Herb's favorite 45 single (A&M)

Hmm, I don't remember him ever stating a favorite single in any of the interviews I've read.... if he's like any other person who's into music, I'd bet his favorite would change like the weather. I can't even begin to name one favorite single or album or even artist. It depends on the mood I'm in.
 
Well, there are a couple that he's mentioned over and over again in interviews, and relates the stories around them.

- 1. Third Man Theme / A Taste Of Honey (A&M 775) - This is the one where Jerry Moss and the promoters were all pushing the A-side, "Third Man Theme", but Herb's sensibilities told him that "A Taste Of Honey" was the one that would be the big hit. Everyone retorted that "Taste Of Honey" stopped and started and you couldn't dance to it, didn't move Herb's decision, and we all know that it became one of the biggest.

- 2. Carpenters' Close To You/I Kept On Loving You (A&M 1183) - Herb retells this story a lot about recording the Bacharach/David song and Larry Levine not liking it, so he gave the song to Richard Carpenter, told him to keep the piano quintuplets, but do anything else he wanted to the song. It was a huge hit of course.

Now, are those Herb's favorite A&M singles? Possibly, but for sure they are two that he is very proud of. He's stated that Carpenters music is not his typical cup of tea, so that one may be out of the running as a favorite, but again, he sure is proud of it.
 
I've often wondered what his take was on the other artists signed to A&M over the years. Obviously he has a connection to those he produced, but did he personally sign off on every signing? Probably no. But how much freedom did the A&R department have? I know the upcoming I.R.S> Records documentary interviews Jerry Moss, but not Herb. SO was Miles deal with A&M a Jerry Moss thing? Probably. Was Herb even ito the music of that era? Who knows... If you said "OMD" to Herb he'd probably think Ozark Mountain Daredevils and not Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (if even that).

--Mr Bill
 
I know the upcoming I.R.S> Records documentary interviews Jerry Moss, but not Herb. SO was Miles deal with A&M a Jerry Moss thing? Probably.
Jerry Moss had a record label to run, financially, so reading current trends and finding a way to profit on them was his thing. IRS was more a distribution deal than anything else, so I doubt Herb would have had much if any input on the label. Although A&M itself had no trouble cherry-picking the best for release on their own label. Even the CTi label was more like a distribution deal--it was seemingly no problem for CTi to pick up and move to Columbia when things at A&M soured. In CTi's case, it probably took a general direction from A&M ("make pop jazz records") than direct input over each artist's signing or directing the production of each album.
 
Back in the early 2000's there was AM 1450--The Spa--from Vista California which had a fantastic weekend radio format with the likes of "Sounds of Sinatra" hosted by Sid Mark, "Radio De Luxe with John Pizzarelli", "Big Band Jump", and "Jazz at the Spa" hosted by Jeff Gehringer. On this show Jeff interviewed Herb Alpert. He asked Herb what songs would he like to be remembered by and Herb said: "Taste of Honey", "Spanish Flea" and "Route 101". By the way, these outstanding radio shows are no longer formatted by AM 1450, which helps illustrate pop music's race to the bottom in this day and age.
 
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