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Herb Alpert
The Essential Herb Alpert
Herb Alpert - Sounds Like
Herb Alpert - Definitive Hits
Whipped Cream & Other Delights
Herb Alpert Singles A Sides and B Sides
Herb Alpert Albums
The Lonely Bull
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Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass.
The Lonely Bull
Originally released in 1962, The Lonely Bull was not only Herb Alpert's musical debut,
but the first album released on A&M Records. "After experiencing my first bullfight
in Tijuana, Mexico," Alpert recalls, "I was inspired to find a way to musically express
what I felt while watching the wild responses of the crowd, and hearing the brass
musicians introducing each new event with rousing fanfare." The excitement translated,
and The Lonely Bull was a stunning success. The title track hit the Billboard Top
10, as did the LP, which peaked at #10 and remained on the album chart for three
years. The disc also includes the perennial stadium favorite "Never On Sunday," and
the intricate, bossa nova-inflected "Desafinado." The cover, featuring Alpert toasting
with a tequila glass, began a run of memorable TJB covers—including the groundbreaking
and unforgettable one featuring a barely covered model immortalized on the Whipped
Cream & Other Delights.
The Essential Herb Alpert
Trumpet player, bandleader, label boss, visual artist and talent spotter are just
a few of Herb Alpert's many talents that have seen the light of day over his 40 years
in the music business. Along the way he’s scored massive hit singles (iconic tunes
such as "Rise") and albums (with the Tijuana Brass and many others) around the world,
as well as starting A&M Records-
For one week in June 1967, Sounds Like was able to break the Monkees' 31-week hammerlock
on the number one slot on the charts — just two weeks before the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper
took over and changed the world. This shows, lest we forget — and many have — just
how popular the Tijuana Brass were, still spanning the generations during the Summer
of Love, still putting out records as fresh and musical and downright joyous as this
one. Though not as jazz-flavored as S.R.O., Sounds Like does preserve the feeling,
particularly in the extended vamps on an updated slave song, "Wade In the Water"
(a hit single). "Gotta Lotta Livin' to Do" settles us into the record with nothing
but a long vamp — a daring production decision. Yet Alpert was on a roll; everything
he tried in the TJB's heyday seemed to work. The lesser-known tunes back-loaded on
Side Two are a string of pearls — John Pisano's appropriately titled bossa nova "The
Charmer," Roger Nichols' tense "Treasure of San ! ! Miguel," Ervan Coleman's catchy
"Miss Frenchy Brown." Finally, Alpert takes a flyer and concludes the LP with an
extravagant Burt Bacharach orchestration of his theme from the film Casino Royale
— an artifact of '60s pop culture, to be sure, but still a perfectly structured record.
Herb Alpert Definitive Hits
Before his run at the top of the easy-listening charts, Herb Alpert was already a
music-industry veteran, writing and producing hits for Sam Cooke and Jan & Dean.
Alpert also deserves a place in history as co-founder and owner of A&M Records, one
of the most successful independent labels of all time. A solid 20-track compilation
spanning Alpert's career, DEFINITIVE HITS covers the trumpeter/singer/label executive's
glory years--the 1961-'68 stretch between "The Lonely Bull" and the Burt Bacharach-penned
vocal showcase "This Guy's in Love with You". However, it also conveniently gathers
material from the post-Tijuana Brass period when Alpert specialised in easy-listening
fusion hits like the disco-tinged jazz-funk of 1979's "Rise" and the adult-contemporary
R&B of 1987's "Diamonds", which features A&M Records' then-new star Janet Jackson
on lead vocals. But, of course, the real meat of the collection is the brilliantly
arranged suburban exotica of "Spanish Flea", "A Taste of Honey", and "Whipped Cream",
along with other fine examples of Alpert's Latin-tinged pop.
1965's Whipped Cream & Other Delights transformed Herb Alpert & The Tijuana into
bonafide superstars, spending an incredible 8 straight weeks at the top of the charts.
The album was not only memorable for its music, but for the iconic cover art which
featured model Dolores Erickson strategically swathed in whipped cream. The original
twelve tracks revolve around the theme of food and include such classics the triple
Grammy-
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Herb Alpert Albums - Live at Montreux DVD
Trumpeter Herb Alpert is one of the most successful instrumental artists in American music history. He is also a successful businessman, having founded A&M Records with Jerry Moss and later, Almo Sounds. On top of this, he has exhibited as an artist, produced shows on Broadway and established the Herb Alpert Foundation for arts education.
This 1996 performance at the Montreux Festival features Herb Alpert together with The Jeff Lorber Band in a sparkling performance of Alpert’s biggest hits. DVD highlights include performances of "Spanish Flea", "This Guy’s In Love With You", "Rise" and many more.
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Book - The Herb Alpert File
The Herb Alpert File-
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One of the most successful instrumental performers in pop history, trumpeter Herb
Alpert was also one of the entertainment industry's shrewdest businessmen: A&M, the
label he co-founded with partner Jerry Moss, ranks among the most prosperous artist-owned
companies ever established. Born March 31, 1935, in Los Angeles, Alpert began playing
the trumpet at the age of eight. After serving in the Army, he attempted to forge
an acting career, but soon returned to music, recording under the name Dore Alpert
for RCA.
With Lou Adler, Alpert co-
From its humble origins as a company run out of Alpert's garage, A&M grew to become
the world's biggest independent label; among its greatest successes were the Carpenters,
Cat Stevens, Joe Cocker, and Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66. Nevertheless, Alpert and
his backing unit, the Tijuana Brass, remained the label's flagship act: on the strength
of the hit "A Taste of Honey," his 1965 LP Whipped Cream and Other Delights topped
the charts, popularizing his Latin-influenced style (dubbed "Ameriachi"). The follow-up,
1965's Going Places, also hit number one, launching the hit "Spanish Flea."
After 1966's What Now My Love — his most popular effort, remaining at number one for nine weeks — Alpert continued to dominate the charts with records including 1966's S.R.O. and the following year's Sounds Like and Herb Alpert's Ninth. In 1968, he scored his first number one single by taking a rare vocal turn on a rendition of Burt Bacharach's "This Guy's in Love With You"; the album Beat of the Brass followed the hit to the top of the charts, becoming Alpert's fifth and final number one LP.
Released in 1969, Warm was the first of Alpert's 11 albums not to crack the Top 20; by 1971's Summertime, his commercial fates had fallen to the point where he no longer reached the Top 100. As A&M continued to thrive, he moved his primary focus from music to industry, although he regularly recorded throughout the early '70s; 1974's You Smile — The Song Begins was his most successful outing in several years, but subsequent releases like 1975's Coney Island and 1976's Just You and Me met with greater chart resistance.
In 1979, Alpert staged a major comeback with Rise; not only did the album reach the
Top Ten, but the title track topped the singles charts and became the biggest hit
of his career. The follow-
Alpert continued recording throughout the 1990s, producing work like 1991's North
on South Street, 1992's Midnight Sun, and 1997's Passion Dance. After selling A&M
to PolyGram in 1990 for a sum in excess of $500 million, he and Moss founded a new
label, Almo Sounds, in 1994; among the imprint's hit artists was the group Garbage.
His own albums, including 1997's Passion Dance and 1999's Colors, were also released
on the label. Alpert also tackled other forms of media, exhibiting his abstract expressionist
paintings and co-
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