Fandango - Shout Factory CD release scheduled for 2/19/13

[Mike Blakesley]

This just gets better every day.

And by the way, I would like to say a belated thanks to you guys, Randy and Bill, for participating in the forum. It's great to have such a close connection to one of our most admired artists...not only for bringing us great news like we've had in the last few days, but just as a trusted source of information. Much appreciation to you both.

 

[Bobberman]

Hi Everyone-
Just letting you know that the new mastering and sound of, "Fandango" is truly amazing. Herb about fell out of his chair when he heard these new files. I think that everyone will be extremely happy with this album. The past few years I have been over-seeing the transfer of Herb's extensive analog tape library to Hi Rez digital wav files. Both 2 track mixes and many, many, multitracks from dozens of songs. Dance mixes, mono mixes, alternate mixes, and everything interesting and unique. The transfer from analog has been extremely slow as many of these tapes are 30, 40, & 50 years old. There are tape degradation issues, mold issues, bent reel issues, etc. Many of the tapes have to be put into rehydration chambers for several months at a time. There are also issues with obtaining great sounding hard to find 50 year old 3 trk, 4trk, and 8trk machines. Many of the original TJB songs were cut on 3trk multitracks. Once we have the analog tapes prepped and ready to go, we have the absolute finest A/D converters and clocks ready to make the transfers. We have the best people in music and tape preservation working with us. The same people that do archiving for the Smithsonian and NASA.

My plan is to get these great recordings out into the world. Most of the music will not be released as CD's. Herb's new website will feature digital files in both MP3 320 & Apple Lossless. I am exploring a way to offer very high resolution digital files and eventually we will have those. Please know that I have a wonderful sounding, "Midnight Sun", "North on South Street", and a "Beyond" that sounds better then I remember it sounding when I was mixing it in Studio B at A&M many years ago. I know that being a huge fan myself, I am constantly amazed as I am hearing things I never really heard before.

Please know that we are always open to comments and suggestions so certainly any feedback both positive and negative is cool. The website will be an on-going work and will eventually be huge in content. It will be interactive and content will be added and updated daily. The site will also eventually encompass many A&M artists, A&M history, Herb's art and charitable endeavors, photos, videos, and extensive personal history.

The even better news is that Herb is working on music almost every single day. A new album worth of songs has just been completed as well as some other dance tracks, jazz tracks, electronic tracks and pop tracks. And,,, he sounds great!! Wishing everyone good health and much, much happiness in 2013!!

randy

Hi randy its an honor and a priveledge. To be able to correspond ive been a diehard fan of Herb since i was a child and i appreciate the efforts you all are making to preserve these wonderful recordings im looking forward to the new release as well as the long awaited fandango cd i still have all my old vinyl tjb and solo albums that arent availiable on cd and all the ones i could get . One question i have is this , will there ever come a time when eventualy the whole discography will be availiable digitally in some form if not cd? Thank you for the update and info i also enjoy hearing your work with herb on rise and other albums. Have you done any solo work of your own? Just wondering. I wish you and all your family a very blessed and joyous holiday season.

 

[toeknee4bz]

I, for one, am all too happy to see FANDANGO hit the market once again... even if for no other reason than to make it available to those who never had the opportunity to hear [what I feel is] Herb's masterpiece. To this day I can't figure out how "Route 101" made the top 40 in the synthpop world of 1982. But I am glad it did, because it gives this great album a reason to be heard again some 30 years later!
As for JUST YOU AND ME and SUMMERTIME... well, no 'hits' on those albums, so we can't realistically expect CD releases (downloads, maybe?)... Then there's BEYOND. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't "Beyond" nominated for a Grammy? And yet after all these years, no digital release in the U.S. available!!! ??? Never understood that one. And with the current [sadly, near dead] CD market, it is shocking that anything at all gets released other than a download. But hey, I'll take what I can get. If BEYOND were released on CD, download, anything... I think I would just about fall out of MY chair! (hint, hint... )

 

[toeknee4bz]

I would strongly recommend any serious Herb fan who does not have a copy of FANDANGO... grab it while you can.

