Oddball TJB album - "America"

[Andrew T.]

I recently got back from a three-week trip to the United Kingdom. When I was in a charity shop in Cardiff, Wales, I saw an unusual Herb Alpert and Tijuana Brass album that caught my eye. (Didn't buy it, though.)

The album was titled America and carried the catalog number AMLB-1000. It was a compilation drawing upon the first two albums (with six Lonely Bull songs on side one and six from Volume 2 on the other). The back cover had a selection of thumbnail images of various TJB albums up to Warm, so perhaps this compilation came out around then.

Is anyone else familiar with this album, or know more about it?

 

[Mike Blakesley]

What a title! If anything, that comp should have been called "The Mexico Era" or something like that.....the first 2 TJB albums were much more "south of the border" oriented than what came after.

(I know, the comp probably contains the TJB's "A-Me-Ri-Ca" but that still doesn't make it a good title of the album.

 

[lonely bull]

I have 2 different versions of this album - one is the standard U.K. version which is dated 1964 on the A&M label and the other is a German version which carries both the A&M and " Karussell Gold-Serie " labels - this version carries no date but I remember my parents buying it in Germany in 1971 so it was obviously available for a good many Years! If You keep an eye on eBay You will no doubt come across a copy from Germany sooner or later.

 

[TonyCurrie]

Records beginning with the prefix AMLB were budget priced, and "AMERICA" was the first of the series. The title was probably pertinent since for many in the UK, Herb was one of the most successful American recording artistes of the time, and as Herb himself has said, the music was never remotely Mexican.

As discussed elsewhere here, there have been a number of budget-priced TJB albums relesed in the UK, in particular "Early Alpert", a reissue of Volume 2 on the Marble Arch label, and a compilation on EMI's Music for Pleasure label.

 

[martin]

The Karussell/Deutsche Grammophon version of "America" came in 1967 and in continental Europe it was the first budget priced Herb Alpert and TJB album, so I believe it sold very well in these parts.

- greetings from the north -
Martin