Article about Herb

[manifan]

It can be found here:

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=603705

Some interesting information about midway through the story. Some of you may already know about Herb's early years in music but I didn't.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

To help keep our archives relevant, here is the article. (Clearly, the questioner has never been to the Corner!)

Alpert can trumpet his album successes
Posted: May 9, 2007

Q.I have always admired the career and style of Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, but I have some unanswered questions about his music.

Despite several hits with Mexican and Spanish titles ("The Lonely Bull," "Acapulco 1922," "Mexican Drummer Man," "Mexican Shuffle," "Spanish Flea," etc.), I heard none of the group was Mexican or Spanish. True or false?

Also, a friend told me the girl covered with whipped cream on the cover of the "Whipped Cream" album is singer Claudine Longet. True or false?

And, finally, before hitting the big time as an instrumentalist with "The Lonely Bull," I know Herb made some vocals. But did he record anything playing the trumpet like on his many hit albums?

- Richard Dunbar, Decatur, Ala.

A. On the first two, my answers are true and false.

True: None of the Tijuana Brass is Hispanic.

False: Claudine Longet is not the cream-drenched hottie seen on "Whipped Cream & Other Delights."

That nominee for the Dairy Products Pin-up Hall of Fame is model Dolores Erickson.

Because of the hot lights and length of time involved, only a smidgen of genuine whipped cream is in that shot. Most of what you see is shaving cream, which stays foamy much longer. Real whipping cream would have degenerated back into milk.

Answering your last question will reveal a fact that may never have been published before.

After producing several hit records for Dante and the Evergreens in 1960 and '61, Herb and Dante returned to the studio in mid-'62 to do some tunes for Imperial Records.

Dante (Don Drowty) had just put together a new group, called Dante and His Friends.

One track from that session, "The Magic Ring" (Imperial 5867), features a tricky trumpet solo by Alpert - one in which he used a then-unconventional triple overdub process.

Alpert's triple-trumpet solo on "The Magic Ring" is likely the underpinning of a style that would, in a matter of a few weeks, make him an international star.

For the record, Alpert did play trumpet on a few earlier sessions for other artists, particularly the Untouchables, but none involves the sound he fashioned for "The Magic Ring."

IZ ZAT SO? Herb Alpert can claim two of history's more remarkable album-chart feats.

For the first week of April 1966, he and the Tijuana Brass held four of Billboard's Top 10 positions: No. 2, "Going Places"; No. 3, "Whipped Cream & Other Delights"; No. 9, "South of the Border"; and No. 10, "The Lonely Bull."

Equally impressive is that for four consecutive weeks - Dec. 23, 1967, to Jan. 20, 1968 - eight Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass albums continuously resided in the Top 100.

They include the above four, still there since 1965, plus "Sounds Like," "S.R.O.," "What Now My Love" and "Herb Alpert's Ninth."

Write Jerry Osborne at Box 255, Port Townsend, WA 98368; www.jerryosborne.com. World Features Syndicate

 

[DAN BOLTON]

I will be looking for THE MAGIC RING...



Dan