“I never thought I’d be doing this at 91,” Alpert told the audience. “That was beyond my imagination.”
HOLLYWOOD, CA – DECEMBER 04: Herb Alpert performs onstage during a celebration of Carole King and her music to benefit Paul Newman’s The Painted Turtle Camp at the Dolby Theatre on December 4, 2012 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images for The Painted Turtle Camp)
Michael Buckner
Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass made a little history on Sunday (July 5), when they headlined the Hollywood Bowl. The ensemble first headlined the iconic venue for two nights in September 1967, giving them the record for the longest span of headlining appearances (nearly 59 years) in Bowl history.
“This is really a dream come true for me,” Alpert told the audience after performing the first three songs in the set. “I never thought I’d be doing this at 91. That was beyond my imagination.”
Alpert fronted a six-man ensemble, all wearing matching tan jackets. Alpert, who sat for most of the show, wore a blue suit. The well-paced and varied show was capped by multiple encores.
The show was titled “Herb Alpert & The Tjuana Brass & Other Delights.” The title of course is a nod to the title of Alpert’s most famous album, Whipped Cream & Other Delights, which topped the Billboard 200 for eight weeks in 1965-66. It was one of five No. 1 albums the Brass collected between 1965 and 1968 that made them one of the most popular recording acts of the 1960s.
The TJB’s music is mostly upbeat and joyous. It provided escape from the dark headlines of the 1960s, including Vietnam, riots and assassinations. We’re going through difficult times again, which could be one reason Alpert’s ongoing tour with the TJB has been doing so well. “The times we’re living in, there’s a lot of doubt with what’s going on, and I think people are getting some positive energy from it,” Alpert told The Los Angeles Times on the eve of the concert.
Here are seven highlights from Alpert’s record-setting Hollywood Bowl show.
Superb use of video
The show made excellent use of vintage footage of Herb and the Brass. The visuals amounted to a pop-culture time capsule of the 1960s. We got to see Herb as “the Mystery Challenger” on What’s My Line; footage from Herb and the Brass TV specials produced by such pros as Gary Smith & Dwight Hemion; clips from The Dating Game, which featured several of the Brass’ songs as music cues; Herb doing shtick on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh -In, TV’s top-rated show from 1968-70; the Teaberry Shuffle gum commercial from the 1960s that used the Brass’s “The Mexican Shuffle”; Herb talking with Louis Armstrong on The Kraft Music Hall; Herb doing a funny bit with Sérgio Mendes on The Hollywood Palace mixing up their groups’ origins; and excerpts from actual music videos created for such hits as “Rise” and “Route 101.”
There was also a Billboard 200 chart showing Whipped Cream & Other Delights at No. 1.
The naked emotion of “This Guy’s in Love With You”
Herb performed “This Guy’s in Love With You,” the Burt Bacharach/Hal David song that in 1968 became his first (and A&M Records’ first) No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Alpert is not a trained, polished singer, but that worked to his advantage on this song in which the singer is exposed and vulnerable in a naked declaration of love.
The pulse of “A Taste of Honey”
Alpert played “A Taste of Honey,” which in 1966 became the second (and still most recent) instrumental track to win a Grammy for record of the year. The smash came just five years after the first instrumental to win in that category, Percy Faith’s “The Theme From ‘A Summer Place,’” but if you didn’t know better, you’d swear the two records were separated by several decades. Faith’s recording of “A Summer Place,” which legendary composer Max Steiner composed for a 1959 film of the same name, is serene and elegant. Alpert’s take on “A Taste of Honey,” which Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow wrote for a 1960 Broadway show, has the pulse and energy of the 1960s.
Doing the “12-inch version” of “Rise”
The ensemble performed an extended version of “Rise,” the sleek instrumental that became Alpert’s second No. 1 hit on the Hot 100 in October 1979, at the tail end of the disco era. Though it was from that era, it isn’t locked into that era, because it isn’t overtly disco. It was Alpert’s idea to slow the track down to 100 beats per minute, giving it a groove-strut tempo.
When “Rise” reached No. 1, it made Alpert the first (and still the only) artist to top the Hot 100 with both vocal and instrumental tracks. The song returned to No. 1 in 1997 when it was sampled in The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Hypnotize.”
At the Bowl, the track sparked a jam session by the band, the longest and most drawn-out of the night.
Some revealing stories
Alpert told the story of how Al Hirt, a popular trumpeter of the early 1960s, turned down the sexy and playful instrumental “Whipped Cream.” That was a lucky break for Alpert and the Brass. The song became the ensemble’s highest-charting and longest-charting Hot 100 hit since 1962’s “The Lonely Bull.” More importantly, it helped inspire the title and direction of the album Whipped Cream & Other Delights.
Alpert dedicated “Ladyfingers” to his grandchildren. The song, which was featured on the Whipped Cream album, blew up on TikTok. Alpert proudly pointed out it happened organically: “I didn’t solicit it.”
An unexpected salute to four friends
As Alpert performed Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile,” the screen showed images of four late friends who played a huge role in Alpert’s life and the A&M story – Karen Carpenter, Burt Bacharach and Sérgio Mendes, all of whom recorded for A&M, and Jerry Moss, with whom Alpert co-founded the label on a handshake deal in 1962.
Alpert could have included far more artists he’s known who have passed away, but the spot was more effective because he was selective. Bacharach composed A&M’s first two No. 1 hits – “This Guy’s in Love With You” and “(They Long to Be) Close to You” and went on to record seven studio albums for A&M. Alpert met his wife, Lani Hall, through Mendes. She was one of the lead singers of the stellar late 1960s group Sérgio Mendes & Brasil 66. And Alpert signed Carpenter and her brother Richard when they were just 19 and 22, respectively. They became one of A&M’s best-selling acts of all time globally, and remain in the conversation 43 years after her death.
An unannounced Paul Williams introduces Herb
Paul Williams was Herb’s warm-up act. He didn’t perform, but he helped put Alpert and A&M Records into context. “A&M was like the Magic Store,” Williams said.
He praised A&M’s “artist-first” philosophy and said it was born from an experience Alpert had when he was signed as an artist to another label and thought the bass was a little light on his record. When he attempted to adjust the bass knob, an engineer slapped his hand (!) Williams’ takeaway? “Shouldn’t the artist always have a voice in what happens with his music?”
Williams also recalled the day in early 1969 when Herb and Chuck Kaye, head of A&M’s publishing arm, Almo/Irving Music, introduced him to the newly signed Carpenters. The duo — which immediately endeared themselves to Williams and his songwriting partner Roger Nichols, by knowing a song they had written for the “sunshine pop band” The Peppermint Trolley Company — went on to have major hits with three Williams/Nichols songs: “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Rainy Days and Mondays” and “I Won’t Last a Day Without You.”
“When an angel sings your songs, your life changes,” Williams said.
The set list
“The Lonely Bull (El solo toro)”
“The Work Song”
“Memories of Madrid”
“Whipped Cream”
“Spanish Flea”
“Ladyfingers”
“Lollipops and Roses”
“Bittersweet Samba”
“Mexican Shuffle”
“Tangerine”
“(I’m Getting’) Sentimental Over You”
“Love Potion No. 9”
“This Guy’s in Love With You”
“Route 101”
“Rise”
“A Taste of Honey”
“Zorba the Greek”
“Smile”
“Casino Royale Theme”
“What Now My Love”
“A banda”
“Tijuana Taxi”
“Up Cherry Street”
www.billboard.com
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