Any special associations with the TJB's music?

[4haverstocks]

Hi guys.

I know this topic may be a bit off the wall, but hey, isn't that what the internet is for?...

My introduction to the TJB was as a little kid learning to ice-skate in the mid-60s. The rink where I went for lessons always played their music over the sound system. Even though many years have passed, their music still reminds me of ice-skating, and I still remember how much fun it was to skate to those tunes. As I think about it now, it seems like the ideal music to skate by... upbeat, fun, lyrical, even exhilarating sometimes.

The funny thing is, awhile back I was casually mentioning the TJB to a friend, and out of the blue she said it always reminded her of ice-skating, because it turns out that she'd had a similar experience.

Anyway, does anybody else find that hearing the TJB today conjures any special memories or associations? Just wondering.

 

[Harry]

I recall going to a summer festival fun-fair in York, Pennsylvania back in the mid-'60s. I was already a Tijuana Brass fan and was delighted to hear Herb's music blaring from a ride at this fair. I clearly remember too that it was side two of GOING PLACES that I was hearing. Talk about making an impression! I don't even remember yesterday's lunch...

Harry

 

[whippedflea]

I can remember being pre-school age and watching all the network game shows from 12:30 in the afternoon until 3:00 when my Mom's soap opera's came on. I was too young then to be attracted to the leggy blonde girls, but the bachelor/bachelorette intro music was Herb's version of "Lolipops & Roses." I watched it for that. Unfortunately, the show was off the air in my area by the time I was 14 and really could enjoy the visuals.

 

[whippedflea]

Oh wait...did I mention the show was THE DATING GAME? Man, I'm forgetful.

 

[DAN BOLTON]

I've never been rich or fortunate enough to visit Southern California, but made the annual Christmas/summer vacation treks to Southwest Florida to visit my grandparents from 1962-1978. The Spanish architecture, the local culture[especially the exotic placenames like Ponce de Leon, Boca Raton, Bahia Honda, etc...] really put me in a TJB mood.

Also, the first time I heard the TJB play HURT SO BAD was on WINK radio in Grandpa's Caddy De Ville in downtown Fort Myers. And, I heard Lucille Starr singing JOLIE JAQUELINE on the way home from Florida in 1965...somewhere near Betsy Layne, Kentucky. I thought it was a new TJB recording at the time, with Herb's trumpet solo...

Heard the Longines Symphonette Society's TJB collection at a friends' house in Tennessee on a Florida jaunt, too.

Talk about GOING PLACES...



Dan

 

[david]

My "Introduction" to the TJB was in Junior High - 7th grade. "Sounds Like" was big at the time. I remember the cheerleaders doing some type of dance routine to "Flamingo" and "Third Man Theme."
The clincher for me was when I was 13 (I am embarrassed to share this) I had a crush on a girl in 9th grade - Herb's number one hit "This Guys in Love With You" was on all the time and I just fell into my own world - it, the song, the words, conveyed exactly how I felt for this "Woman" of fourteen!
No other performer summed it all up like Herb did on that song.
Perfect escape from the news and stress of assassinations, Vietnam, race riots, and the bully's picking fights.

David

 

[cubsfan Joe]

The year was 1965. My Dad just bought Going Places. I remember I would sit in the kitchen on Saturday afternoons and was allowed to play records on a portable phonograph. My mom worked so my Dad would make me a snack and I would sit in the kitchen and listen to The Lonely Bull & Going Places. This was my intro to the TJB. However I would pick up the needle and skip "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You". For some reason I did not like that song. But then again I was only 5 years old!! I am happy to say that "Sentimental" is one of my favorites now.....Oh and by the way...GO BEARS!!!!!

 

[Numero Cinco]

… The clincher for me was when I was 13 (I am embarrassed to share this) I had a crush on a girl in 9th grade - Herb's number one hit "This Guys in Love With You" was on all the time and I just fell into my own world - it, the song, the words, conveyed exactly how I felt for this "Woman" of fourteen! … Perfect escape from the news and stress of assassinations, Vietnam, race riots, and the bully's picking fights.

That's not embarrassing—that's human! And it's a sweet story, to boot!

I think the earliest LP my parents got me—as a Christmas gift, perhaps—was Whipped Cream. The song I immediately fell in love with was "Green Peppers." Our amplifier was only monaural, the disc was stereo; so I had to run back and forth, from one room to another, to switch the input line so I could hear that song's piano instead of marimba, or marimba instead of piano. Likewise, I had to choose whether I'd hear it this time with bass, the next time with drums!

I wasn't yet old enough to appreciate that album's cover, though that came soon enough. In fact, Delores may have helped usher me into puberty, as I studied all the shadows in those swirls of Barbasol. By then I may have begun hazarding associations with that input plug into the jack, but I doubt I was that sophisticated.

Not long afterwards, my older brother asked me if I had heard a TJB song that had this funky, percussive syncopation. (That's not how he put the question; instead, he tried to play it for me on his alto sax!) He'd heard it at a party somewhere. I had no idea what he was talking about—until about six months later, when (probably for my birthday) I was given South of the Border. The moment I heard the introductory marimba on "Salud, Amor Y Dinero," I knew I'd landed the song. Some forty years later, I've tried to thank him by sending him copies of all the new Signature reissues.

I also have a less happy association with another early album. My father recognized the TJB sound but knew nothing about the people who made it. When, during this same era (the American South, early–mid-60s), he saw the cover of The Lonely Bull, I remember my father asking me, "Is Herb Alpert a Negro?" Mercifully, neither of my parents was racist, but to this day I wince when I see that cover, because I'm embarrassed by his innocent question. In those days, in that part of the world, none of us had ever seen a Latino; even less could we make the association that the photographer was suggesting.

 

[TonyCurrie]

I'm pretty sure I've told this story before, but as my wife will be quick to point out, that's NEVER stopped me before!

Back in 60s Scotland, TV programmes were pretty much only an evening thing. The two TV channels that we had would open up for an hour or so at lunchtime, and perhaps a few educational broadcasts during daytime - but not much until programmes proper began at 5pm.

Now, I was very much a product of the slowly-dawning media age. I lived and breathed television and radio just as I do today. So like many thousands of my generation, I'd turn the TV on as soon as I got home, even though there were no programmes to be seen.

But there was what we Brits call "The test Card". Ours was a mixture of lines, shades and shapes, and not a Red Indian head to be seen.

And to accompany what was up to 10 hours each day of this, there was music.

The BBC commissioned music specially for this purpose, and you couldn't buy it in the shops. (Well, not until I and my business partner brought out a CD of Test Card Music back in 1998 - it sold 500 copies an hour in the HMV store in London's Oxford Street the day it came out. A good measure of how many kids had been out there watching in the 60s.)

The commercial TV channel naturally did something different - they played newly released instrumental discs, which they changed every six months. And the same disc at the same time every day.

So lunchtime - at a time when I, too was running home to get away from bullies, crabby teachers and miserable Scottish weather - meant bolting down a plate of food and then turning on the TV for 20 minutes relaxation before running back to school for the afternoon.

And lunchtime was WHIPPED CREAM. And then later the slot was occupied by GOING PLACES.

That's how I got hooked. And no matter where I am and what I'm doing, the minute I put on WCAOD, I'm back home, watching that familiar test card, making the most of not being at school.

 

[Harry]

Interesting, Tony - and odd that that's how I became acquainted with some of Bert Kaempfert's music. Our local Channel 48 here in Philly, when it first signed on would track Bert Kaempfert's music during their test pattern periods, and even used one of his tracks ("That Happy Feeling") under their legal ID every half hour. To this day, when I hear that song, I'm instantly transmitted back to the 1960s and can still hear the announcer reciting, "Channel 48, WKBS-TV, Burlington-Philadelphia, a Kaiser Broadcasting Station." It's odd too that in recent years, I got to work with that very announcer (John Carlton), who was a part-time DJ on our nostalgia AM station before it changed formats a couple of years ago.

Memories are amazing sometimes.

Harry

 

[Numero Cinco]

But there was what we Brits call "The test Card". Ours was a mixture of lines, shades and shapes, and not a Red Indian head to be seen. … And to accompany what was up to 10 hours each day of this, there was music. … The BBC commissioned music specially for this purpose, and you couldn't buy it in the shops. (Well, not until I and my business partner brought out a CD of Test Card Music back in 1998 - it sold 500 copies an hour in the HMV store in London's Oxford Street the day it came out. A good measure of how many kids had been out there watching in the 60s.)

