Favorite Albums, Album Covers, Songs from Herb's Career

I am a newer member. To be honest, I haven't gone through all of the existing threads. So, perhaps something like this has already been done. If so, I'm assuming the moderator(s) will simply not approve this thread (if it works that way).

I thought I would list various categories and name perhaps five of my personal favorites from each category. I would also try to avoid (as much as possible) expounding upon my choices in order to keep from posting something too long and boring. Of course, I hope that others would reveal their favorites as well. With that said, here goes:

Favorite TJB albums:
1. Warm
2. Sounds Like . . .
3. What Now My Love
4. Whipped Cream & Other Delights
5. !!Going Places!!

Favorite TJB songs:
1. The Sea Is My Soil
2. Wade In The Water
3. A Taste Of Honey
4. What Now My Love
5. Shades Of Blue

Favorite TJB album covers:
1. What Now My Love
2. Warm (in large part due to the back cover photo)
3. Greatest Hits
4. South Of The Border
5. Volume 2
Note: I guess it's blasphemy that WCAOD isn't on my list of favorite album covers. Even though I'm hetero, I suppose I got over my fascination with this cover a long time ago. I can't explain it much further than that.

Favorite HA solo career albums:
1. Second Wind (my opinion: most consistent throughout)
2. Fandango (contains my two favorite HA solo career songs)
3. Magic Man
4. Steppin' Out
5. Under A Spanish Moon

Favorite HA solo career songs:
1. Route 101
2. Coco Loco
3. Rise
4. Kamali
5. Beyond

Favorite HA solo career covers:
1. Under A Spanish Moon
2. Magic Man
3. Fandango
4. North On South Street
5. Bullish
 
Although Herb is regarded more as an instrumentalist than a vocalist, one of my favourite recordings is 'This Guy's In Love with You'. You couldn't get a vocal performance much more chilled and relaxed than that! It's great! Of the instrumental tracks, I still particularly like 'Route 101'. I used to play it non-stop when it was a single. I have about twelve Herb Alpert or Tijuana Brass albums and my favourite is probably 'Summertime'. Once again, I like the relaxed, loose, good-time, 1971 feel of the album. The vocal track, 'Summertime', is wonderful. It makes me think of.... summer time. There are a lot of good album covers. I like the design on 'Bullish'. A lot of the covers with photos of Herb are also great.
 
Although Herb is regarded more as an instrumentalist than a vocalist, one of my favourite recordings is 'This Guy's In Love with You'. You couldn't get a vocal performance much more chilled and relaxed than that! It's great! Of the instrumental tracks, I still particularly like 'Route 101'. I used to play it non-stop when it was a single. I have about twelve Herb Alpert or Tijuana Brass albums and my favourite is probably 'Summertime'. Once again, I like the relaxed, loose, good-time, 1971 feel of the album. The vocal track, 'Summertime', is wonderful. It makes me think of.... summer time. There are a lot of good album covers. I like the design on 'Bullish'. A lot of the covers with photos of Herb are also great.
I agree with all you said.

The vocal on "This Guy's In Love With You" is so simple, yet perfect. When I was a kid I thought that singing was about technique. As I've gotten older I've realized that singing is more about conveying the message contained in the lyrics of any given song. So, could there ever be a better vocal performance of "This Guy's In Love With You" than the one Herb gave on that recording? I cannot imagine anyone improving upon his vocal performance of that song.

I also really like what you said about "Summertime". I love that song as well. So light and summery. I think that's a big reason for the lifelong appeal of Herb's music to me. So much of his music transports me to warm places in my mind. The song "Summertime" always finds itself on any TJB playlist I come up with.

Thank you for posting your thoughts!
 
I agree with all you said. Could there ever be a better vocal performance of "This Guy's In Love With You" than the one Herb gave on that recording? I cannot imagine anyone improving upon his vocal performance of that song. I also really like what you said about "Summertime". Thank you for posting your thoughts!

I agree that "This Guy's In Love With You" is perfect. I don't think that anyone else should bother to record the song because I think that Herb has done the all-time definitive version. Thanks for your response!
 
Tossing out a thought here... I'm kind of obsessed with Satin Doll at the moment. I don't think Herb has ever recorded that. Wonder what he might do with it? Just a random thought. :agree:
 
Tossing out a thought here... I'm kind of obsessed with Satin Doll at the moment. I don't think Herb has ever recorded that. Wonder what he might do with it? Just a random thought. :agree:
I think "Satin Doll" would make an excellent instrumental for Herb! I don't hear Herb singing it. I hear Lani singing it and doing a fantastic job, although the opening lyric ("Cigarette holder, which wigs me") wouldn't work very well in today's world.

So, my opinion - for what it's worth - is that "Satin Doll" would make a excellent jazz standard instrumental for Herb.
 
I would agree: instrumental. The lyrics are sort of outdated. Same way with one of my dad's favorite songs, A String of Pearls. Glenn Miller's tune is beautiful but the lyrics wouldn't be relevant today since a pearl necklace doesn't have the meaning it once did.
 
Close, but no cigar. :D
I actually like that idea, Rudy, and I hadn't thought of it (which disappoints me a bit ). ZZ Top recorded the old standard "As Time Goes By" and tacked it onto the end of their album "Mescalero" as a bonus track. I hate it whenever artists do that because I have to go to the effort of separating it from the rest of the track. Anyway, I like ZZ Top (another band that plays music with a southwestern flavor), but I wasn't in love with that particular album. For me, "As Time Goes By" was EASILY the best song on that album. I could hear them doing a similar version of "Satin Doll" - and they could get away with the "Cigarette holder" lyric that Herb or Lani could not.

Great call!
 
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