Herb Alpert and Me… — Vinyl Magic

We had to borrow money to start A&M, and borrow money just to release a single. That was the only intention we had at the time; a lot of record companies then were starting, operating out of trunks of cars. Fortunately, 'The Lonely Bull' single became a big hit. The record distributors said we should take the money and run, which piqued our interest, so we did The Loney Bull album. The Tijuana Brass was the label's savior, because the records we sold let A&M experiment. We started with the two of us, Jerry (Moss) and me, and ended up with 500 employees.
Herb Alpert

***Whipped Cream & Other Delights (1965) signed by Herb***

I used to go to bullfights in Tijuana for about three years during the spring, and I liked the sound of this little band that was used to announce the different fights. It wasn’t a Mariachi band, it was a brass band, and I was trying to get the feeling of those afternoons that I spent there with ‘The Lonely Bull.’ Then, Jerry (Moss), my partner, came up with the band name, Tijuana Brass. We later did a TV special, and part of it was filmed in that bullring in Tijuana.
Herb Alpert

***The Lonely Bull (1962) signed by Herb***

Born in 1935 in Los Angeles, Herb Alpert became an unlikely champion of Latin music. Herb attended the University of Southern California and performed as a member of the USC Trojan Marching Band for two years. Then, he joined Keen Records in 1957 as a staff songwriter and co-wrote the hit single "Wonderful World" with producer Lou Adler and Sam Cooke. Herb learned a lot from his brief time with Sam Cooke. As Herb later related, "Sam used to come in with his loose-leaf notebook, and he'd say, 'Herbie, what do you think of these lyrics?' I'd think to myself, 'Man, this is really corny. I don't know what he's trying to communicate here. I'd say, 'What's the melody like?' He'd pick up his guitar, and this thing that had this so-so lyric attached to it became magical."

In 1962, Herb started A&M records with Jerry Moss when they released The Lonely Bull. The single was a hit, went to Number 6 in the Top 40 and put their fledgling record label on the map. The Lonely Bull was recorded in Herb's garage and Herb multi-tracked the trumpet parts to create the signature Tijuana Brass wall of sound. To accommodate the swelling interest of fans who wanted to see the Tijuana Brass perform live, Herb put a band together. The band was not authentic Latin lotharios as depicted on the album covers with toreador jackets. Rather, Herb described them as "four lasagnas, two bagels and an American cheese."

***What Now My Love (1966) signed by Herb***

In their storied career, Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass sold in excess of seventy million records, won six Grammys and had fourteen platinum records. They were a commercial juggernaut and in 1966, they had three albums in the Top 10 selling thirteen million copies, easily outstripping The Beatles in their prime! My first exposure to Herb Alpert happened at an early age. I was surrounded by sounds. My grandmother played piano, my mother played piano, and my dad played saxophone (although I never heard him play). There was always music, even as it emanated from a sturdy, faux mahogany Magnavox console which doubled as a sideboard during holiday meals, or as a book shelf and cabinet long after the electronics failed. It was as much a part of the fabric of 1960s and 1970s hi-fi entertainment as anything.

I remember hearing the tight brass arrangements of The Tijuana Brass through the Magnavox and felt something stirring. Mostly, I remember staring at the Whipped Cream & Other Delights album cover. I was instantly smitten by the beautiful, buxom vixen frolicking in a mound of whipped cream. She seemed to be beckoning me to join her. It was heady stuff.

The brunette beauty was Dolores Erickson, a Vogue fashion model and one time beauty pageant winner (yes, she was Miss Longshoreman and Miss Maritime!), and she appeared on album covers for Cy Coleman, Nat King Cole and The Sandpipers but none as risqué or as sexually charged. She showed up for the Whipped Cream photo shoot wearing a bikini, undid her straps, and photographer Peter Whorf strategically applied shaving cream, as whipped cream was deemed too fragile to withstand the harsh photographic klieg lights. As Dolores recounted, "On my head was whipped cream. And of course it was whipped cream on my fingers, too. Shaving cream probably doesn’t taste very good." Whipped Cream & Other Delights became Herb Alpert's best selling album, selling over six million records, and it was in the Top 10 for sixty one weeks and the Top 40 for nearly three years. Clearly, it wasn't all about the music. At least not for me...

***Casino Royale (1967) signed by Herb***

Herb and Jerry Moss ran a very successful record label and signed notable and commercial artists in the ensuing years like The Carpenters, Waylon Jennings, Quincy Jones, Wes Montgomery and The Police. Herb and Jerry eventually sold A&M Records to Polygram in 1987 for over $500 million and Herb has become a noted philanthropist. Herb continues to tour and record with his wife Lani Hall, the former lead singer of Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66, a band which Herb signed to A&M back in the day.

I saw Herb and Lani perform in 2009 at the Ridgefield Playhouse in Connecticut. They were touring in support of Anything Goes, their first album recorded together. They performed a bunch of jazz standards - "It's Only A Paper Moon", "Let's Face The Music And Dance", and "That Old Black Magic" - with a crack session band. As a tease, Herb deftly tossed in a few notes of "Whipped Cream" and the crowd roared. It brought back many memories of the original album and The Dating Game theme, another stalwart in the 20th Century pop music lexicon.

Tan, relaxed and worth hundreds of millions, Herb was laid back and easy going when I met him. He laughed when he signed Whipped Cream for probably the ten millionth time. I told him that my adolescence was never quite the same after viewing this cover. I told him that I never found Dolores, but I did find my blue eyed, brunette beauty Erin, and that has made all the difference in my life.

Thanks again Herb for the music, guidance and direction. And especially, Whipped Cream & Other Delights.