That test card is fairly mesmerizing. Have you and your partner considered obtaining the rights to it, for markerting as a computer-screen's desktop?

And if you ever do, I'd like at least 2% of gross sales of every unit you sell!

 

[Mr Bill]

Tony, what's that word "Croydon" at the bottom of the test pattern? There was a Damend song called "Croydon" back in the 80s and I wonder if there's a connection...

--Mr Bill

 

[Captaindave]

The very first time I ever heard anything by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass was when I was in 6th grade. That was in 1962-1963. We had this little talent show in school and a couple guys got up with their band instruments and pretended to play along with Acapulco 1922. The Lonely Bull album would have been recently released.

Later, in early 1966, after I started trumpet lessons, my father - a high school band director - brought home some trumpet records for me to listen to, among which were Al Hirt, Raphael Mendez, and Herb Alpert. I listened to all of if, but found that Herb was playing music that was accessible to young players like me. No way could I play what Hirt or Mendez played, but the TJB music was being played in high school bands and song books could be purchased that contained music that was playable by kids.

Then, just before my junior year in high school (1967-1968), several of us in the high school band formed a TJB "tribute" band, and used those brass/accompaniment books that you could buy in the music stores by Hansen and Key Pops publishers.

We kept that band together for about five years.

So, I heard TJB music for the first time when I was in the 6th grade, but later on in late junior high and high school when the TJB had become extremely well known was when I actually became a big fan. Being a trumpet player myself and playing the music probably helped a lot.

Along with those developments came a lot of memories that combine that music and numerous musical and social experiences that link it all together for me.

 

[TonyCurrie]

Tony, what's that word "Croydon" at the bottom of the test pattern? There was a Damend song called "Croydon" back in the 80s and I wonder if there's a connection...

--Mr Bill

In the mid 60s each transmitter had its own test card - in fact the picture came from the transmitter site rather than the studios, because in those days the transmitters had flying spot slide scanners which were used for the test card and for breakdown captions if the link from the studio was lost for any reason.

The letters ITA stood for "Independent Television Authority", there then followed the name of the transmitting site and its channel number. Croydon was the London transmitter, and the transmitting tower is situated in the south London suburb of Croydon. In fact I cheated a bit because I didn't have quick web access to the 'right' card for where I lived in Scotland, which was for "Black Hill Ch.10". Some transmitters fed unmanned relays, so the names of the relays were on the card as well. This got rather awkward (and the font got smaller and smaller) in Wales where the card was labelled "ITA Presely Ch.8 Arfon Ch.10 Moel-y-Parc Ch.11" so they abandoned that idea and relabelled the cards "ITA Scottish Television" and so forth for each local station. (Dammit I could bore for Scotland with this stuff....)

Your fault, Mr. Bill, you got me started.....

 

[WinkyDink]

I was in the stands that are pictured on the back of the album "SRO"! It was the Allentown Fair, I was in high school, and the TJB were awesome!
(I also saw TBMB there a different summer, and ran into Julius as he was strolling the grounds!)

 

[[email protected]]

My first exposure to Herb and the TJB was at the age of five in 1968. I was living in San Antonio, Tx; and the worlds fair, or Hemisfair as it was known, featured a peformance by Herb and the TJB! It was a great show, and I used to get the biggest kick telling people that was the first live concert I ever saw. I have been a huge Herb A and A&M fan ever since! I love the new CD re-released albums.

