Buford's Beach Bunnies (1993)

An intergalactic babe borrows her dad's T-bird ship to do a little planet-hopping with her two friends, but they run out of fuel unexpectedly, and must land on Earth. They land on the California coast, where they have fun and a few close encounters with some guys. One of the guys' Uncle Bud, who just wants to meditate and hang out, is being threatened with condemnation of his beach house unless he puts some money into repairs. The alien babes offer to enter the bikini contest with their way-out designs to try and win the money he needs, but they are hampered by the garment designer who will stop at nothing to win.

Much of this is just standard pleasant Gilberto: offhand vocals and a sumptuous Brazil pop-cum-U.S. orchestration feel (Ron Carter and Toots Thielemans are among the sidemen). And some of the pop choices work well, particularly Tim Hardin's gorgeous "Misty Roses." No vocals or arrangements, however, could save the criminally wrong-headed military march of "A Banda (Parade)," or the exasperatingly coochie-coochie duet between Gilberto and her six-year-old son on the Lovin' Spoonful's "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice." Which makes it all the more surprising when the next and concluding track, "Nao Bate O Corocao," has Gilberto cutting loose with confident, sassy scats, as she rarely did before or since. The CD reissue improves matters by adding five bonus cuts from A Certain Smile a Certain Sadness, recorded in 1966 in more authentically bossa nova-style arrangements, anchored by organist Walter Wanderley.