The Very Best of Sergio Mendes & Brazil 66

1. Cover versions of pop standards so annoyingly familiar you never want to hear the originals again. Mendes takes songs by the likes of the Beatles, Bacharach, Jimmy Webb and Simon & Garfunkel, re-arranges and re-imagines them in a samba mode, convincing you that they were originally written in Brazil after all. 'The Fool On The Hill' nearly collapses under its visionary excess; 'Day Tripper' becomes alive through slick jazz rhythms; 'What The World Needs Now' throttles at a frightening pace; 'Cheslea Morning' and 'Night and Day' exude sunny Rio rays; 'Norwegian Wood' brings out the yo-yo intensity buried in the original.

2. Arrangements of bossa nova classics by Mendes' old jamming cohorts. These are less radical than the above, and the attempts by anonymous, if proficient, session singers to replicate the idiosyncratic Astrud/Joao vibe don't always work; but the subtle reworkings offer new takes on old favourites - 'Bim Bom' is especially definitive, Mendes mining the wistfulness in the most frivolous of songs, sensing the music's soul in the piano. 'One Note Samba', which segues here into 'Spanish Fly', shouln't work, and doesn't, but is invigorating nonetheless.

3. Less familiar covers and original songs (written by Mendes and friends), which rarely equal the emotional depth of Jobim or Bonfa, but offer groovy bliss, warm generosity, bouyant fun and reflective sorrow in equal measures. 'Sometimes In Winter' is a pretentious epic with the most glorious melodic bridge; 'Pretty World' is one of the few songs that knows what being rapturously in love actually sounds like; 'Cancao Do Nosso Amor' and 'Pradizer Adeus' know the same despondancy that provoked Jobim's 'Insensatez'.

This division is, of course, arbitrary and artificial - unique production, settings and instrumentation mean each and every song sounds like a Mendes original. Cosmo Kramer was right - some people can still go wild for Sergio Mendes.