According to Brazilian author Ruy Castro, Jobim composed the song in 1963, after being inspired by "a young woman, Candice Bergen, whom he had the pleasure of meeting at the home of the president of Atlantic Records, Nesuhi Ertegun.
Seven of the ten songs from those sessions were eventually released as Side A of Sinatra & Company (1971), but "Bonita" was not included.
[2] Gene Lees, who had written several other English-language lyrics for Jobim, claims that "Jobim gave my lyric to Bonita, which I had written in New York, to Ray Gilbert, who altered a phrase or two and put his name on it.
Gilbert produced an album for Warner Brothers in which he again used the song, again taking credit for the lyric....
A hearing was organized, with Sheldon Harnick as its chairman, and I presented the evidence of my authorship.