João Gilberto do Prado Pereira de Oliveira was born on 10 June 1931 in Juazeiro, a small provincial town in the interior of the state of Bahia. His father, a prosperous merchant, was a stickler for education and insisted that each of his seven children obtain a school diploma. He was successful with six of them. The exception was the most intelligent child: Joãozinho (little João), who from an early age was interested in only one thing—music. When João was fourteen, a bohemian godfather gave him a guitar that soon became an extension of his body. By the age of fifteen, he was the leader and arranger of a boys' musical group that rehearsed under an old tamarind tree in the center of town and performed regularly at social functions.

The music João heard during his childhood in the '40s emanated from the loudspeaker of a local store. It included U.S. hits like "Caravan" with Duke Ellington, "Song of India" with Tommy Dorsey, "Dream Lover" with Jeanette MacDonald, and "Ménilmontant" with the French singer/composer Charles Trenet. Of course, there was also a host of Brazilian successes of the period, such as "Bolinha de Papel" (Paper Ball) with Anjos do Inferno (Hell's Angels, a popular male vocal group); "Ave Maria no Morro" (Ave Maria on the Hill) with Trio de Ouro; "A Primeira Vez" (The First Time) with João's singing idol Orlando Silva; and "O Samba da Minha Terra" (The Samba of My Land), composed and sung by the great Bahian songwriter Dorival Caymmi. In later years, many of these old songs would find their way into João Gilberto's repertoire and recordings, much to the consternation of his modernist fans.