Herb's Number Ones

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MAY: This guy’s in love with you - News and Tribune: Opinion
MAY: This guy’s in love with you
By TOM MAY | Posted: Thursday, February 5, 2015 7:30 am
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Tom May
It has only happened once in more than 60 years and it was really a fluke that it happened at all. It’s the kind of trivia that somehow makes it to the final round on Jeopardy.
Who is the only solo artist to top Billboard magazine’s “Top 100” charts with both a vocal and an instrumental song? Think about the answer as the music softly plays in the background and we go to a short commercial message.
The first part of the record — and the most surprising — happened in 1968. Herb Alpert was one of the top names and influences in the entire music industry at the time. His Tijuana Brass were an incredibly popular instrumental group. The Brass had earned six Grammys, 15 gold records and 14 platinum discs. In 1966, more than 13 million Alpert recordings were sold, surpassing even The Beatles.
That same year, another Billboard record was achieved as the group placed five albums simultaneously in the Top 20 of the albums chart, an accomplishment that has never been repeated. A shrewd businessman as well as a musician, Alpert and his partner, Jerry Moss, established A&M Records, one of the most successful labels of the era.
CBS Television wanted to cash in on their popularity and offer an hour-long variety special featuring Alpert and the Brass. While the show would be mostly music, they wanted to fill the hour with a more intimate look at the musicians. By showing clips of the artists’ homes and families, the producers hoped to provide a portrait of who these musicians really were. “The Beat of the Brass” television special was penciled in for prime time in spring 1968.
Hoping to give the audience a glimpse of an unknown, personal side of Alpert, the director said the last song of the show would be a love song featuring a vocal by the trumpeter. Alpert laughed and told the director he didn’t sing and they didn’t have anything like that in their repertoire. The director smiled back and said that he had better learn something quickly, they were going to film the segment in three days.
Alpert called his good friend Burt Bacharach and asked if he had anything romantic sitting around that hadn’t been recorded and explained his predicament. After thinking a bit, Bacharach remembered a piece that he and Hal David had composed, but it would need some tweaking of both the melody and the lyrics. He would later say that he also agreed to play piano and conduct the orchestra because he was literally still arranging it in his head on the way to the studio.
Alpert’s original presentation of “This Guy’s in Love with You” was recorded in a studio and was only intended to ever be shown on the television special. The footage filmed captured Alpert and his first wife, Sharon, walking along a beach in Malibu near their home with the song playing in the background. Thousands of calls to CBS wanting to know about the song prompted Alpert two days later to clean up the tracks in the studio and release a 45 single, accompanied by a tune they had recorded six years earlier on the flip side. The song skyrocketed to the top of the charts and spent 10 weeks at the No. 1 position.
What was it about the song that made it so popular? Critics panned Alpert’s vocals, saying that his skills were rather limited, but Alpert once said that and the beautiful simplicity of the tune were exactly what made the song so successful. It was almost like everyone thought they could sing it as well as — probably better — than Alpert.
And many tried … artists and would-be singers recorded this song on albums, while local musicians at nearby hotel lounges crooned the number as patrons sipped on their drinks. Artists who covered the song include: Sammy Davis Jr., Barry Manilow, Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick, Julio Iglesias, Donny Osmond, Diana Ross, The Temptations, Bacharach himself and Regis Philbin. I know, Regis Philbin?
Even Detroit Tigers star, Denny McLain, the last Major League pitcher to win 30 games, included it on his album, “Denny McLain at the Organ.”
The second part of that record on Billboard’s Top 100 charts didn’t come so easily. Even with all his instrumental fame, it would be 11 years before Alpert would actually have his first No. 1 song on the instrumental charts. “Rise,” a cut off of Alpert’s 1979 solo album of the same name, reached the top for a couple of weeks and sold more than a million copies.
Maybe “This Guy’s in Love with You” was so popular because it expressed what both guys and gals felt but wished could be put into words — hands shaking, hearts breaking, don’t let me be the last to know. And perhaps, this guy’s gal, who is days away from her birthday and Valentine’s Day, will know that when you smile I can tell we know each other very well. How can I show you, I’m glad I got to know you ‘cause … you see, this guy, this guy’s in love with you.
— Tom May is the Editorial Director at eCondolence.com, a website offering support to the grieving. He is an adjunct instructor in the Communications Department at Indiana University Southeast. He has held paid and volunteer ministry positions at several churches in the tri-state area.

http://www.newsandtribune.com/opini...c-acd2-11e4-8ab6-13c72d980466.html?mode=print
 
The late Casey Kasem played "This Guy's In Love With You" as an "AT 40 Extra" back on the February 3, 1979 countdown!! Matt Clark Sanford, MI
 
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