Your precious Herb Alpert-items

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Gertbak

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Sorry if this topic has been discussed before - but I think it could be interesting to hear what is your small 'Herb Alpert-pride' back home on your shelf. It certainly doesn't have to be expensive items - just something that has a special story connected to it and therefore is precious to you.

Let me start by mentioning just one thing from 'my shelf':

In 1970 I was 12 years old and had been writing (in broken English) a letter to Herb Alpert. About a month after I had posted the letter from Denmark, I received a large envelope with a typed message telling me, that unfortunately the fan club had been closed. Inside the official A&M envelope was also two promotional pictures. Unfortunately there was no autograph, which was what I originally had asked for.
Well, 28 years later I decided to contact Herb again, and this time I was allowed to send a few record sleeves to him for his autograph. Together with the sleeves I sent the yellow A&M envelope that I had received in 1970 (still with the date/year postmark vissible). And to my big joy I received the autographed items shortly after, and perhaps for some nostalgic reasons the most fantastic thing was to see Herb's autograph and greetings on that old envelope. Somehow things came full circle.
P.S. I have given up explaining to my wife and kids how a grown-up man can have sentimenal feelings towards an envelope - so therefore I turn to you, my fellow-Herb-Alpert-addicts.
 
OK, I'll bite:

- About the time "Coney Island" came out, I called Herb's office to offer them one of the original "Lonely Bull" singles, figuring they might like to have it. She was very sweet and said they had copies, but offered to send me an autograph. A few days later, a signed copy of "Coney Island" arrived.

- I won a bid on eBay for a plaster mask designed and painted by Herb. The price, for some reason, was ridiculously low. How that happened, I have no idea because I'm sure it would go for respectible dollars today. It hangs by my desk.

- When I interviewed him for the news on the local NBC affiliate (when "Listen" perfume came out), Herb signed a copy of the A&M 25th anniversary book, a treasure.

- Also have an 8x10 black and white unsigned photo of him and me the first time I ever met him, when I interviewed him at WSB radio in Atlanta.

It's a wonderful part of life to have music that means so much to you, and to have the artist be so gracious.
 
I also have a special Herb Alpert item. In 1974, I was 14 and I wrote to Herb telling him of course that I have all of his albums and that they were great. I asked him when he was going to record again. Much to my surprise I received an envelope with the name Herb Alpert on the back. He actually wrote to me, typewritten, and answered my question and said thank you for the nice remarks. At the bottom of the letter was his signature and his initials and those of the secretary who typed the letter. I still have it in the den in a file. I will never forget it!!! My wife as well does not understand.....but I do!!!

Joe
 
"I have given up explaining to my wife and kids how a grown-up man can have sentimenal feelings towards an envelope - so therefore I turn to you, my fellow-Herb-Alpert-addicts."

Dear New Member,
You came to the right place. :tongue: I've had to explain to my wife and kids many times how a grown man has sentimentalities to da strangest things. So don't worry, you're normal. :badteeth: Later amigos.........JO
 
I have the sheet music to "Love So Fine" with a fantastic pic of Herb on the cover, which I naturally framed. This little ditty cost me a pretty penny on eBay several years ago.
 
I got nothin'. The TJB was in concert 100 miles from me when I was a kid, but I either didn't find out about it until later, or I hadn't discovered them yet at the time. Probably the latter. So, no programs or anything like that. Probably my most treasured items right now are my homemade TJB compilations because I put so much work into them....everything else is pretty much replaceable.

I do have one of the original "Lonely Bull" singles, but I guess there are about a milllion of those around too.
 
Only thing I have is a Bullish T-shirt, and I got that after the fact on eBay a few years ago.
 
I was fortunate enough to meet Herb after the Coney Island Concert in Michigan. I asked him about Carmine Caruso as a trumpet teacher - he politely and efficiently wrote down his phone number with a felt pen on an official Coney Island Memo Pad. I did end up going to New York and had several sessions with Carmine and bought my L.A. Hand Made Benge at Giardinneli's.
I also sent A&M Records a demo of my trumpet single 45 "Slapshot/ Late Blossom" No deal but I still have a polite rejection letter on A&M Stationary signed by a (is I recall correctly- Bary Korkin? (A&R Rep).

I also have several neat shots Herb and Myself and will treasure these always.
Some autographed pics also.
Rim Kasputis
 
This isn't much but I recently won promo copies of WARM and FOURSIDER on E-bay. Never saw any before. Anybody else have a Foursider promo? I kind of like the promo labels better than the regular ones.
 
At least one of the FOURSIDER sets I own is a promo - probably the BMB or the MENDES. I just went in to check the ALPERT FOURSIDER and I seem to have acquired two copies of the LP. One is a 1972 copyright with blue innersleeves and silver & tan labels (SP 6011) - while the other is a later, 1973 copyright with ochre labels and brownish innersleeves (SP 3521). It almost seems as if these should be reversed, with the newer one having the updated label, but these are backwards in that respect.

Harry
 
Harry, the 6011 designator was the number assigned in the early 80s when A&M renumbered a bunch of LPs in various series (including the "Valu-Line" 31xx series...

sp3521.jpg
sp3521alt.jpg
sp6011.jpg


L to R, 3523 (original design, which had a horizontal OB! (not to be confused with Horizonte Alperto) featuring the song titles) and the version where the song titles were printed on the sleeve, and the 80's 6011 reissue...

