I would like to cover the history of “Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass” today as well as give my review of their Greatest Hits CD Vol. II. Herb Alpert was born on 31 March 1935 in Los Angeles, CA. His parents were of Russian Jewish and Hungarian stock and gave him a Trumpet on his 8th Birthday. He at first hated to practice day after day but eventually grew to love it by his teen years. His father who was a Russian Jew from Kiev, was a clothes designer in Chicago and became so good at it he moved to Los Angeles, CA. They wanted Herbie who was the oldest of the 3 kids to join his father in the tailor business we graduated. The family began to play instruments together as a group and Herb on trumpet was joined by his mother on violin, his dad on mandolin, his brother on drums and his sister on piano. He graduated Fairfax High School in Los Angeles in 1955 but was soon to be drafted into the Army. He played trumpet with the 6th Army Band in Presidio in San Francisco, CA. He played the trumpet quite often during his two years in the service at parades, concerts and funerals.

After he was honorably discharged from the Army he returned home to attend college at U.C.L.A. but dropped out after only 2 semesters. He had decided he wanted to become a star in pictures and went to Hollywood where he had a bit part in “The Ten Commandments” but only his back was seen. In 1957 he signed a contract with a local recording company called “Keen” records that was a subsidiary of “RCA”. The label had only one big star singed on its label at that time by the name of “Sam Cooke”. Herb and “Lou Adler” were asked to write new material for Sam and wrote 3 hit singles for him up until 1959. RCA was so impressed with Herb & Lou that they were asked to develop new talent for a new subsidiary label of theirs named “Dore” records. Herb also released his very first single under the name of the “Herbie Alpert Sextet” titled “Hully Gully” on “Andex Records”. This was followed by “Sweet Georgia Brown” on “Carol Records”. Both records are said to be very, very scarce and highly collectable. Lou sang with Herb on his next single under the name of “Herb B. Lou” for a single titled “The Trial” on “Arch Records”.

Herb help produce songs for a group called “Dante & The Evergreens” and for “Jan & Dean”. The first big hit produced by Herb for “Jan & Dean” was “Baby Talk” on “Dore” that went Top 10 in 1959. He next produced a Top 10 hit for “Sam Cooke” also in 1959 titled “Wonderful World”. In 1960 they produced one big hit for “Dante & The Evergreens” titled “Alley Oop” but would become a bigger hit later on for the "Hollywood Argyles”. Herb continued to record and release singles in 1961 but none were showed any potential. In 1962 Herb met “Jerry Moss” an independent record producer and using their own money they started their own record label. The label was called “Carnival Records” in March 1962 but they found out that there was already a label with that name and quickly changed it to “A & M Records”. The decided on “A & M” based on the first initial of their last names. They set up a small recording studio in Herb’s own garage and he would record demo tapes that they would shop around to the major labels. He recorded his next single under the name of “Dore Alpert” titled “Tell It To The Birds” that was released on their “Carnival” record label before they renamed it. It became a minor hit in Los Angeles in 1962. He began work on his next single titled “Twinkle Star” and after 4 hours or recording they decided to go down to Tijuana. They took in the bullfights and based on the crowd noise decided he would add mariachi, trumpets, drums and mandolins and the sound of the crowd noise that they had recorded while there. Herb and Jerry decided that the studio musicians that were playing the background music needed a name and dubbed them the “Tijuana Brass”.

They decided to rename the song from Twinkle Star” to “The Lonely Bull” and pressed the record themselves on their own “A & M” label. They also became the distributors, they marketed the single and hand delivered it to all the stations and retailers they could reach. The song first appeared on the charts on 20 October 1962 at #100 and within four weeks had reached #29. It finally peaked at #6 and sold over a million copies. In late 1962 they released their first album also titled “The Lonely Bull” that went Top 10 on the alum charts. In 1963 and 1964 their singles never reached the Top 40. In 1964 there was a demand for personal appearances so Herb had to put together a real group. The band consisted of “Lou Pagani” on piano, “John Pisano” on guitar, “Pat Senatore” on bass, “Bob Edmonson” on trombone, “Tonni Kalash” on second trumpet, and “Nick Ceroli” on drums. In February 1964 the new group released “South Of The Border” that peaked at #6 on the album charts. Their singles were not reaching the Top 40 but their albums would continue to be big hits. In November 1964 they finally broke that string with a cover of a “Beatles” hit “A Taste Of Honey” that went to #1 and sold over a million copies. This big hit came off of the album “Whipped Cream & Other Delights” and helped propel it to #1 and it sold over 3 million copies.

Herb and Jerry were able to sign some great artists during this time to their “A & M” label including “Chris Montez”, “The Sandpipers” and “The We Five”. In February 1965 they released “Going Places” that went Top 40 on the album charts and “Zorba The Greek” backed by “Tijuana Taxi” hat went Top 40 on the singles charts. In March Herb received 3 Grammy Awards for Record Of the Year, Best Instrumental and Best Instrumental Arrangement all for “A Taste Of Honey”. In April 1965 they released “Goin’ Places” that went to #1 and stayed there for 6 weeks and “Spanish Flea” backed by “What Now My Love” that went Top 40 on the singles charts. In May 1966 they released “What Now My Love” that went to #1 and stayed there for 9 weeks. Four other older albums re-entered the charts and they had 5 albums in the Top 20 during the same week of which 4 were in the Top 10. Also in 1966 they signed the Top artist from Brazil named “Sergio Mendez”. In August 1966 “Work Song” was released and went to #18 followed by “Flamingo” that went to #28 and then “Mame” that went to #19 on the singles charts. Their next album “SRO” peaked at #2 and sold over a million copies. By the end of 1966 “Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass”, “The Beatles” and “The Monkees” were the 3 top grossing artists in the music industry.

