugeuse for me.
O ariá raiô
Obá Obá Obá
Mais que nada
Sai da minha frente
Eu quero passar
Pois o samba está animado
O que eu quero é sambar
Este samba
Que é misto de maracatu
É samba de preto velho
Samba de preto tu
Mais que nada
Um samba como esse tão legal
Você não vai querer
Que eu chegue no final
And here's the English version. I've left them in Portugeuese at Taschenrechner's behest, becuase as he said: "They're the Portuguese equivalent of the Spanish "arriba" and "epa." It's just sorta like "Hey!" and "Get up!", that kind of thing. I think it's cool just to leave them the way they are, really, as making them into English makes it sound like hip hop."
O ariá raiô
Obá Obá Obá
More than anything,
Happening right in front of me.
I want to leave,
But the samba is so soulful.
I just want to dance the samba.
This samba
It's a mixture of maracatu
It's an old black samba
It's your black samba
More than anything
A Samba like this, so smooth
You're not going to want me
To ever reach the end.