Today’s morning name, an AZ name: AstraZeneca. Which of course led me quickly to the singer Astrud Zeneca.
AstraZeneca plc is an British–Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company. In 2013 it moved its headquarters to Cambridge, England, and concentrated its R&D in three sites: Cambridge, Gaithersburg, Maryland (location of MedImmune) for work on biopharmaceuticals, and Mölndal (near Gothenburg) in Sweden, for research on traditional chemical drugs. In 2015 it was the eighth largest drug company in the world based on sales revenue.
On to Astrud Zeneca, a Brazilian singer famous for her performance of the song “The Girl from Ipana”, touting Bristol-Myers Squibb products: Sal Hepatica (laxative), Ipana (toothpaste), penicillin, and other pharmaceuticals. From the song:
Tall and tan and young and lovely
The girl from Ipana goes walking and
When she smiles, everyone who sees her goes “ah”Her teeth are gorgeous and
She radiates healthfulness and
When she passes, each one she passes goes “ah”
Ok, the ingredients: Astrud Gilberto, “The Girl from Ipanema”, Ipana, Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Astrud Gilberto. From Wikipedia:
Astrud Gilberto (born March 29, 1940) is a Brazilian samba and bossa nova singer. She is best known for her performance of the song “The Girl from Ipanema”.
Astrud Gilberto was born Astrud Evangelina Weinert, the daughter of a Brazilian mother and a German father, in the state of Bahia, Brazil. She was raised in Rio de Janeiro. She married João Gilberto in 1959 and emigrated to the United States in 1963, residing in the U.S. from that time. Astrud and João divorced in the mid-1960s and she began a relationship with her musical partner, American jazz saxophone player Stan Getz.
“The Girl from Ipanema”. From Wikipedia:
“Garota de Ipanema” (“The Girl from Ipanema”) is a Brazilian bossa nova jazz song. It was a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s and won a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1965. It was written in 1962, with music by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. English lyrics were written later by Norman Gimbel.
The first commercial recording was in 1962, by Pery Ribeiro. The 1964 single featuring Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz became an international hit. [You can see a performance of it here.] This had been shortened from the version on the album Getz/Gilberto (recorded in March 1963, released March 1964) which had also included the Portuguese lyrics sung by João Gilberto.
… Ipanema is a fashionable seaside neighborhood located in the southern region of the city of Rio de Janeiro.
Ipana. From Wikipedia:
Ipana … was a popular toothpaste product manufactured by Bristol-Myers Company. The wintergreen flavored toothpaste (0.243% sodium fluoride was its active ingredient) reached its peak market penetration during the 1950s in North America. Marketing of Ipana used a Disney-created mascot named Bucky Beaver in the 1950s.
You can watch an old Bucky Beaver “brusha brusha brusha” ad here.
Bristol-Myers Squibb. “Bristol-Myers Squibb, often referred to as BMS, is an American pharmaceutical company, headquartered in New York City.” (link) It was formed by the merger of former competitors Bristol-Myers and Squibb and is a competitor of AstraZeneca (which is where we came in).
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