"Once I Loved" is a bossa nova and jazz standard with music by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by Vinícius de Moraes, written in 1960 under the original title "O Amor Em Paz". Ray Gilbert wrote the English lyrics. Agostinho dos Santos made the first recording in 1960, João Gilberto recorded it for his self-titled Odeon album, and Jobim himself recorded an instrumental version in 1963 on his debut album. The English-language original recording is Astrud Gilberto's, released in 1965 on The Astrud Gilberto Album for Verve.
Notable versions include those by Cannonball Adderley (1962), Herbie Mann (1963), Charlie Byrd and Wanda de Sah (1965), Perry Como and Vic Damone (1966), Vince Guaraldi (1967), Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass (1973), Shirley Horn (1989) and Yo-Yo Ma (2003). The 1967 recording with Frank Sinatra and Jobim made it one of Jobim's best-known and most-covered songs. The tune should not be played too slowly, as the nostalgia of the lyrics pulls against the forward momentum of the bossa nova beat.
