His trumpet provided the soundtrack of the SWINGING ’60s
Herb Alpert and his Grammy-winning wife Lani Hall perform May 14 at Hamilton’s FirstOntario Concert Hall
When the name Herb Alpert comes to mind, you probably think trumpet. It’s hard not to. There was a time when the sound of Alpert’s horn seemed to be everywhere, a seemingly endless stream of earworms by Alpert’s band The Tijuana Brass —“The Lonely Bull” (1962), “A Taste of Honey” (1965), “Tijuana Taxi” (1965), “The Happening” (1967) … and on and on.
Those peppy instrumentals outsold the Beatles and The Rolling Stones in 1966 (13 million records in that year alone). You didn’t just hear them on the radio, they were piped into shopping malls, grocery stores and, yes, elevators.
There were those relentless Teaberry chewing gum ads with people on the street doing their cute little dance to the sound of Alpert’s “Mexican Shuffle.” There’s a good chance those ads were shown during episodes of “The Dating Game,” which used Alpert’s “Spanish Flea” as its theme. Movies too — Alpert’s rendition of “Casino Royale” was one of the few goods things about the 1967 James Bond spoof of the same name (along with Dusty Springfield’s “Look of Love”).
Alpert’s trumpet was the soundtrack of the Swinging ’60s . What could have been more “swinging” than the cover of “Whipped Cream and Other Delights,” which featured a naked model slathered in a frothy cream (Alpert insists it was shaving cream). “Whipped Cream” topped the American album charts in 1966.
But it wasn’t just the trumpet. After inundating the world with six years of delightfully cheesy instrumentals, Alpert decided to bring his voice out of the closet … with a little help from his good friend Burt Bacharach.
That move would result in Alpert’s first, and best-loved, No. 1 hit single — “This Guy’s in Love With You.” He’s certain to sing it, along with a medley of The Tijuana Brass hits, when he performs May 14 at Hamilton’s FirstOntario Centre with his Grammy-winning wife Lani Hall and their band.
How Alpert made the transition from horn blower to lovelorn crooner is an interesting tale. So The Spectator caught up with Alpert at his Malibu, Calif., home to ask him about it and a few other things, like co-founding one of the world’s most successful independent labels — A&M Records and his experiences with a few of its artists like The Carpenters, Waylon Jennings and The Sex Pistols.
The story opens in 1968 on the set of one of The Tijuana Brass’s many TV appearances, this one called “The Beat of the Brass.” Director Jack Haley Jr. turned to him and said, “I want you to try to sing a song, I’m tired of filming you with a trumpet in your mouth all the time.”
Alpert never thought of himself a singer, but why not give it a try?
So he called up his pal Bacharach, the hottest songwriter in the business, and asked if he had anything sitting around that would fit his limited vocal range. Herb trusted Burt. They had already worked together on “Casino Royale.”
Bacharach suggested “This Girl’s in Love with You,” a tune he had written with Dionne Warwick in mind (Warwick would release her own version in 1969).
“I liked it and thought I could handle it,” Alpert says. There was a problem, however, with the lyrics. He needed them written for a guy, not a girl. So, he got in touch with Bacharach’s lyricist Hal David and asked if he would rewrite the gender. A few tweaks and it was good to go. (We’ll get back to David later).
Alpert took “This Guy” into the studio, with Bacharach arranging the strings and playing piano. After the instrumentals were done, Alpert took to the microphone to see if he could find the right key. He wasn’t sure if his voice was up to it.
The musicians gathered in the control booth to listen. “I sang it once through and went into the control room to see how it worked,” Alpert recalls. “And they all said, ‘don’t touch it. Don’t change it. It’s just perfect.’
“When it was released, it became No. 1 in just two weeks,” Alpert says. “It was a great song, the rendition was right, and the timing was perfect.”
Now back to Hal David. As he was leaving David’s office with the new lyrics for “This Guy,” Alpert asked the lyricist if he and Burt had any other songs kicking around that might suit his voice. Alpert left David’s office with a sweet little number called “Close To You.” Actor Richard Chamberlain, star of the hit TV series “Dr. Kildare” had recorded the song in 1963, but nobody had noticed.
“I really liked it, until I recorded the song as a possible follow-up (to ‘This Guy’),” Alpert says about “Close to You.” “My dear friend Larry Levine was the head of engineering at A&M … I asked Larry what he thought of it and he said, ‘Man, you sound terrible.’ So I dropped it and put it in the drawer.”
“Close To You” would stay in that drawer for more than a year.
As co-owner of A&M, the label he had formed with his partner Jerry Moss in 1962, Alpert had gained a
After inundating the world with six years of delightfully cheesy instrumentals, Herb Alpert decided to bring his voice out of the closet … with a little help from his good friend Burt Bacharach
reputation for having a nose for talent. Alpert and Moss had reinvested the income from The Tijuana Brass to record a wide range of other artists. By 1970, their roster included Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66, Joe Cocker, Cat Stevens and a fresh-faced brother-and-sister act known as The Carpenters.
