Long before it became a trend, Gil was releasing singles

If in the 1960s and 1970s, we had an idea of how the musical business would work around 2020, we thought it would be possible to say that names such as Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Roberto Carlos, and Elis Regina were artists “ahead of their times.”

After all, nowadays, the single (the good and old “single compact”) and the EP (once called “double compact”) have become the go-to format for artists to release new material. In the picture, Gil and Lulu Santos in studio to record a single, in 1997.

In addition, a good deal of the history of Brazilian music can be told through the compacts—some of them selling far more than LPs or bringing songs that were only released in records within compilation albums.

In Gilberto Gil’s case, his career had begun precisely with small A/B-side albums, released by the Bahia label JS Discos. Back in the 78 rpm (revolutions per minute) era, in 1962 the record label owned by producer Jorge Santos supplied the Salvador stores with a compact:

The A-side had “Vem colombina” and the B-side had “Decisão” (back then printed on the vinyl as “face A” and “face B.) After that, Gil, Caetano, Gal Costa (or Maria da Graça, as she was then called), and Maria Bethânia signed with multinational RCA and recorded compacts.

Released in 1965, Gil’s compact had songs that he would later record at Philips record label, “Roda” and “Procissão.”

Following that, further successful singles would come, amongst them “Domingo no parque” (having “Mancada” in the B side), in 1967.

And the single “Aquele abraço” (with “Omã Iaô[CF1] in” the B-side), in 1969.

These connect with Gilberto Gil’s most well-known compacts, of which we will talk in this text.

As would be discovered from the releasing of the albums box set and relics “Ensaio geral” (produced by Marcelo Fróes in 1998), this phase of singles in Gil’s life comprehend many songs that became rarities.

Released in 1966, the year before his first LP, “Louvação,” the single presenting “Ensaio geral” also featured “Minha senhora,” a song by a friend, Tom Zé.

In 1968, “Barca grande” would be in the B-side of the single “Pega a voga, cabeludo.”

And a compact would still be released with two songs that were not to be featured in any album at that moment: in the A-side, “Questão de ordem,” performed by Gil at the III International Song Festival and recorded by him with the Argentinian band Beat Boys.

In the B-side, “A luta contra a lata ou a falência do café,” featuring Os Mutantes. These songs would only be recovered as bonus tracks of Gil’s albums in the box set produced by Fróes.

It was from this same album box set that audiences first heard of a never released full album, the double “Cidade do Salvador,” which could have been released in 1973.

Some of these tracks, however, were made public in compact format, while the double LP was set aside.

Amongst them were “Meio de campo” and “Só quero um xodó (a partnership between Anastácia and Dominguinhos), combined in a successful single in 1973.

And “Maracatu atômico” (by Jorge Mautner and Nelson Jacobina) and “Preciso aprender a só ser,” released in a very popular compact in 1974.

Or “Todo dia é dia D”, a partership between Torquato Neto and Carlos Pinto, recorded in a single enclosed in the book “Os últimos dias de Paupéria” [The last days of Paupéria], by poet, songwriter and writer from Piauí, who composed songs with Gil and Caetano Veloso.

This compact from 1973 had in its B-side another partnership between Torquato and Carlos, “Três da madrugada,” but recorded by Gal Costa.

Further Gil singles from those days would be rescued to Satisfação – Raras e Inéditas, another CD from the box set Ensaio geral: the laid-back “Ninguém segura este país” (A-side) and “Satisfação” (B-side), released in 1976.

A Carnaval single released in 1974, featuring “Está na cara, está na cura” (A-side) and “Vamos passear no astral” (B-side) resurfaced as a bonus of the CD version of Expresso 2222 album.

In addition, the box set would also have a special single, featuring “O rouxinol” (a partnership with Jorge Mautner) on one side and “Que besteira” (with João Donato) on the other, both recorded live. Gil’s repertoire would keep unfolding into compacts along further phases.

In 1977 it was the time for “Sítio do Pica-Pau Amarelo,” along with “A gaivota” on the B-side, turn into a single.

“Não chore mais,” a Brazilian version of “No woman, no cry,” from Bob Marley’s repertoire, was released in a compact and had in its B-side “Macapá”, a song that only years later would be brought back as bonus track in the CD of the LP Realce.

As for the Quilombo movie soundtrack, directed by Cacá Diegues, in Brazil it was reduced to a compact produced by Liminha and released by WEA, “Quilombo, o Eldorado negro” and “Zumbi, a felicidade guerreira.”

In 1998, “Balé da bola,” composed by him for the France World Cup, was released in a compact enclosed in the O Globo newspaper.

The release of a Gil’s compilation album by the French Warner in 1998 encouraged even the old success “Toda menina baiana” to be released as a one-track CD.

And 2006 was the year of releasing of yet another single related to the World Cup, “Balé de Berlim,” featuring Zeca Pagodinho.

In the end, it’s just a few minutes of Gil, in smaller albums, yet they have always been valuable for the singer to show novelties. And, a long time afterwards, they have become collectible items for the fans.