Herb Alpert: Encyclopedia II - Herb Alpert - The Tijuana Brass Years

Herb Alpert - The Tijuana Brass Years

Shortly after A&M's founding, Alpert released his debut album, The Lonely Bull by Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass. The Tijuana Brass were studio musicians; Alpert would not form a touring unit until 1965. The title cut reached #6 on the Billboard Pop Singles Chart. This was also A&M's first album (the original number was 101), and was recorded at Conway Records.

The Tijuana Brass's success helped spawn other Latin acts, notably Julius Wechter (long-time friend of Alpert's and the marimba player for the Brass) and the Baja Marimba Band. No one in Alpert's band (or Wechter's) was Hispanic. Alpert used to tell his audiences that his group consisted of "Three pastramis, two bagels, and an American cheese": John Pisano (electric guitar); Lou Pagani (piano); Nick Ceroli (drums); Pat Senatore (bass guitar); Tonni Kalash (trumpet); Herb Alpert (trumpet and vocal); Bob Edmondson (trombone).

An album or two each year would be released throughout the 1960s. The fortune of Alpert's style began with the national exposure The Clark Gum Company gave one of his tunes in 1964. America danced along to The Teaberry Shuffle which remains an album track titled The Mexican Shuffle. In 1965, Alpert released two albums, "Whipped Cream" and "Going Places." "Whipped Cream" sold over 6 million copies in the United States and the album cover of Whipped Cream is considered a classic. It featured model (Dolores Erickson) wearing chiffon and shaving cream. In concerts, when about to play the song, Alpert would tell the audience, "Sorry, we can't play the cover for you!" The art was parodied by several groups including once A&M band Soul Asylum. The singles inlcuded the title cut, Lollipops and Roses, Going Places produced four more the 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, and still do at least on the Game Show Network due to their frequent use as incidental music in The Dating Game, notably Whipped Cream, Spanish Flea and Lollipops and Roses which were staples on the TV show The Dating Game. While it is easy to mention singles, Alpert's albums outsold and outperformed his singles on the charts.

Alpert and the Tijuana Brass won six Grammy awards, and of 15 of their albums went gold and 14 platinum. In 1966, his music outsold The Beatles by two to one--over 13 million recordings. That same year the Guinness Book of World Records recognized that Alpert set a new record--placing five albums simultaneously on the Pop Album Chart in Billboard. That accomplishment has never been repeated. In April of that year, four of those albums were in the Top 10 simultaneously.

Alpert's only Number One single with the Brass was "This Guy's in Love With You", featuring a rare vocal. Alpert's vocal skills were limited, but this song also had a limited range, and it worked for him. The song debuted in April 1968, and topped the charts for four weeks. Alpert's version was a cover of this Burt Bacharach and Hal David song.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The Tijuana Brass Years", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki