When did Herb's CDs go out of print?

[Andrew T.]

Hello. I've "lurked" around A&M Corner and the forums for a while, and have been impressed with what I have seen. I'm fairly new to the world of Mr. Alpert's music, but of course I have heard some of it from time to time and I have liked what I have heard. One day, I was in the mall, and I came across a table set up in the aisle pettling hordes of old comic books, baseball cards, record albums, and other knick-knacks. Since I love to browse through old records, I started to dig through the first unsorted pile. I first came across a mono cover (with nothing inside) of !!Going Places!!. Digging a little deeper, I then saw a well-used stereo copy of !!Going Places!! with a water-damaged ochre label. Moving to the next stack, I then came across a stereo !!Going Places!! with barely a blemish and with plastic still clinging to the cover. It cost 50 cents, although I'm an impoverished college student nowhere near a turntable right now.
So, that's my story. On to what I've been wondering: Out of curiosity, when was something by Herb Alpert other than Defective Hits and his relatively recent Almo output last in print? And, when did most of his catalogue released on CD go out of print?

 

[Harry]

Welcome, Andrew - love the avatar. We don't often see anyone sporting the excellent 80's era label art.

The story of Herb's CDs goes like this. Back in the '80s, when CDs were first being introduced to the public, A&M began its back-catalog releases. First up for the TJB was the Christmas Album, since it happened to be that time of year. In Japan, several releases were done on the Pony-Canyon label, an A&M affiliate over there. I personally picked up Whipped Cream and Other Delights and SRO. At that point, I was in heaven - being able to hear my much-loved TJB albums on my new CD player was a real treat.

By 1988, A&M in the US decided to release some TJB albums on CD, and started at the beginning, Lonely Bull through What Now My Love, then they added Beat Of The Brass. Meantime, Herb's solo CDs began getting the release treatment, Rise up to whatever was current at the time. As new Herb Alpert releases came, they were added to the catalog.

The old TJB CDs came and went pretty quickly. They weren't in print all that long, and I suspect didn't sell all that well. Let's face it - back in the '80s, a lot of us old geezers weren't all that married to the new CD format.

In Japan, a few releases that didn't come out here got released: The Brass Are Comin' and Beyond. These are highly sought after these days.

Around the turn of the century, Herb and Universal (the new owners of A&M), came to an agreement of sorts after lots of litigation. The end result was that all of the older titles went out of print while a new release, Definitive Hits served as the replacement.

We hear that Herb and his minions are pouring over the old masters - to what end we can only speculate, but there is hope that 'something' is on the horizon.

Harry
...off to TV land, online...