Herb Alpert Albums List
Midas Souza
Herb Alpert is widely considered one of the best trumpeters of all time, releasing a long list of hit albums and singles throughout his career. Here, you'll find a list of the best Herb Alpert albums, including pictures of the album covers when available. This Herb Alpert discography is ranked from best to worst, so the top Herb Alpert albums can be found at the top of the list. To make it easy for you, we haven't included Herb Alpert singles, EPs, or compilations, so everything you see here should only be studio albums. If you think the greatest Herb Alpert album isn't high enough on the list, then be sure to vote for it so it receives the credit it deserves. Make sure you don't just vote for critically acclaimed albums; if you have a favorite Herb Alpert album, then vote it up, even if it's not necessarily the most popular.
If you want to know, "What is the Best Herb Alpert album of all time?" or "What are the top Herb Alpert albums?" then this list will answer your questions. The American Jazz musician is best known for his work as Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, but he's had a prolific solo career as well. He's considered one of the great trumpeters of his time, but is also a great composer. The list you're viewing is made up of different albums like Whipped Cream & Other Delights and The Lonely Bull, along with every other studio album from Herb Alpert.
This list of popular Herb Alpert albums has been voted on by music fans around the world, so the order of this list isn't just one person's opinion. Share your opinion by voting up your favorite albums below, and voting down any albums you feel shouldn't be near the top.
Another early success story for the label was Brazilian jazz pianist Mendes, who produced a string of big-selling albums and singles, including this one from 1968 that made No. 3 on the US album charts and spent 30 weeks on the bestseller list. One of the vocalists on this album is Lani Hall, who married Herb Alpert in 1973 and the couple are still together.
Alpert told Joe Smith, "In those days for a couple of hundred bucks, you could make a record, have it pressed, put a label on it, and put it out. If somebody bites, you either turn it over for distribution or you try to hold it for yourself and get paid for the distributors, which was pretty impossible...."The Lonely Bull" was one of those rarities. It took off....Basically, we were just trying to hang on.....distributors were crying out for us to put out The Lonely Bull album....However, before a distributor received one album, Jerry made sure they were all paid up on the single. That gave us operating cash, and essentially that was the beginning of A&M Records."
One time I recorded a tune called "Mexican Drummer Man" and I had the kitchen sink in it. I had two drummers, two bass players, two guitars and I thought I would just load it up with sound and groove and pulse and it was very contrived. It didn't happen at all.
Bob Edmondson was the first member of the touring Tijuana Brass to play on a recording session led by Herb Alpert. The session was for a Baja Marimba Band session that included the songs "Maria's First Rose"and "Pedro's Porch, Part 2."
At the end of 1964, Herb Alpert created a new arrangement and recording of "Mexican Shuffle"for the Clark Gum Company. The song was used in Clark Teaberry Gum television ads with actors dancing the Teaberry Shuffle.
[The Clark Gum Company's use of the "Mexican Shuffle" for its Teaberry Gum] really helped a lot. I don't know if that was the catalyst, but it certainly didn't hurt. After The Lonely Bull there was somewhat of a lull--the records didn't catch on the same way The Lonely Bull did. I did an album called South of the Border and on it was the "Mexican Shuffle" tune. I got a call from the ad agency handling the account and they wanted to use it as the centerpiece for a commercial. So I agreed to arrange it for them and with that exposure people started to hear that sound and more got accustomed to the Tijuana Brass sound.
South of the Border, while I was mixing the album, I had one of those feelings. I had people knocking on the windows and coming in the doors. 'What's that record?' 'That's the Tijuana Brass. Remember us?' So I had a feeling something might be up with that record.
On December 20, 1965, "The Dating Game" television show premiered. It featured "Whipped Cream" during the bachelorette introductions, "Spanish Flea" for the bachelor introductions and "Lollipops and Roses as the winner's theme.
While I was working on [the Whipped Cream & Other Delights] album, the one song that stuck out, for me, was Taste of Honey. It just kept haunting me. I liked the melody. There was something about it. It was like a nice cross between jazz and pop and whatever. When it came time to release a single from the album, when we took a survey, nobody liked Taste of Honey. It was one of those records that, you know, if you analyze it, everyone usually came up with it's too long, you can't really dance to it, it stops and starts in the middle, it's not right. It's not right for radio. I said I don't know if it's not right for radio but I like it, I like the feeling of it. So we released it as Taste of Honey on the back side of the single of Third Man Theme. Well, Taste of Honey became Record of the Year, became a huge record, and that was the catalyst. From that point on, I organized the Tijuana Brass and we started traveling as a group.
