Portrait Of Herb Alpert

[Captain Bacardi]

I just received a 2-LP collection from England called Portrait Of Herb Alpert (not to be confused with the Portrait In Music on Rondor). The catalog # is AMLC-4001, and was released in 1973. What's neat about this collection is that the usual hits aren't here. Only 4 Top 100 hits are here:

Side 1
America
All My Loving
Brasilia
Catch A Falling Star
Don't Go Breaking My Heart
El Garbanzo
Fire And Rain

Side 2
The Girl From Ipanema
Hurt So Bad
If You Could Read My Mind
Jerusalem
Lemon Tree
Last Tango In Paris
Monday, Monday
Moon River

Side 3
Never On Sunday
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Pretty World
A Quiet Tear
The Robin
Struttin' With Maria
Sunny

Side 4
Town Without Pity
Up Cherry Street
La Virgen De La Macarena
With A Little Help From My Friends
Third Man Theme
You Are My Life
Zazueira

This is obviously a promo thing, but I wonder if there was a series of Portrait Of... albums.


Capt. Bacardi

 

[martin]

Yes, "Potrait of Herb Alpert" was part of a series out of A&M in London. Of the other artists I can only remember seeing one with Liza Minelli.
They were actual releases and not promotional outings. Here in Scandinavia the "Foursider" series was never released and for a while I thought that the "Portrait of" was a European version of it, as they came out at about the same time. But then the tracks are totally different. A&M in London had put out several collections of TJB hits in the period from 1969 to 1973 ("Down Mexico Way", "Cabaret", "This guy's in love with you""Play the standards of today") so it is possible that they thought a double album collection in the European territory should be different from the more hit oriented "Foursider".

- greetings from the cold north -
Martin

 

[jimac51]

Interesting that the album's selections appear in near-alphabetical order. Evidently they put a lot of time into programming this for maximum listening enjoyment. This is one of the few(only?) appearances of "Fire & Rain" on an LP,isn't it? Cap'n-that really is an interesting collection-nice to see minor gems like "The Robin","Don't Go Breaking My Heart","Town Without Pity" and "Moon River"(a personal favorite). You got a goodie. Mac

 

[Rudy]

Mac--i didn't notice that, but you're right: it's like an Alpert album-track "A to Z"!

"Fire and Rain" did appear on another LP...it was one of the titles Martin mentioned, This Guys' In Love With You. I only got it for that extra track, since it was cleaner than the single. And curiously, it sounds like it is in mono there as well. (Curious if the Captain's is stereo or mono.) One thing to note, though--my LP copies of You Smile-- come across as a very narrow stereo mix, almost mono. I have to turn on the surround processor in a mode that only works in stereo--that reveals, right away, if it's mono or not.

 

[Captain Bacardi]

"Fire and Rain" did appear on another LP...it was one of the titles Martin mentioned, This Guys' In Love With You. I only got it for that extra track, since it was cleaner than the single. And curiously, it sounds like it is in mono there as well. (Curious if the Captain's is stereo or mono.)

I haven't really listened that hard to "Fire And Rain", but it sounds just like it did on the This Guy's In Love With You LP (which is the same LP as Plays The Standards Of Today). The liner notes inside refer to the Brass as the T.B., rather than the TJB. Must've been a new guy.


Capt. Bacardi

 

[Rudy]

I think "T.B." sounds more like a disease. (Tuberculosis, in fact.) "TJB" sounds much better. Easy to see why "Fire and Rain" was a b-side, though. Nice, but not much meat to it.

 

[Captain Bacardi]

Easy to see why "Fire and Rain" was a b-side, though. Nice, but not much meat to it.

Yeah, it makes me wonder whether Herb was trying to figure out what direction to take the new TJB in. "Last Tango In Paris" was a strong record, so I was a bit surprised how timid "Fire" came out on the flipside.


Capt. Bacardi

 

[Rudy]

It almost sounds not quite finished, like a demo.

 

[Steven J. Gross]

It reminds me of Herb's version of "Alone Again Naturally"-just as bad.