herb's remakes

[jazzdre]

i've been a fan of herb's since i was sixteen years old(twenty two years!)and i've noticed something: herb constantly does remakes. not necessarily of other people's stuff,but his own! he has done remakes of "taste of honey","magic man","you smile the song begins","up cherry street",'i've grown accustomed to her face",etc. i was wondering:why does herb do this? is it because he felt said recording didn't reach up to his high standards previously? or he just liked the tune so much he had to do another version of it?

 

[Harry]

I think Herb's been heard saying that certain melodies move him - so much so that he enjoys revisiting them from time to time.

Follow this interesting procession of remakes:

• Start with the most recent album Colors where Herb redoes "Magic Man" from the Magic Man album.
  
• On Magic Man Herb redoes "You Smile - The Song Begins" from the album You Smile - The Song Begins.
  
• On You Smile - The Song Begins Herb redoes "Up Cherry Street" from the album South Of The Border.
  
• And on South Of The Border Herb redid "Winds Of Barcelona" from Volume 2 as "El Presidente".

I've always found that fascinating.

Harry
NP: Volume 2 - Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass

 

[PartyRico]

How about Herbs swingin version of Bizets "Carmen"? It sort of has snippets of re-dos no? You can hear a few seconds of "What Now My Love","Tijuana Taxi", the bass drum pounding originally used by him on "Taste of Honey", etc.
Herb is a master arranger, and has tons of taste. A while back Rush Limbaugh was describing an important football game he attended and described in wonderful detail how Herb Alpert performed live at the opening of the game by playing "The Star Spangled Banner"! During the last note a bunch of Air Force Jets in formation flew overhead as Herb suspended the last note....This I believe was around 90-92 in LA I think. Boy, would I love to see a tape of that! (I'm not much of a sports fan...)

 

[DAN BOLTON]

I think it really shows Herb's amazing ability to interpret a melody in a different way from the mainstream, and to be able to do that more than once is very unusual. Johnny Cash did that a lot, also; but the overall feeling of the songs he redid wasn't always as diverse as Herb's efforts.

I wish Herb would devote an entire album to just one melody, and record several different versions of it...any artist that could pull something like that off, and Herb could, I'm sure...could do just about anything.

Dan, saying...don't forget the remix of RED HOT from BEYOND on the BLOW YOUR OWN HORN album...it sounded almost like 2 different songs to me...

 

[Rudy]

Funny...the remix of "Red Hot" didn't sound all that different to me.

I do have to say that on the later albums, I don't care for some of the remakes. For "Route 101" and "Magic Man", I still like the originals. I like the remake of "Flamingo" since I never was all that fond of the original...it's a nicer melody in the newer version.

 

[DAN BOLTON]

Funny...the remix of "Red Hot" didn't sound all that different to me.

I do have to say that on the later albums, I don't care for some of the remakes. For "Route 101" and "Magic Man", I still like the originals. I like the remake of "Flamingo" since I never was all that fond of the original...it's a nicer melody in the newer version.

The remix of RED HOT seems more "substantial" [for lack of a better word...]; maybe more "polished" or "complete"...and for me, the tone is different. It's still the same song, but it sounds a lot better on BYOH...at least, I think so. I always thought that the BYOH version was what Herb probably wanted the song to sound like all along... I haven't heard the remake of MAGIC MAN, but I agree with you on ROUTE 101 and FLAMINGO.


Dan

 

[Rudy]

"Red Hot" does have more punch to it on BYOH. But I don't think I've listened to that one more than a few times at most. The 12" single from BYOH's "Red Hot" is what I've known (same mix)...pressed on red vinyl, of course.

 

[Mr Bill]

...describing an important football game he attended and described in wonderful detail how Herb Alpert performed live at the opening of the game by playing "The Star Spangled Banner"! During the last note a bunch of Air Force Jets in formation flew overhead as Herb suspended the last note....This I believe was around 90-92 in LA I think. Boy, would I love to see a tape of that! (I'm not much of a sports fan...)

It was the 1988 Superbowl in San Diego. It was actually the Navy's Blue Angels that did the flyover. And I do have it on VHS (it's one of the few videos I have of Herb).

--Mr Bill
who saw it on TV in LA and remembers the horrible traffic Northbound out of San Diego as he drove south to his San Diego home later that night after the game...

 

[Captain Bacardi]

I like the remake of "Flamingo" since I never was all that fond of the original...it's a nicer melody in the newer version.

I was a big fan of the TJB version of "Flamingo", but Herb's solo version is also nice. Have you heard Herb Jeffries version? I was watching BET on Jazz the other day and they had the Duke Ellington show on, and Jeffries performed the song with Duke. He had a pretty high voice and did this song more as a ballad.


Capt. Bacardi