 

[jimac51]

Well,I hope this is rally a memory and something made from fragmented facts.
The single,"Mae",(from a dreadful all-star cast international movie bomb titled,"The Yellow Rolls Royce")which would eventually be included in GOING PLACES,got considerable airplay in 1965,before "A Taste Of Honey." I can see in my mind's eye the TJB appearing on the Mike Douglas show,a talk/entertainment daily show that was a mid-day version of the Tonight Show. Mike had considerable charm and a pleasant crooning voice,so music was a big part of the show. Many rockers are aware that Mike's interesting angle was to have a guest host stay of an entire week-John Lennon & Yoko Ono guest hosted in 1972-they were probably the most famous and unusual choice for a chatty,entertaining show for middle aged housewives. But this summer 1965 episode had the TJB on as a musical guest. "Mae",the current single,came on strong,though it had to be lip synched. Anyway,the visual and the slow grinding hook of "Mae" did it for me. What was interesting that the show was taped in Philly,just a few miles were I was watching in the suburbs.
A few years later,while commuting to college,I rode on the bus with a cameraman who worked on the Douglas show. This guy had some great stories-the one I remember is that whenever Sammy Davis Jr. was on, the crew was always treated to a great meal-possibly the cameraman said that Sammy actually cooked it. The taping schedule called for two shows to be taped on Thursday so Mike could do Vegas weekend's and such and that was the day that Sammy treated everyone. Sammy respected those who did the behind the scenes stuff. Mac

 

[jimac51]

A followup to WinkyDink's memories at the Great Allentown Fair.
BTW,a belated welcome Ms. Dink, from a fellow resident of the Lehigh Valley. Our fan division has now increased by 100%. I did not come up here till 1973,so I missed out on the TJB concerts at the fair. In fact,outside of the Hess Dept. Store fashion shows broadcast on Philly TV and once my family getting lost in Allentown from a Pocono Mt. vacation trip(we ate dinner at the City Vu Diner,and I remembered that the first time I visited there as an adult),Allentown could have been beyondthe moon as far as I knew but the ads in Philly newspapers for the fair made me envious of such a place where the Brass would play outdoors. And,insult to injury,one of my best friends got to go there and didn't tell me till school started weeks later.
With the Shout reissues of the TJB catalog,I was thinking of a way to get a mention in the Allentown newspaper,The Morning Call. They have an occasional column titled "Ask Frank",where the columnist digs up some historical info of a place or time relating to the Valley. I asked him via email about the Brass photo. I said it probably is the most widely distributed photo in the paper's history,trying to play up the angle that the paper could boast taking part in the story. This could have been another nice trip down Fair memory lane;maybe find people such as yourself that remember the shows,the era,other small details about the mid-'60s Fair,etc.
Not even a reply that he wouldn't do it. And,as usual,the dolts who run the entertainment pages and reviews(except for free lance film columnist Amy Longsdorf-a fine read)just wouldn't get it and probably laugh at any thought of a TJB reissue review. Mac

 

[Captaindave]

That photo on the back of the SRO album is one of the most interesting of all photos, with the view from the back of the stage at Allentown out toward the audience. The credit for the photo is just beneath the photo on the album cover.

Where was the fair footage taken which is shown on the BOTB video? It is either the Illinois or Indiana State Fair...circa 1967 since it appears on the 1968 BOTB video? I think it is the Indiana State Fair...

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Mac - maybe he's saving your note for use during this year's fair, maybe in the summer? Just a thought.

 

[jimac51]

Mike-I guess it is certainly possible that Frank will visit the topic this year,which would be the 40th anniversary date of the shows,I believe.
I probably emailed him around this time last year,to give him some time for the column to coincide with the June release date for the CD ;or,if he wanted,wait to use the story later in the year. The fair traditionally hovers around Labor Day-nowadays the holiday is the last day of the fair.
I never brought this up as a topic before because if the column went on as I hoped,it would have been a pleasant surprise to the fans here. Mac

 

[WinkyDink]

Hi, jimac51!
If I'd known then what I know now about getting good tickets, I'd have been in the front on the track!
And yes, that is an awesome photo; how many see the performer's perspective?
The Morning-Call is a shell of its former self; what can you do?

 

[jimac51]

It is safe to say that Winkydink and myself are the only forum members here that can safely pronounce the words Schnecksville,Scheonersville Rd,know what Schnect Tech is(Lehigh County Community College) and know that a Koncrete Kid(the mascot of an area High School) can be a good thing if you're on their side. Also,we know the link between former auto exec Lee Iacocca and Yocco's hot dogs(uncles and cousins). Thank goodness I don't live in nearby Monroe County-having a town named after an athlete(Jim Thorpe,Pa.) is one thing-it's that Mahoning/Mahonoy stuff that gets me tongue-tied. Mac