Welcome to Rock and Roll Flashback Podcasts! Greetings to all you time travelers and music aficionados! I'm Jumpin' John, and in this episode of Rock and Roll Flashback podcast I will review the extensive musical career of trumpeter and producer Herb Alpert!
Herb Alpert recorded 28 albums that charted on the U.S. Billboard 200. Five of those LP's became #1 albums. His album sales resulted in 14 LP's reaching platinum status and 15 LP's reaching gold status. From the week ending October 16th, 1965, through the week ending April 29th, 1967, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass had at least one album in the Top 10, marking 81 consecutive weeks! For many of these weeks, more than one album registered in the Top 10. In the year 1966 alone, over 13 million Alpert recordings were sold, outselling the Beatles. That same year, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized that Alpert set a new record by placing 5 albums simultaneously in the Top 20 on the Billboard chart, an accomplishment that has never been repeated. Alpert is the only musician to hit #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 as both a vocalist (with "This Guy's in Love with You" in 1968) and an instrumentalist (with "Rise" in 1979). Alpert has sold an estimated 72 million records worldwide. In addition to the Grammy Trustees Award, Herb Alpert has won eight Grammy Awards.
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Rock On!
Greetings to all you time travelers and music aficionados! I'm Jumpin' John, and in this episode of Rock and Roll Flashback podcast I will review the extensive musical career of trumpeter and producer Herb Alpert!
Herb Alpert was born on March 31st, 1935 in Los Angeles, California and was raised in the Boyle Heights section of East LA. His parents were Jewish immigrants, who also happened to be musicians. Herb began trumpet lessons at the age of eight and played at dances as a teenager. After graduating from Fairfax High School in 1952, he joined the US Army during the Korean War and performed in the 6th Army Band. After his military service, Alpert briefly tried his hand at acting, but eventually settled on pursuing a career in music. While attending the University of Southern California in the 1950's, he was a member of the USC Trojan Marching Band for two years.
In 1957 Alpert initially teamed up with lyricist Rob Weerts as songwriters for Keen Records. During the next two years a number of songs co-written or produced by Alpert became Top 20 hits, including "Baby Talk" by Jan & Dean and "Wonderful World" by Sam Cooke. In 1960, he began his recording career as a vocalist at RCA Records under the name of Dore (spelled D-O-R-E) Alpert.
In 1962, Herb Alpert and his new business partner Jerry Moss formed Carnival Records. Their first single release was "Tell It to the Birds". After Carnival released its second single "Love Is Back In Style", they discovered that another label had already taken the Carnival name. So they renamed their company A&M, after Alpert's and Moss's initials. From 1966 to 1999, the company's headquarters was on the grounds of the Charlie Chaplin Studios at 1416 North La Brea Avenue, near Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. After a visit to a bullfight in Tijuana, Mexico, Alpert later recounted [and I quote], "That's when it hit me! Something in the excitement of the crowd, the traditional mariachi music, the trumpet call heralding the start of the fight, the yelling, the snorting of the bulls, it all clicked" [end quote]. Alpert adapted the Sol Lake song called "Twinkle Star", adding trumpet, and he mixed in crowd cheers and other noises, renaming the song "The Lonely Bull".
"The Lonely Bull" was A&M's first single release, and it shot up to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the Fall of 1962. Herb followed up quickly with his debut album, The Lonely Bull by a group he called "Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass". The album was actually recorded with the talented Los Angeles session musicians commonly referred to as The Wrecking Crew.
By the end of 1964, because of a growing demand for live appearances by the Tijuana Brass, Alpert auditioned and hired a team of session men. The 8 man band he assembled included: John Pisano (on electric guitar), Lou Pagani (on piano), Nick Ceroli (on drums), Pat Senatore (on bass guitar), Tonni Kalash (on trumpet), Bob Edmondson (on trombone), and Herb Alpert (on trumpet and vocals). The band became one of the highest-paid acts then performing when they debuted in 1965.
In 1965, Alpert released two albums, Whipped Cream & Other Delights and Going Places. The Whipped Cream LP sold over 6 million copies in the US and would become the #1 selling US album of 1966, outselling the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, and the Rolling Stones. Three singles were released from the album: "Whipped Cream", "Lollipops and Roses", and "A Taste of Honey". "A Taste of Honey" won four awards including Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards of 1966. The instrumental spent five weeks at #1 on the easy listening chart, reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #4 in Canada. The eight drum beats before the tempo increases in "A Taste of Honey" was originally intended as an editing cue to be removed in the final version, but Alpert decided to keep it in.
