A minha menina

The Bees recorded “A Minha Menina” during the 2001 Sunshine Hit Me sessions, when the group consisted of Paul Butler and Aaron Fletcher working in a home studio in Butler’s parents’ garden on the Isle of Wight. Butler and Fletcher performed, recorded and produced the album themselves, adapting Jorge Ben’s song through the Os Mutantes version. Released by We Love You in June 2002 as the third single from Sunshine Hit Me, it became the album’s main crossover track after use in a Citroën advertisement. The single reached the UK Official Singles Chart and helped bring wider attention to the band’s Mercury Prize-nominated debut. The track remains The Bees’ best-known recording and a durable early-2000s British indie cover of Brazilian psychedelia. Its advertising exposure and later compilation presence kept it visible beyond the original Sunshine Hit Me campaign.