Please help me find out the name of this song..

October 8, 2008 8:03 AM

i heard a song in a pret-a-manger in NYC. they are very secretive about the playlist. please help me find it! google is not turning up the right song. so i am asking and hoping that someone is familiar with this song.

there is a man singing in portuguese or spanish or a combination of the two, and the lyrics are OR they resemble:

"los besos del amor que te di" [SPANISH] OR
"os beijos do amor que" [PORTUGESE]

it is a slower song..it has a little bit of an old world feel to it!

i appreciate any help i can get!

(oh, btw it's on a muzak dvd (the kind that only plays in the special muzak player - if you know how to extract the playlist from a muzak dvd, that would help too!)

posted by alice ayres to media & arts (15 comments total)

Call them and ask:

Pret creates handmade natural food avoiding the obscure chemicals, additives and preservatives common to so much of the 'prepared' and 'fast' food on the market today.

Our office in New York is at 11 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036. Luckily for us, it's just opposite Bryant Park.

Phone us on 646 728 0505
posted by parmanparman at 8:43 AM on October 8, 2008

On the phone with Pret a Manger, Sasha there says that they will have a way of identifying songs in a month. Muzak makes the CDs, they are only labeled with dates but not song titles. She has the same problem and sometimes hangs around in the store seeing if she can pull out a line to google.
posted by parmanparman at 8:47 AM on October 8, 2008

hi parman,

lol - my SO works for pret, and is there the whole day. i know one option is to just wait it out, but muzak controls the way the cd is played. no two days are alike supposedly. we haven't heard the song in about 2 weeks now!

***crosses fingers that someone knows this song personally***
posted by alice ayres at 8:57 AM on October 8, 2008

A bit of a gamble, but I've heard/noticed Ricardo Arjona played more than once in a Pret.

Sadly, finding "besos del amor" in an Arjona song is like looking for "baby" in a Elvis song.
posted by rokusan at 9:08 AM on October 8, 2008

parman, thanks for calling!

rokusan, i will try to see if arjona's voice sounds the same as. unfortunately, no itunes until home.

and just to clarify: the song is definitely in portuguese, and maybe there is some spanish in it.
posted by alice ayres at 10:00 AM on October 8, 2008

Apparently, Arjona has some songs in portuguese. Here's a song in YouTube.
posted by clearlydemon at 10:28 AM on October 8, 2008

Another song. Google says this one was also translated to portuguese, and it has a verse that says: Os beijos / Oi amor implacável.
posted by clearlydemon at 10:34 AM on October 8, 2008

clearlydeamon, arjone's not my guy. i was hopeful. i really want to hear this song over and over on my iPod.
posted by alice ayres at 8:30 PM on October 8, 2008

You could try contacting Muzak directly, and perhaps they could put you in touch with the "Audio Architect" for that business (I swear, that's what they call them!).
posted by polyester.lumberjack at 12:58 AM on October 9, 2008

unfortunately, they do not give song details/playlists out. i did use the form, however, to let them know that in the spirit of capitalism, they should make the information available.
posted by alice ayres at 6:03 AM on October 9, 2008

I tried "beijos de amor" instead of "beijos do amor" and found a couple hits

Ivan Lins: Rio de Maio

(slow, male singer - a bit bossa and not so old-worldy, but kinda slow and muzaky)

Emilio e Mileni : Quanto você pode

(can't find a performance of this, but it has the lyric: "os beijos de amor que eu guardei pra você" - there's a midi music version clickable from this site. Sounds a bit poppy for what you are looking for.
posted by sagwalla at 5:06 AM on October 10, 2008

hi, sagwalla - thank you so much for those links. neither was the song, though. and, to boot, we all still have not heard the song. i am longing to hear the song again either to positively identify or just get some more clues/lyrics/etc.
posted by alice ayres at 12:23 PM on October 13, 2008

another clue/thing that i remembered.

the guy says something "o yo yo yo" and then "si" at one point in the song.
posted by alice ayres at 6:56 AM on October 15, 2008

ok, i think (!) i found the song.

the song is called 'linda flor (ai yo yo)," a popular bossa nova/samba song that has several renditions/versions. iTunes alone had, like, 20 different versions. only one was very similar to the song. the difference being a woman is singing this version, and she doesn't sing the part with "os beijos de amor que te dei." instead, there is a very long instrumental.

i know i have asked before - is anyone familiar with the song 'linda flor' in order to point me to the correct version of this song?
posted by alice ayres at 7:11 AM on October 16, 2008

i found it! it's by maria bethania y alcione, and it's titled "linda flor (ai yoyo)."
posted by alice ayres at 7:49 AM on October 31, 2008