🎵 AotW AOTW: Herb Alpert & TJB - SOLID BRASS (A&M SP 4341)

[LPJim]

Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
SOLID BRASS
A&M SP4341

Track/Time/Source

SIDE ONE
The Work Song/2:10/ SP 4119
This Guy's In Love With You/ 3:55/ SP 4146
Slick/ 3:29/ SP 4146
The Maltese Melody/ 2:13/ SP 4228
So What's New/ 2:07/ SP 4114
Jerusalem/ 2:33/ SP 4314
Flamingo/ 2:25/ SP 4119

SIDE TWO
What Now My Love/ 2:18/ SP 4114
Without Her/ 3:15/ SP 4190
Casino Royale/ 2:35/ SP 4124
A Banda/ 2:10/ SP 4134
Summertime/ 2:10/ SP 4314
Acapulco 1922/ 2:38/ SP 4101
Wade In The Water / 3:03/ SP 4124.

Produced by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss/ Arranged by Herb Alpert/ Engineer Larry Levine/ Mastering Engineer Bernie Grundman/ "This Guy's ..." and "Casino ..." orchestrated by Burt Bacharach/ Art Direction Roland Young/ Album Design by Chuck Beeson/ Photography by Jim McCrary.

SOLID BRASS (SP 4341) was reissued as SP/CD 3268

JB

 

[Dave]

A good companion set to the Herb Alpert & TjB's Greatest Hits and especially the Foursider compilations, but some overlaps on both.

Had this one Still-Sealed, too. Sold all three comps when Definitive Hits came out (and added some '45's to my collection, as well).

Dave

 

[Captain Bacardi]

I used to play this album all the time. It was pretty much the second volume of Greatest Hits. With this album I heard for the first time tunes as "Casino Royale", "Wade In The Water", "Maltese Melody", "Jerusalem" and "Summertime". To be honest, I like this collection better than the actual Greatest Hits, Vol. 2. I thought the back cover photo was really cool as well. Truly a favorite of mine!


Capt. Bacardi

 

[Rudy]

My vote for strangest front cover photo, though...is he yawning, trying to sing, or belching after a couple of cans of Blatz?

 

[daveK]

Very excellent compilation! More TJB for your money, vinyl-wise, on this album with 14 tracks. "Acapulco 1922" kind of seems out of place though, considering that all the other tracks are from WHAT NOW MY LOVE and forward.
I remember first buying the LP when I was in high school (as a silver label reissue) and hating that it said "this album no longer available" under most of the album titles that indicated each song's original source.

 

[Rudy]

One other thing that was strange on later compilations was seeing "Solid Brass" listed as the source of the song. (Didn't the TJB's Greatest Hits Vol. 2 do this?)

 

[DAN BOLTON]

My vote for strangest front cover photo, though...is he yawning, trying to sing, or belching after a couple of cans of Blatz?

If it was a wild beach party[as the cover always suggested to me...] he might be doing all three at once...


Dan

 

[Steven J. Gross]

Just a real bad cover- but the best "best of", IMHO.

 

[Rudy]

My vote for strangest front cover photo, though...is he yawning, trying to sing, or belching after a couple of cans of Blatz?

If it was a wild beach party[as the cover always suggested to me...] he might be doing all three at once...

Welcome to Karaoke Night in Malibu.

 

[TonyCurrie]

Oddly enough, I'd hauled out my copy of SOLID BRASS yesterday morning in order to play a track on the radio. (Aside: "Flamingo" was the theme tune for a DJ friend who died on Friday. His name was Tony Allan, he was Irish and quite simply one of the bext broadcasters of all time. I wanted to play his theme just one last time in memory of a friend. But I digress...) It was slightly spooky coming in to the BBC to find SOLID BRASS as AOTW.

I always really liked this compilation. When I bought it there were a couple of tracks I didn't have (no longer the case) and it was for many years a favourite to sling on the turntable when I was in the mood for a little TJB.

I reckoned Herb was doing a kinda "Yaay" on the front.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I remember spotting this in the local record store through the window - about breaking the doors down to get in there -- and being "Solid Bummed" when it was yet another hits collection.

The song selection IS strong though, except it should have SEA IS MY SOIL dagnabbit!

 

[Rudy]

Now that I think of it, this was the first TJB album that I actually bought myself, in stereo yet. Prior to that, I was playing all of my parents' mono LPs (up through "Sounds Like", then Dad began buying stereo LPs).

 

[LPJim]

Many years ago I found the LP version for 50 cents at an estate sale - along with many other albums in mint condition.
Got a really pleasant surprise while thumbing through traded-in CDs last year when "CD 3268" showed up in the $8 pile. Grabbed it with no hesitation whatsoever.
JB

Wondering why people trade in discs that may never be in print again, online

 

[Michael Hagerty]

I always thought Herb was jogging on the beach.......


---Michael Hagerty
(second-guessing himself 32 years later, online)

 

[Numero Cinco]

An interesting and tuneful, if somewhat offbeat, collection. In terms of stylistic evolution, it seems to me essentially "second"-, maybe "third"-stage TJB, which I tend to chart as starting with S.R.O. And so the presence of "Acapulco 1922" baffles me.

Still, it's a good compilation, enhanced by the fact that you get 14 instead of the usual 12 tracks.

 

[Brasil_Nut]

I always thought it was stronger than Greatest Hits in the way of song selection. A fine representation of the TJB sound.

Jon

 

[Captaindave]

With the exception of Acapulco 1922, it is a very good selection of post-GOING PLACES songs.

One thing I can say about the TJB is that I can find songs and sounds that I like and enjoy hearing from all the different TJB "eras," so to speak. Sometimes, it just depends what sort of "listening mood" I happen to be in at the time...

 

[Numero Cinco]

brasil_nut: I always thought it was stronger than Greatest Hits in the way of song selection.

I agree. I was always mystified that Greatest Hits, so-called, included tracks like "A-Mer-i-Ca" and "Never on Sunday." Maybe at the time that first compilation was released, the boys included those in their concert repertoire and thought their inclusion again on vinyl would boost sales.