Carmen - Herb's High And The Mighty

[Harry]

Back on August 2nd, Paramount Home Video released John Wayne's THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY on DVD, which marked the first release of the title in home video ever. This hit movie from 1954 had languished in the vaults for most of the intervening years, getting a rare showing on HBO back around 1980, and then disappearing until now.

Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass' "Carmen" is almost a parallel. The recording appeared on Herb Alpert's NINTH, and became a single, charting at #51. As NINTH itself retreated into history, "Carmen" has also been all but lost. The variance from the John Wayne parallel here is that we've at least had the vinyl and tape versions in our libraries to re-visit.

Many TjB songs made it to various collections and compilations over the years, but "Carmen" never has. The release on Shout! Factory will be its first appearance ever in the digital age - and I for one am really looking forward to that - along with the other "lost" tracks:

from SOUNDS LIKE:
Gotta Lotta Livin' To Do
Lady Godiva
Shades Of Blue
In A Little Spanish Town
Town Without Pity
The Charmer
Treasure Of San Miguel
Miss Frenchy Brown

from NINTH:
My Heart Belongs To Daddy
The Trolley Song
Bud
Love So Fine
The Love Nest
Flea Bag
Cowboys and Indians
Carmen

...all are making their digital debuts this month. Be there!

Harry
NP: "Carmen" - Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass

 

[Maitlen]

I've somewhat "bad-mouthed" Ninth on this forum solely because I remember being disappointed by Herb's tone -- but now, having not heard these songs since the 60's, I'm eager to hear this album again. I'm confident that I'll enjoy it hugely this time around -- the stereo sound, for one thing, will be a big improvement over my old mono album. Ninth is filled with good songs, as is the fabulous SOUNDS LIKE. I recall hearing Carmen on the radio a lot, and Abanda, and The Happening. These are good times indeed.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Yeah, this is the batch of albums I'm most looking forward to. My favorite song on NINTH is "Bud," and "Love So Fine" has crept into my favorites list in the last few years. But the whole album is excellent -- the only song on it I never really warmed up to was "With a Little Help from my Friends." I tend to like some of the other A&M/Beatles remakes better than the originals, but not this one.

Hey, "A&M Artists Play the Beatles" would make a great compilation CD!

 

[Mr Bill]

Yeah, this is the batch of albums I'm most looking forward to!

Same here! THe next batches I'd be looking forward to will be the ones containing Warm, Summertime and the two LPs 1970's incarnations of the TJB...

The solo stuff I have on CD with the exception of Just You And Me, but I will ore than likely purchase the ShOuT FaCtOrY! reissues of those as well...

--Mr Bill

 

[Mike Blakesley]

The solo stuff I have on CD with the exception of Just You And Me, but I will ore than likely purchase the ShOuT FaCtOrY! reissues of those as well...

Of the solos, I would probably at least buy JUST YOU AND ME, RISE, BEYOND, KEEP YOUR EYE ON ME, FANDANGO and MAGIC MAN and maybe a few others. (If they had detailed track-by-track liner notes and commentary, I'd buy them all!) I'm glad they are putting Herb on iTunes, because there are songs on all of the other albums I'd probably buy on a per-track basis.