On vinyl records and "The Beat of the Brass": a personal story

VOLUME 2 was the last original TJB album that I owned up through about the SOUNDS LIKE/NINTH era. I'd gotten them all to that point except VOLUME 2. When I was ready to buy it, I had my sister pick one up for me with her discount at "S. Klein On The Square", a suburban Philly department store. So this was well past the prime time of VOLUME 2, either original or reissue. The one she picked up for me was a mono version, which I made do with until sometime in the 70s when I replaced it with a stereo version.

Both of those issues had the second back with the large Herb picture and I didn't think anything more about the album for years. In the late 90s on this very site, I got to see small images of the first issue of VOLUME 2's rear cover. And it wasn't until I actually splurged, looking for mono copies of albums that I didn't have any longer. The VOLUME 2 mono copy I now have has that original back.
 
And not only that, buyers in a store may visually inspect a few copies of a record and not care which jacket it goes back into.


Heh. And it's not only the jacket; some people care so little, they mix and match covers. I mentioned a record store that threw out records not worth selling in the front of the store for people to take for free. I got some good stuff that way. Once, I got excited, thinking that I was getting a free copy of Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66. After I brought it home and took the record out of the cover, I discovered it was really Equinox. (I may offend some people, but I never liked any song on that album.)

But then, I'm technically guilty of that too. I mentioned that I temporarily lost my copies of What Now My Love and The Beat of the Brass during my toddler-hood and during my later childhood I found those records again... in the wrong covers. I guess that in my early years I must have put them in covers made for records with nursery rhymes and fairy tales. Later, I drew my own cover art on construction paper and pasted them to the covers. Hey, I was a kid; what did I know?

So what with those covers, I can't find it in myself to criticize anyone for mixing up sleeves.
 
For a long time, I hesitated to write a post like this. My humble efforts probably seem like nothing compared to what you serious, hard-core Herb Alpert fanatics must do. But I'm excited enough to feel the need to write about it...

And the story's not over yet...

Better late than never. If you choose to continue your pursuit of Alpert material, then you're in for a real treat with every acquisition you make. Enjoy!!!
 
For a long time, I hesitated to write a post like this. My humble efforts probably seem like nothing compared to what you serious, hard-core Herb Alpert fanatics must do. But I'm excited enough to feel the need to write about it.

I've been a fan of Alpert's music since before I can remember. As a very young child, I looked forward to visiting my grandparents every year to listen to their TJB records. I would often take some of those records home with me; eventually, I grabbed all that remained of their collection.

One day - still in my childhood - I happened to dig up my old copies of "What Now My Love" and "The Beat of the Brass" of whose existence I had forgotten. I listened and the memories came flooding back... and I was still too young to wax nostalgic. The albums were missing their covers; I don't know if I had EVER had the covers for them.

Many years later, I grew tired of Alpert's music. Futhermore, the vinyl record seemed to be going the way of the dodo. I don't even know exactly when or how I lost my record collection; maybe I threw it away during a move. Needless to say, I now deeply regret throwing away many of those records!

Flash forward to 2014. I re-discovered Alpert's music and bought over a dozen of his albums on MP3. It seemed the most practical way to get them at the time. In fact, it was. And yet... and yet...

I found myself wishing for a good old-fashioned turntable. Eventually, I got one and by now, I'm buying records like crazy all over the place: at a used record store, at a used book store, at a "generic" second-hand store, and of course, through the net. I regard some of my newly acquired records as jewels. One of the reasons I like vinyl records so much is that they're... well... REAL. They're TANGIBLE. When I play an MP3 file, how can I prove that I acquired the file legally, when I could pirate it so easily? Even a CD can be burned. But it would be so much more expensive to pirate a vinyl record than to buy an old copy. My family probably thinks I'm nuts and I'm not so sure that I'm not. My wife once described my turntable as a toy. I guess one reason I'm writing this post is that I hope someone here can understand my elation at my growing, precious collection.

And of course, among the many records I've gotten, I'm buying Herb Alpert albums. (What a crying shame that I no longer have my old ones! What a criminal waste of time and money!) By now, I've collected over a dozen HA records and there are still more on my wishlist. When I got "What Now My Love" I saw the back cover and smiled. I wonder if I had ever seen that back cover before. Possibly I might have seen it on the internet. Possibly I had had the original cover when I was a toddler and had forgotten it. But basically, it was new to me.

And here's the point I wanted to make from the beginning: Recently, I bought "The Beat of the Brass"... and blinked in surprise at the cover. It had four panels, as if it were a double album! All these years, I never knew. Those are some pretty pictures in there. I'm looking at them right now. I see Alpert raising his glass in a toast as he smiles at the crowd... or is the picture implying that Alpert might pour his drink over Tonni Kalash's head as a joke?

There's so much else I want to say about my collection, just because I'm excited about it. Like... I've bought HA music in many forms over the years, but this year, for the first time in my life, I got an HA single. It's "Whipped Cream / Mae". Yeah, I have both of those in LPs, but the 45 was cheap and it seems like a novelty.

And the story's not over yet...
 
Aaron--there is nothing unusual about you growing and enjoying your record collection as much as you do. It is something to celebrate just like people who collect stamps or coins or have picture albums. It's like a hobby. Tangible things that you supremely enjoy and bring back precious memories are some of best moments in life. I'm glad that you appreciate them.

Regarding the color picture with the Brass seemingly perched on a float in the middle of a street surrounded by fans--does anyone know the city they are in? Perhaps somewhere in Mexico?
 
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