Taste of Honey was the record that I chose to release as a single 'cause I felt when you work on a product for two, three, four, five months, this was the song I kept singing while taking a shower in the morning and at odd times it would just pop into my head. And most of the feedback that I got from playing this record to friends in the business, they felt it was not a hit record because it stopped in the middle and you couldn't dance to it and it didn't adhere to some of the rules they were looking for but yet I felt emotionally that it was a good record. Well, we put it out, and it became a huge record. In fact it won the Record of the Year .
Right after [the Clark Teaberry Gum commercial] came a song called Whipped Cream which was a moderate hit. It was a tune that was written for Al Hirt. Al Hirt turned it down and the publisher called me; played it over the phone for me from New Orleans. I liked it very much. He sent it the next afternoon. I recorded it and my partner got the idea of taking a collection of food titles and putting them in one album.
Animated film makers John and Faith Hubley created a 6-minute movie titled "Tijuana Brass Double Feature" that used "Spanish Flea" and "Tijuana Taxi" by the Tijuana Brass. In 1966, it won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
I noticed the taxi drivers were outrageous. I mean they would bypass streets and go across fields and take shortcuts and be honking their horns and yelling out the window and it was a lot of scary fun, you know. So I got an idea to pay tribute to them.
The Going Places album was almost complete, and Jerry called to say we had advance orders for a million and a half records. Instead of being excited, I felt a little letdown. When I translated it later, it felt like, 'Hey maybe I'm making buttons here. Maybe people are just crazed into this and are not really appreciating it for what it is.' I felt a little cheated in some odd way.
Animated film makers John and Faith Hubley created a 6-minute movie titled "Tijuana Brass Double Feature" that used "Spanish Flea"and "Tijuana Taxi" by the Tijuana Brass. In 1966, it won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
Senator Thomas Kuchel of California made a statement on the floor of the Senate praising the Tijuana Brass for its contribution to "international understanding and [promoting] cordial relations with peoples around the globe."
Billboard ranked Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass #6 on its Top Singles Artists of 1966. Billboard reported "During the first 10 months of the year, the Brass sold more than twice the number of LP's as the Beatles and more than all the soundtracks combined." From October 1966 through February 1967, the Brass was Billboard's Best Selling Artist on college campuses that were surveyed.
Bacharach called and said he wasn't happy with the way things were going while he was in London working on Casino Royale. And so he asked me if I'd put a horn on it. He sent me the tape, and it was a rush deal. I had to finish everything within three days, which I did, and rushed it back to him. And that was the theme song of Casino Royale.
Herb Alpert's Ninth sold more than 10,000 copies in the four days before Christmas in Australia. The sales qualified the album for a gold record, Alpert's tenth gold record in Australia. The preceding eight records had all gone gold and Alpert received a special cold record for being the first artist to sell over 250,000 albums in Australia.
A&M launched its first big campaign for Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. To support the release of The Beat of the Brass and the second television special, A&M created a special record rack, mobile and floor displays, Tijuana Brass posters, a Herb Alpert poster, "The Beat of the Brass" buttons and sweatshirts for retail. There were also two Herb Alpert posters from Ampex, assorted Tijuana Brass photos, easel back album covers, slick books and special order forms.
"The Beat of the Brass" television show was shown again in Britain on March 19, 1969 by BBC 1. The show was number one in the Nielsen all-time multi-network area rating between April 22 and May 5, 1968.
The director [of my television special] Jack Haley, Jr., asked me to sing a song on the show. So I called Burt Bacharach and I asked him-this is a question I typically ask to a lot of great composers-is there a song you've written in the past that either has been recorded that didn't have the right record or a tune that's tucked away in your drawer someplace that you have a special feeling for. He thought about it, called me back the next day and handed me This Guy's in Love with You. It didn't quite fit the mood of the show. The lyric content didn't so I called Hal David and we made some changes and it was on the show and it got enormous response.
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