--Mr Bill
 
Upon closer inspection, I find that the 6011 jacket is housing 3523 albums inside 3521 sleeves. I believe THAT album came in a bunch of eBay albums. Meanwhile, my original 3523 jacket is now housing 6011 LP's. Perhaps I managed to mix these up in the past...

Harry
 
Very likely, Herry! When they first renumbered a lot of these all they did was remove the shrink wrap and place a sticker with the new number over the old number. I believe the 6000 series (and ONLY 60xx) was the 2LP side of the 3100 valuline as they all happened at the same time. Some valuline LPs were never even manufactured with the new numbers (I've never seen the valuline Main Event-Live album with the 31xx number actually printed on it) and were simply put in the valuline versus being simply "cut-out."

Of course, if you just put a sticker on the sleeve, the vinyl inside will retain the original number...

--Mr Bill
 
I have 2 cd's signed by Herb Alpert. One was "Second Wind" at his show at the Supper Club in Manhattan, NYC. By the way, that show was fantastic, Herb was there with the Jeff Loerber (sp?) band. Lani was there and looked stunning, but sadly did not sing! That is the only time I saw either one in person and this was around 92-93.
The other cd I have I bought second hand at Sounds in the Village in Manhattan, NYC. It was a dj promo with a hard dark blue cardboard cover and inside it had the photo on the regular cd with cover artwork of Herb playing the trumpet. It was autographed " To Gary With Warm Regards" Herb Alpert".... I'm assuming Gary is a DJ. I bought it for about $6! I treasure both!
 
Ok, I'm finally getting around to this after [apparently] seven years of this thread's run, and it's only now because of my recent additions to Pinterest. I've actually wanted to show off my vinyl lp collection of Herb Alpert, in it's entirety, for quite some time and this was a good excuse to do so. With the exception of my LONELY BULL copy not being on the original tan label with the A&M label at the top, I'm pretty sure they're all original copies/labels up to the point where you couldn't get a vinyl copy. So I had no choice but to display CD copies after NORTH ON SOUTH ST.
To anyone who's interested, here's the link:
http://www.pinterest.com/tonyforbes9/herb-alpert-discography/
 
Great collection Tony! :thumbsup:

I've been trying to get all of Herb's albums on vinyl, in the best possible copies. Hardest to find are the reformed 70s TJB...at least in clean, playable condition. I have four or five of Coney Island and they all suck. If they're not worn, they're noisy. Oh and one of those was a sealed copy--it had a really wonky sound to it, and it turns out it was a record club version. :rolleyes: I do have an excellent Just You and Me though, promo. Reminds me I haven't spun it on the new vinyl rig yet...
 
Thanks, Rudy. I've noticed a few times as well that RCA Record Club or Columbia Music Service lps were 'fuzzy' sounding, even brand new. I can't help remembering how, when I signed up, I got the six or eight free deal on the albums I was only going to play occasionally (i.e. Air Supply Greatest Hits, Commodores All The Great Hits, etc.,etc.). Because I wasn't going to play them that often, I could accept the less than stellar sound quality. However, I noticed in no time that even after a few plays, they sounded like utter garbage. ESPECIALLY albums released on RCA in the 1980s. The vinyl they used was absolute garbage.
Thankfully, my Herb Alpert imports (AyM Discos releases of "Fandango", "Noche De Amor" and "Bravio") came from other sources despite the fact that they were originally distributed by RCA. All of the domestic A&M releases sound pretty good even to this day... yet another testament to the integrity of classic A&M.
 
toeknee4bz said:
Thanks, Rudy. I've noticed a few times as well that RCA Record Club or Columbia Music Service lps were 'fuzzy' sounding, even brand new.
Click to expand...

It was better in the CD era since the labels could send over a digital master. For the old LPs though, I have a feeling they would send over a dub of whatever tape was most convenient, and often sounded nasty. The one club that really was worthwhile to me was the Laserdisc club--I hung on well past the initial period and they had deals which made it pointless to even buy them locally. And one of their closeout sales had a few titles I wanted for under $10. Half the LD collectors I know would get the Star Wars trilogy as their three introductory selections. :laugh:
 
Forgot to mention that I don't have Herb doing the remake of The Beach Boys song "California Girls" with The-Merry-Go-Round which is on The Definitive Collection CD on Rev Ola which is the hidden bonus track when "Time Will Show The Wiser" ends. I did heard it on YouTube though!!! Matt Clark Sanford, MI
 
I finally got The-Merry-Go-Round "Listen, Listen: The Definitive Collection" which does NOT have Herb talking during the beginning of "California Girls". I also picked up Sergio Mendes "Encarto" (from 2008) which has Herb & Lani Hall doing the song "Dreamer". Matt Clark Sanford, MI
 
toeknee4bz said:
Ok, I'm finally getting around to this after [apparently] seven years of this thread's run, and it's only now because of my recent additions to Pinterest. I've actually wanted to show off my vinyl lp collection of Herb Alpert, in it's entirety, for quite some time and this was a good excuse to do so. With the exception of my LONELY BULL copy not being on the original tan label with the A&M label at the top, I'm pretty sure they're all original copies/labels up to the point where you couldn't get a vinyl copy. So I had no choice but to display CD copies after NORTH ON SOUTH ST.
To anyone who's interested, here's the link:
http://www.pinterest.com/tonyforbes9/herb-alpert-discography/
Click to expand...

Very cool - but where are the last three albums?? :)
 
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