Your Herb Reissue Pecking Order

Oh yeah. It had been promised for release-day Friday but it arrived Monday. The first bunch of 5 or so were packed in a bubble envelope that was folded to fit in my mailbox. Only one cover was a little crunched near the spine. The second - and larger package - came in a box with the big fat bubble plastic all around it.

Didn't you see my disc spines all lined up?

Stacked on Shelf Sm.jpg

Kinda took your idea and went wild with it. I decided to just photograph the spines of my entire Herb Alpert CD collection.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/55/00/9e/55009e44ee68d37e3552dc89da31fc16.jpg
55009e44ee68d37e3552dc89da31fc16.jpg
 
Just looking through that stack...there are a few I've never owned. Colors, Midnight Sun, Jump Street, and North on South St. I had Wild Romance and Keep Your Eye On Me only on LP and never really played them all that much, although KYEOM is growing on me lately. I like the jazz/pop balance that Herb is striking with his more recent releases.
 
I was initially disappointed with a number of the solo albums, but upon second and third listenings, I've found a number of tracks that are well worth my while, some even becoming favorites. I'll use the more popular RISE as an example. Everyone seemed to love the title track. I thought it was OK at first, but not a favorite. After a few plays of the LP, I began to gravitate toward the first two on side one, "1980" and "Rise". I'd play those two over and over again to the exclusion of everything else on the album.

It wasn't until almost two decades had gone by that I discovered the wonders of both "Behind The Rain" and "Aranjuez", and those two are the reasons I'll likely grab the RISE album to listen to.

Even the much maligned COLORS has Herb doing a nice version of "Libertango" and his only recorded attempt at the Bacharach great, "The Look Of Love".
 
With Rise, I had the 12" single first, which had the album version of the tune on one side, and "Aranjuez" without the "hoops-and-hollers" on the flip side.

I was just listening to the original Bill Withers version of "Love Is" last night, in fact. They are very similar.
 
Just looking through that stack...there are a few I've never owned. Colors, Midnight Sun, Jump Street, and North on South St. I had Wild Romance and Keep Your Eye On Me only on LP and never really played them all that much, although KYEOM is growing on me lately. I like the jazz/pop balance that Herb is striking with his more recent releases.

Just for the record, Jump Street is a CD single featuring the album version from North On South St., plus the six-minute long "Brighton Daze Extended Remix" featuring Yvonne de la Vega.
 
I agree with Steve: Not likely to happen. Therefore, I keep my CDR copy handy in case I want to play a few tracks.
Sadly I have to agree with both of you but Like you i have my CDR Copies handy too ( i made several from my clean vinyl copy) and i made a printed image of the Lp front cover for the jewel cases to give them some visual integrity. Its the next best thing. And i did that for most of my needledrops.
 
Just for the record, Jump Street is a CD single featuring the album version from North On South St., plus the six-minute long "Brighton Daze Extended Remix" featuring Yvonne de la Vega.

I have that one too, It actually has five tracks:
1. Brighton Daze Remix Radio Edit 3:58
2. LP Version Radio Edit 4:04
3. Brighton Daze Extended Remix 6:29
4. Brighton Daze Remix 6:29
5. Ubiquity Remix 6:56

It's funny - this one, because it's in a small, thin card jacket, managed to hide from me a while back. I thought I'd lost it. What happened was that it had fallen flat on the bottom of the CD shelf and was nearly invisible as the surrounding CDs sat on top of it. I thought sure I'd lost it, and the only thing that proved I actually had it was that I'd ripped the files into my computer and they were still there.

Sometime later, I also found the CD single for "North On South Street" with seven different remixes. That single, with its seven longish tracks, can play for about 37 minutes - longer than some of the old TJB albums!
 
I was kind of wondering about that. I didn't remember an album called Jump Street, but that period was when I wasn't paying much attention to Herb so I thought I just missed one.
 
The "North On South St." single (not the album, mind you... but the single) was the only Herb Alpert recording that I actually got rid of. Yep. It was that bad.
 
The "North On South St." single (not the album, mind you... but the single) was the only Herb Alpert recording that I actually got rid of. Yep. It was that bad.

Actually, the 12" single was better than the original album track. One of the remixes has Herb doing a much longer solo that made it much ore enjoyable to listen to.
 
With Rise, I had the 12" single first, which had the album version of the tune on one side, and "Aranjuez" without the "hoops-and-hollers" on the flip side.

Funny you mention that. I was in the Air Force at the time and it was in late spring of '79 when a guy in my squad came home from leave in Baltimore and he told me that he was in a disco club and heard a dance song by Herb Alpert. I almost belted him, saying that Herb wouldn't do disco. About a week later I saw the 12" single of "Rise" and thought to myself "Oh no". Fortunately, it wasn't disco although "Aranjuez" was.
 
The "North On South St." single (not the album, mind you... but the single) was the only Herb Alpert recording that I actually got rid of. Yep. It was that bad.

A CD single takes up so little room, I would keep it for completeness sake, even if it's not your cup of tea.

Actually, the 12" single was better than the original album track. One of the remixes has Herb doing a much longer solo that made it much ore enjoyable to listen to.

Is that the "Massive Sound 12" mix?
 
Funny you mention that. I was in the Air Force at the time and it was in late spring of '79 when a guy in my squad came home from leave in Baltimore and he told me that he was in a disco club and heard a dance song by Herb Alpert. I almost belted him, saying that Herb wouldn't do disco. About a week later I saw the 12" single of "Rise" and thought to myself "Oh no". Fortunately, it wasn't disco although "Aranjuez" was.
@badazz could probably verify, but I think as originally written, "Rise" was a faster tempo, but someone (Herb?) decided it sounded good at a slower tempo, as more of a late-night chill-out dance track. Regardless, it worked. :D

Actually, the 12" single was better than the original album track. One of the remixes has Herb doing a much longer solo that made it much ore enjoyable to listen to.
I need to check if I have that one--I thought I had a "Jump Street" 12" but maybe it was the "N on S St" single. Whatever it was, it's a promo copy and I still see those in the bins every so often.
 
A CD single takes up so little room, I would keep it for completeness sake, even if it's not your cup of tea.



Is that the "Massive Sound 12" mix?
Actually I had a cassette single. Never saw the CD single. And I wasn't going to keep a cassette tape of something that sounded that horrible. It's been years, so I can't say what the other mix title was. I do remember the remix sounding somewhat more tolerable than the album track, but it still didn't grab me.
 
That album is definitely an acquired taste for some. For me, it was sort of in line with other music I listen to (where much of it was later remixed in various versions), so it was not that out of the ordinary.
 
Back
Top Bottom