[2] Born in Gávea but raised in the favela Morro do Pinto, Monsueto was an orphan by the age of three and was brought up by his grandmother and aunt.

[3] After waning in popularity, Monsueto was "rediscovered" in the late 1960s, beginning with Maria Bethânia's cover of his song "Mora na filosofia".

Two legendary albums recorded in the 1970s (Milton Nascimento et al.'s Clube da Esquina and Caetano Veloso's Transa, voted to number 7 and number 10, respectively, on Rolling Stone Brazil's list of greatest Brazilian albums of all time[4]) featured Monsueto's compositions.

Caetano performed a rock and roll-inspired version of the song his sister had previously covered, "Mora no filosofia", on Transa,[5] while Milton performed "Me deixa em paz" with Alaíde Costa on Clube da Esquina.

Caetano also performed Monsueto's song "Eu quero essa mulher" on Araçá azul, the followup to Transa.