In April 1967 “Casino Royal” was released and went to #27 on the singles charts followed by “Sounds Like” that went to #1 on the album charts and stayed there for 6 weeks. In January 1968 “Herb Alpert’s 9th” went to #4 on the album chart and became their 9th consecutive gold selling album. In May they released “This Guy’s In Love With You” that went to #1 and stayed there for 4 weeks and selling over a million copies. In July they released “The Beat Of The Brass” that also went to #1 and sold a million copies. Next came “To Wait For Love” the second consecutive song to feature Herb singing instead of playing the trumpet and it peaked at #39. In December they released their first Holiday single “My Favorite Things” that peaked at #10. In April 1969 they released their 3rd consecutive Herb Alpert vocal single in “Without Her” a cover of a “Harry Nilsson” hit that reached #38. In September 1969 they had their 11th gold selling album in “Warm” and this record was only surpassed by “The Beatles” and “Elvis Presley”. In 1970 they had their first album that didn’t sell gold and only peaked at #30 on the charts titled “The Brass Are Coming”. Their very next album “Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass’ Greatest Hits” went to #1 and sold over a million copies. Also in 1970 “A & M” would sign an unknown brother, sister act called “The Carpenters” that would become their biggest grossing artists in the early 1970’s. They next signed “Procul Harum” and “Joe Cocker” who also had some big hits in the 70’s.

In October 1970 the next release was “Jerusalem” that only peaked at #72 on the singles charts. They next signed “Cat Stevens”, “Rita Coolidge”, “Billy Preston”, “Carole King”, “Humble Pie”, “Peter Frampton”, “Free”, “Stealer’s Wheel” and “The Police” all to “A & M” record contracts. Herb continued to release albums in 1971 through 1978 that had no major impact. In 1978 Herb teamed with fellow trumpeter “Hugh Masekela” with “Herb Alpert/Hugh Masekela” that peaked at #70 on the album charts. In 1978 “A & M” signed “Gordon Sumner” who went by the name of “Sting”. “Rise” was released as a single in July 1979 and it peaked at #45. Herb re-recorded a new disco version of “Rise” on a 12” single and released it in September and it went to #1 by October and he decided to release the album “Rise” soon after. The album was released early in 1980 and peaked at #6 followed by a single and an album both titled “Beyond”. The album peaked at #28 and the single only reached #47. In July 1982 “Route 101” peaked at #37 on the singles charts. In 1984 “Bullish” only peaked at #9o on the album charts. In 1987 “Keep Your Eye On Me” was released and reached #12 on the album charts and sold a million copies. The single released from this album titled “Diamonds” with vocals by “Janet Jackson” went to #5 on the charts.

On September 24th 1990 Herb and Jerry sold “A & M” records for over 400 million dollars to “Polygram” records. In 1994 they formed a new company “Almo Sounds” records and signed the group “Garbage”. Herb continued to release albums in 1996, 1997 and 1999 but none went anywhere on the album charts. The CD I am reviewing today is titled “Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass Greatest Hits Vol. II” that was released on “A & M” records in 1973 and was re-released on CD in 1977. The songs are listed below in the order as they appear on this CD followed by my rating of each and my overall rating of this CD:

1. WHAT NOW MY LO0VE – 5
2. THE WORK SONG – 5
3. BRASILIA – 4
4. JERUSALEM – 5
5. SO WHAT’S NEW – 5
6. LAST TANGO IN PARIS – 4
7. MY FAVORITE THINGS – 5
8. THIS GUY’S IN LOVE WITH YOU – 5
9. A BANDA – 4
10. FLAMINGO – 5
11. CABARET – 5
12. ZAZUEIRA – 5
13. BITTERSWEET SAMBA – 5
14. WADE IN THE WATER – 5

TOTAL POINTS: 67 DIVIDED BY 14 = 4.78 OR 4 1/2 STARS = 4 STARS

RATING KEY:
5 – GREAT
4 – VERY GOOD
3 – GOOD
2 – FAIR
1 – POOR
0 – THIS SONG DOESN’T BELONG HERE!

JAG’S FINAL THOUGHTS:

Let me first say this is my first review/opinion/epinion in a long time as I have been very upset with the way the site has changed so very much. I was not sure if I was ever going to return here to write/post ever again. I tried posting a music review a few weeks ago on 1 February for the group “Creedence Clearwater Revival” but after trying unsuccessfully for almost 2 hours to figure out how to do it I gave up. I sent Epinions and Email asking them to please help me figure out how to Post a Music review and waited two days for a reply, so I decided to post it to my new writing site WWW.WRITTENBYME.COM instead. They did respond a few days later and I tried their suggestion but still had no luck until today. I am currently posting a “Rock ‘N Roll Music” history series over there and going alphabetically where I am currently on the letter “D”. I though I might try to post a few reviews over here on artists that I missed or skipped for one reason or another. I hope they will be received okay as I would like to try and post at least one review a week?

“Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass” was one of my favorites in the 60’s and 70’s as I collected every single and album I could find by them. The Music of Herb Alpert fell in the Pop, Jazz-Pop, Instrumental and Easy Listening categories. His music was romantic, sentimental, soothing, gentile, sensual, happy, laid-back, mellow, sophisticated and heart-warming. His music is rated “G” for all audiences but probably only enjoyed by those 40 and older these days. You will never find drugs, booze, guns, sex or violence anywhere in any of the music of “Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass”. My favorite song by them is very hard as I have many “Tijuana Taxi”, “Taste Of Honey”, “This Guy’s In Love With You”, “Lonely Bull” and “Spanish Flea” are all big favorites of mine. Thanks for visiting me today and if you enjoyed this review today I invite you to my many Music reviews at “WBM” (sorry for the shameless plug)!


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Getting ready to go out