How Insensitive
PROFILE | |
Composer | Antonio Carlos Jobim |
Lyricist (in Portuguese) | Vinicius de Moraes |
Lyricist (in English) | Norman Gimbel |
Year Written | 1963 |
About How Insensitive | |
Written in 1963, Jobim based this composition on Chopin’s “Prelude No. 4.” This song has been widely recorded, including a very fine early recording with Jobim and Stan Getz for their 1963 album Jazz Samba Encore, Astrud Gilberto and João Gilberto recording. |
Lyrics
How Insensitive
I must have seemed
When she told me that she loved me
How unmoved and cold
I must have seemed
When she told me so sincerely
“Why,” she must have asked,
Did I just turn and stare in icy silence?
What was I to say?
What can you say when a love affair is over?
Now she’s gone away
And I’m alone with the memory of her last look
Vague and drawn and sad
I see it still
All her heartbreak in that last look
“How,” she must have asked,
Could I just turn and stare in icy silence?
What was I to do?
What can one do when a love affair is over?
Session / Album Information
1965
“How Insensitive” was recorded on February 18, 1965 and released in 1965 on the album If I Ruled the World: Songs for the Jet Set. It was arranged by Don Costa.
This recording released on:
- 1965: CL 2343 — If I Ruled The World (Songs For The Jet Set)
- 1965: CS 9143 — If I Ruled The World (Songs For The Jet Set)
- 1965: Columbia 45: 4-43331
- 1969: CBS LP 12″: 63612 — Greatest Hits, Volume II (UK)
- 1969: Columbia LP 12″: CS 9814 — Tony Bennett’s Greatest Hits, Vol. IV
- 1974: Embassy LP 12″: EMB 31058 — If I Ruled the World [UK]
- 1997: CK 65317 — If I Ruled The World (Songs For The Jet Set)
- 2011: Disc #31 in The Tony Bennett Complete Collection (88697874602-JK30) If I Ruled The World: Songs for the Jet Set