Alpert saw big things happening for Richard and Karen Carpenter, but others had doubts. The Carpenters seemed a little too wholesome at a time when acts like Led Zeppelin were grabbing the attention of the teen market.
The Carpenters initial A&M release, 1969’s “Ticket to Ride,” had barely put a dent in the charts. They needed a song to match Karen’s ohso-sweet voice.
Alpert pulled “Close to You” out of the drawer and handed it to Richard to arrange for his sister Karen. The result was as big as “This Guy.” It remained at No. 1 in America for four weeks. It also won The Carpenters a Grammy.
Bacharach and Alpert would remain “dear-dear” friends until Bacharach’s death in February. Even during COVID, they would have weekly phone chats. They shared enormous amounts of fame, but were often too busy with their work to appreciate its impact. For them, Alpert says, it was always about the next song.
“He was writing songs for some kid in Nashville and I’d say, ‘How you doing musically’ and he would say, ‘Oh man I can’t think of a f---ing ending for this song.’
“That was Burt,” Alpert says, “he wasn’t thinking about ‘Alfie’ and all the s --- he wrote back when, he was thinking about how to finish the next song.”
At 87, Alpert’s mind is sharp, his memories vivid. He is well spoken and an engaging interview.
When asked why he co-founded a record label at the age of 27, Alpert replies that it was nothing special. Back in 1962, a lot of people in Los Angeles were running labels out of their car trunk, he says. At least he had a garage.
But the real reason is because of his pre-Tijuana Brass stint with RCA Records. The big label, he says, made him feel more like a number than an artist.
“I didn’t like the way I was being treated,” Alpert says about his 18 months at RCA. “I was being treated like I was a number. I’d be in the studio and they’d say ‘7872775 take two’ … I didn’t have a name; I was a number.
“I thought if I was going to start a recording company, it would be about the artist, any deal would revolve around the artist.”
When asked how A&M treated artists differently, Alpert talks about one of his early signings, a budding country singer named Waylon Jennings. Alpert wanted to steer Jennings in a more pop-oriented direction.
Alpert learned through the grapevine that Chet Atkins, one of the most powerful names in country music, was hoping to sign Jennings to RCA’s country division.
“Waylon was so excited when Chet Atkins reached out to him because Chet was THE guy in country music,” Alpert says. “So Jerry (Moss) and I decided to let him out of his contract. We thought that was in Waylon’s best interest. I remember he was almost crying when we told him. I remember the day that we signed his release. I said to Jerry this guy is going to be a big artist and Jerry said, ‘yeah, I know it.’”
Despite losing Jennings, that “artist first” philosophy eventually paid off for A&M. The Carpenter’s initial hit was followed by Carole King’s “Tapestry,” one of the biggest selling records of all time. More big signings followed — Peter Frampton, The Police, Bryan Adams, Supertramp, Janet Jackson and many more.
In 1989, Alpert and Moss sold A&M to Polygram for $500 million.
Not all of the A&M signings were happy ones. The Sex Pistols signed with A&M in 1977 after the band had been dropped by EMI because of their outrageous behaviour.
Alpert was not impressed. He saw The Sex Pistols as a bad fit for the label. He killed the contract one week after the signing.
“I told our guy, Gil Friesen was the president at that particular time, to get rid of these guys,” Alpert says. “I don’t to be around that type of energy. Negative energy doesn’t work for me. I don’t care how much money you can make from them. It was a bad signing. I don’t want to be around that type of energy. I don’t want them on the A&M lot.”
‘‘ I know I can give a lot of pleasure out there to people who like my music and it gives me pleasure to be able to do that. I love playing the trumpet.
HERB ALPERT MUSICIAN
Except for a brief period in the ’70s, Alpert has never stopped playing his trumpet. He feels he plays better now than he did 20 years ago, maybe 40, and he continues to record on a regular basis, his latest came in 2012, an album called “Sunny Side of the Street.”
Alpert believes his music is still finding new audiences, noting that two years his Tijuana Brass song “Ladyfingers” became a huge hit on Tik Tok.
He has been touring regularly with his wife, the Grammy-winning jazz singer Lani Hall, for the past 12 years.
He met Hall back in the ’60s when she was singing with Brail ’66. The couple will celebrate 50 years of marriage in December.
Alpert doesn’t perform because he needs the money. His Herb Alpert Foundation has donated tens of millions of dollars to benefit arts education for young people.
“It’s something that I still need to do,” Alpert says about his upcoming tour. “I’ve been very successful and sold a lot of records, but I know I can give a lot of pleasure out there to people who like my music and it gives me pleasure to be able to do that. I love playing the trumpet.”