 

[Bobberman]

I, for one, am all too happy to see FANDANGO hit the market once again... even if for no other reason than to make it available to those who never had the opportunity to hear [what I feel is] Herb's masterpiece. To this day I can't figure out how "Route 101" made the top 40 in the synthpop world of 1982. But I am glad it did, because it gives this great album a reason to be heard again some 30 years later!
As for JUST YOU AND ME and SUMMERTIME... well, no 'hits' on those albums, so we can't realistically expect CD releases


(downloads, maybe?)... Then there's BEYOND. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't "Beyond" nominated for a Grammy? And yet after all these years, no digital release in the U.S. available!!! ??? Never understood that one. And with the current [sadly, near dead] CD market, it is shocking that anything at all gets released other than a download. But hey, I'll take what I can get. If BEYOND were released on CD, download, anything... I think I would just about fall out of MY chair! (hint, hint... )

agreed my friend while i still have my pristine vinyl copies of fandango. Beyond. Any digital version of the lesser known albums in any form is welcome. But im glad that at least Herb owns all his masters and is doing his very best to shall we say " preserving the sound" .

 

[Captain Bacardi]

Thank you for the update and info i also enjoy hearing your work with herb on rise and other albums. Have you done any solo work of your own? Just wondering.

Randy and his partner Andy Armer did release a neat album called RandyAndy (SP-4944) in 1983 on A&M. Here's a clip of the single "People Livin' In The USA":



Randy & Andy also did the opening music tracks for the 2004 Olympics telecast.



Capt. Bacardi

 

[Captain Bacardi]

As for JUST YOU AND ME and SUMMERTIME... well, no 'hits' on those albums,

Maybe not a major hit, but "Jerusalem" charted at #74 on the Hot 100 in 1970 (#6 on the AC charts), while "Summertime" charted at #28 on the AC chart (#114 on the Bubbling Under chart) in 1971.


Capt. Bacardi

 

[badazz]

Randy — got your extended single of "Livin' in the USA" and put it to digital. Great song.

There have been comments to the effect that there are more songs than "Lost Treasures" would accommodate. Would those unreleased tracks be available as downloadable one-offs once the site goes live?

Hi Richard-

"The People Living in the USA"... Haven't heard that in many years but if I recall the lyrics are relevant to the struggles of people in the US today. To my knowledge all of the unreleased songs that Herb found at that time were released. I was not involved during that time. I have not as yet even transferred those "Lost Treasure" songs to Hi Rez digital. Once I get over to that part of the library I will go through everything and see if there are more songs. My plan is to put everything that is completed and up to Herb's standards up onto the website. I will let you know what I find as we go along.

Wishing you good health and much happiness in 2013!!

 

[badazz]

Randy, do I understand you correctly in that this new album is only Herb rather than Herb and Lani? Either way I'm looking forward to it!



Capt. Bacardi

Hi Captain-

This is a Herb album and if I recall Lani is on 2 songs.

 

[badazz]

I can second Randy's news and tell you that I love the new music and I'm excited about the way it's coming out. Randy did fantastic work on one track in particular (this is Bill, by the way - hey) and like Randy, I'm a fan as well as being honored to be a collaborator. As far as I know, it will be released as a Herb album, not Herb & Lani - but Lani has many great featured moments throughout. More news with the new year, I suppose....

Hi Bill-

I guess foremost we are both fans from waaay back and honored and privileged to work with one of the coolest human beings in the whole world. Herb honestly sounds great and Bill's arrangements, voicing, vibe, and playing is, as always, superb! The band rocks..

Wishing you good health and much happiness in 2013!!

 

[badazz]

This just gets better every day.

And by the way, I would like to say a belated thanks to you guys, Randy and Bill, for participating in the forum. It's great to have such a close connection to one of our most admired artists...not only for bringing us great news like we've had in the last few days, but just as a trusted source of information. Much appreciation to you both.

Hi Mike-

I believe you may be the first person that has ever called me a, "trusted source of information." I feel like Walter Cronkite..

Wishing you good health and much happiness in 2013!!

 

[Plucky87]

Please forward the suggestion of uploading these songs on Herb's website... Dore Alpert Singles, Mexican Drummer Man and El Bimbo all in Apple Lossless. Also would love to own Warm, Brass Are Comin, Coney Island, and Volume 2 in apple lossless too.

 

[Rudy]

"The People Living in the USA"... Haven't heard that in many years but if I recall the lyrics are relevant to the struggles of people in the US today.

Funny...I had mentioned to a friend of mine (who's not a forum member here) that you were filling us in on the details here in the forum, and he responded back with that same YouTube video. I didn't think anyone outside our site here even remembered it!

Not to hijack the spotlight from Herb, but did you ever think of putting those RandyAndy tracks out as downloads?

 

[Peter]

Great news from Randy Badazz. Being a pesimist (as experience taught me) I am only afraid of one thing: that all the lossy and lossless downloads at the new Herb Alpert site will be available only for US residents after all (as was the case of iTunes only TJB albums reissues few years ago). So I dare not to look forward.

 

[Steve Sidoruk]

Great news from Randy Badazz. Being a pesimist (as experience taught me) I am only afraid of one thing: that all the lossy and lossless downloads at the new Herb Alpert site will be available only for US residents after all (as was the case of iTunes only TJB albums reissues few years ago). So I dare not to look forward.

I don't know for sure, but being an optimist, my thoughts are this: paid download sites, such as iTunes, have to deal with licensing for countries and territories. As Herb owns his recordings, he can do whatever he wants - there is no record company in the middle to call the shots. My impression is that he is now making all of this available for his fans and not just those in the U.S.

 

[Harry]

Peter, can you sign up for Herb's new website? That might be a clue.

Harry

 

[Captain Bacardi]

I can't even sign up for Herb's website. Everytime I click on that button it just takes me to the bottom of the page. I just assumed the site wasn't ready to do that.


Capt. Bacardi

 

[bob]

hi Captain I already subcribed which I found out I did that a while, I just wanted to update it. so when you go to Herb web site you will see new for 2012. cleck that one then you will see another screen that calls for you email and first and last name. I filled that in then that was it
take care
bob

 

[Captain Bacardi]

That didn't work for me either at first. Then I decided to try doing it with Google Chrome web browser instead of IE and it worked fine.


Capt. Bacardi

 

[badazz]

Please forward the suggestion of uploading these songs on Herb's website... Dore Alpert Singles, Mexican Drummer Man and El Bimbo all in Apple Lossless. Also would love to own Warm, Brass Are Comin, Coney Island, and Volume 2 in apple lossless too.

Hi Plucky87-
You will be seeing all of the above in Apple Lossless EXCEPT Dore Alpert records. We are basically talking about "Lonely Bull" forward.

Hope you have a great holiday season!

 

[badazz]

Funny...I had mentioned to a friend of mine (who's not a forum member here) that you were filling us in on the details here in the forum, and he responded back with that same YouTube video. I didn't think anyone outside our site here even remembered it!

Not to hijack the spotlight from Herb, but did you ever think of putting those RandyAndy tracks out as downloads?

Hi Rudy-

Randy Andy had pop radio success in Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and European dance club success throughout Europe. Unfortunately, I started producing and mixing other artists' records and did not tour when the European affiliates asked us to. Andy wanted to go but I wasn't ready. Anyways, that was a looong time ago and I have no plans to release anything Randy Andy. I have started making records under the name of Captain Badazz and am starting to get dance club play from Germany, the UK, France, Brazil, and one of my songs, "I Want Money" is up for a new Scorsese film. So Captain Badazz "yes" and Randy Andy "no". Have a good holiday!

 

[Chuck B.]

Hi Randy,

I'm thrilled about the reissue and website projects, and very appreciative that you are sharing the progress on this forum.

One additional void that I hope you might be able to fill on the new website is information. I would love to see a detailed discography with recording dates and personnel for the TJB recordings. I would also love to see commentary regarding some of the later TJB releases, since they were never issued on CD, and therefore didn't get the full treatment, including essays, that the earlier reissues did. Those three late TJB recording—Warm, The Brass Are Comin', and Summertime—are my personal favorites, and so I've always wondered what Herb's thoughts were regarding them…

In any case, much thanks for everything.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Chuck - You can find the recording dates and personnel here on the forum. If you search "subject line only" for the individual album titles, there is a topic that has the studio info for each of the albums (at least the first few, if not all of them). It might take some digging, and maybe Steve S. can tell us exactly what topics have the relevant information in them, but it IS there for the finding.

We should maybe have a dedicated thread just for that info.

 

[jimbob]

Great news from Randy Badazz. Being a pesimist (as experience taught me) I am only afraid of one thing: that all the lossy and lossless downloads at the new Herb Alpert site will be available only for US residents after all (as was the case of iTunes only TJB albums reissues few years ago). So I dare not to look forward.

As for me, I'll be the optimist on this point. There is at least one New Zealand Herb Alpert fan that would buy all the downloads. I had a fellow member burn a CD of "Volume 2 and The Brass are Coming" and send them to me because Itune downloads of these albums weren't available in NZ. Don't really want to go that route again---------but you are talking to a desparate man--------so, if necessary, I'll go down that track again.

Jimbob

 

[bob]

Captain ok I use firefox myself Glad it worked for you. I can't wait till the web site is up. I as we all would like to get a copy of the tjb from 1969 and the royal fesitval hall , maybe in time that would be released on DVD and blu ray you tube has one clip type in herb alpert in london 1969 and you will see it.
bob