The LP Going Places produced four more singles: "Tijuana Taxi", "Spanish Flea", "Third Man Theme", and "Zorba the Greek". Many of the tracks from Whipped Cream and Going Places received a great deal of airplay. Three of the singles were even used on the American television game show The Dating Game, which featured "Whipped Cream", "Spanish Flea", and "Lollipops and Roses". Despite the popularity of his singles, Alpert's albums outsold and outperformed the singles on the charts. By the end of 1966, in addition to #1 album Whipped Cream & Other Delights, the Going Places LP ranked #3 and another album, What Now My Love, ranked #5 on the US year-end album charts. In 1966, a short animated film by John and Faith Hubley called A Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature was released. The film, which featured two songs by the band, "Tijuana Taxi" and "Spanish Flea", won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1967. Also in 1967, the Tijuana Brass performed Burt Bacharach's title cut to the first movie version of Casino Royale.
Herb Alpert's only #1 single during this period was a solo effort: "This Guy's in Love with You". Written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, the song was a rare vocal by Alpert and ended up becoming the first #1 hit for the A&M label. The song was initially not intended to be released. Alpert sang it to his first wife Sharon in a 1968 CBS Television special titled Beat of the Brass. However, after it was used in the television special, numerous audience phone calls to CBS asking about the song "This Guy's in Love with You" convinced Alpert to release it as a single. Released in May 1968, it reached #1 on June 22nd, where it remained for four weeks. Ironically, Herb and Sharon Alpert would divorce three years later!
In December 1973 Herb Alpert married recording artist Lani Hall, the original lead singer with Sérgio Mendes and Brasil '66. In the early 1980's Lani Hall recorded several successful Latin pop albums in Spanish. Then in 2009 Hall and Alpert recorded a live album, Anything Goes. They followed with a studio album, I Feel You, in 2011 and another studio album, Steppin' Out, in 2013. Steppin' Out won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album in 2014.
From 1962 through 1992 Herb Alpert signed artists to A&M Records and produced records. He discovered the West Coast band We Five. In addition to his second wife Lani Hall, Alpert also personally worked with Chris Montez, Gino Vannelli on "Crazy Life" and "Powerful People", The Carpenters, Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66, Bill Medley, Liza Minnelli, and Janet Jackson. Janet Jackson was the featured vocalist on Alpert's 1987 hit single "Diamonds". These working relationships allowed Alpert to place singles in the Top 10 in three different decades - the 1960's, the 1970's, and the 1980's.
From the 1970's through the 1990's Alpert enjoyed a successful solo career. In 1979, he had his biggest instrumental hit, "Rise", from the album of the same name. The song was used repeatedly on the TV soap opera General Hospital. "Rise" hit #1 in October 1979 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it remained for two weeks. The song was also successful on other charts, peaking at #4 on the R&B chart, #17 on the disco chart, and spending one week at #1 on the adult contemporary chart. "Rise" received a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. The song also became a hit in the UK, but in a sped-up version, due to British DJ's not realizing that the American 12" single was recorded at 33 rpm instead of 45 rpm.
In 1989 Herb Alpert and his partner Jerry Moss agreed to sell A&M to PolyGram Records for a reported $500 million. Both would continue to manage the label until 1993. Alpert and Moss then expanded their Almo Sounds music publishing company to produce records as well, primarily as a vehicle for Alpert's music.
For his contribution to the recording industry, Herb Alpert received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1977. Jerry Moss also has a star on the Walk of Fame. Alpert and Moss received a Grammy Trustees Award in 1997, for their lifetime achievements in the recording industry as executives. Alpert and Moss were also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, as non-performer lifetime achievers for their work at A&M. Alpert has worked as a Broadway theatre producer, with his production of Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" winning a Tony Award. Alpert was awarded one of the 2012 National Medal of Arts awards by President Obama. Alpert has also become known as respected abstract expressionist painter and sculptor. He is a philanthropist who shares the power of arts education with young people across the United States.
Herb Alpert recorded 28 albums that charted on the U.S. Billboard 200. Five of those LP's became #1 albums. His album sales resulted in 14 LP's reaching platinum status and 15 LP's reaching gold status. From the week ending October 16th, 1965, through the week ending April 29th, 1967, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass had at least one album in the Top 10, marking 81 consecutive weeks! For many of these weeks, more than one album registered in the Top 10. In the year 1966 alone, over 13 million Alpert recordings were sold, outselling the Beatles. That same year, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized that Alpert set a new record by placing 5 albums simultaneously in the Top 20 on the Billboard chart, an accomplishment that has never been repeated. Alpert is the only musician to hit #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 as both a vocalist (with "This Guy's in Love with You" in 1968) and an instrumentalist (with "Rise" in 1979). Alpert has sold an estimated 72 million records worldwide. In addition to the Grammy Trustees Award, Herb Alpert has won eight Grammy Awards.
Thank you for listening to the Rock and Roll Flashback podcast where in this episode I reviewed the musical career of trumpeter and producer Herb Alpert! I'm Jumpin' John McDermott, and until next time…Rock On!