Musician, born in Los Angeles, California, USA. A trumpeter, and record and flm soundtrack producer, he began as a songwriter for Sam Cooke in 1958, then established and led the pop instrumental group, Tijuana Brass (19639). He later concentrated on executive duties at A & M Records, which he co-founded in 1962.
Alpert's musical accomplishments include five number one hits, twenty-eight albums on the Billboard charts, eight Grammy Awards, fourteen Platinum albums and fifteen Gold albums. As of 1996, Alpert had sold 72 million albums worldwide.Early life and career
Alpert began trumpet lessons at about the age of 8 and played at dances as a teenager. After his service in the Army, Alpert tried his hand at acting, but eventually settled on pursuing a career in music.
In 1957, Alpert teamed up with Lou Adler, another burgeoning musician, as a songwriter for Keen Records. A number of songs written or co-written by Alpert during the following two years became top twenty hits, including "Baby Talk" by Jan and Dean, "Wonderful World" by Sam Cooke, and "Alley-Oop" by Dante and The Evergreens. In 1960, Alpert began his recording career as a vocalist at RCA Records under the name of Dore Alpert, where he recorded an early vocal, "Tell it to the Birds".
The Tijuana Brass Years
Alpert set up a small recording studio in his garage and was overdubbing with a tune called "Twinkle Star" when, during a visit to Tijuana, Mexico, he happened to hear a mariachi band while attending a bullfight. Following the experience, Alpert recalled that he was "inspired to find a way to musically express what [he] felt while watching the wild responses of the crowd, and hearing the brass musicians introducing each new event with rousing fanfare." Alpert adapted the trumpet style to the tune, mixed in crowd cheers and other noises to create ambience, and renamed the song, "The Lonely Bull."
Alpert released his debut album, The Lonely Bull by Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass.
By the end of 1964, due to a growing demand for live appearances by the Tijuana Brass, Alpert auditioned and hired a team of crack session men.
The Tijuana Brass's success helped spawn other Latin acts, notably Julius Wechter (long-time friend of Alpert's and the marimba player for the Brass) and the Baja Marimba Band, and the profits allowed A&M to begin building a repertoire of artists like Chris Montez and The Sandpipers. The fortune of Alpert's style began with the national exposure The Clark Gum Company gave one of his tunes in 1964, titled "The Mexican Shuffle" (which was retitled "The Teaberry Shuffle" for the television ads). In 1965, Alpert released two albums, Whipped Cream (and Other Delights) and Going Places. Despite the popularity of his singles, Alpert's albums outsold and outperformed them on the charts.
Alpert and the Tijuana Brass won six Grammy awards and 15 of their albums went gold, 14 platinum. That same year, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized that Alpert set a new record by placing five albums simultaneously on the Billboard Pop Album Chart, an accomplishment that has never been repeated.
Alpert's only number one single during this period (and the first #1 hit for his A&M label) was a solo effort: This Guy's in Love With You (written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David), featuring a rare vocal. Alpert sang this to his first wife in a 1968 CBS Television special titled Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. The song was not intended to be released, but after it was used in the television special, thousands of telephone calls to CBS asking about it, convinced label owner Alpert to release it as a single, two days after the show aired.. Initially dismissed by the critical cognoscenti and "hip" music-lovers as strictly a housewife's favourite, Alpert's unusually expressive recording of This Guy's in Love With You is now regarded as one of the monumental ballads in pop.
Life after the Brass
Alpert disbanded the Tijuana Brass in 1969, but released another album by the group in 1971. Alpert reconvened a third version of the Brass in 1984 after being invited to perform for the Olympic Games athletes at the Los Angeles Summer Games.
In the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, Alpert enjoyed a successful solo career. It also made Alpert the only solo artist ever to hit #1 on the Billboard charts with both vocal and instrumental pieces.
From 1962 through 1992 Alpert signed artists to A&M Records and produced records. Among the notable artists he worked with personally are Chris Montez, The Carpenters, Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66, Bill Medley, Lani Hall (Alpert's second and current wife), and Janet Jackson (featured vocalist on his 1987 hit single "Diamonds"). These working relationships have allowed Alpert to become one of only a handful of artists to place singles in the Top 10 in at least three different decades ('60s, '70s, and '80s).
Alpert and A&M Records partner Jerry Moss received a Grammy Trustees Award in 1997 for their lifetime achievements in the recording industry as executives.
For his contribution to the recording industry, Herb Alpert has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6929 Hollywood Blvd.
Alpert and Jerry Moss were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 13, 2006 as non-performer lifetime achievers for their work at A&M.
Today
Alpert continues to play his trumpet and devotes time to his second career as an abstract expressionist painter and sculptor with shows around the United States, as a Broadway theatre producer.
In the 1980s he created The Herb Alpert Foundation and The Alpert Awards in the Arts with The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). In 2000, Alpert bought back the rights to his music from Universal Music (current owners of A&M Records), and began remixing and remastering his albums for a CD reissue. Factory began distributing digitally remastered versions of Alpert's A&M Records output, including a new album consisting of unreleased material from Alpert's Tijuana Brass.
Discography
Herb Alpert & Other Delights (1965) LP-110/SP-4110* Going Places (1965) LP-112/SP-4112* What Now My Love (1966) LP-114/SP-4114* S.R.O. (1966) LP-119/SP-4119* Sounds Like... (1967) LP-124/SP-4124* Herb Alpert's Ninth (1967) LP-134/SP-4134* The Beat of the Brass (1968) SP-4146 (From this point, albums were issued in Stereo only) The Herb Alpert & Reissued as SP-3113 Warm (Herb Alpert album) (1969) SP-4190 Greatest Hits (1970) SP-4245 The Brass Are Coming (1969) SP-4228 Summertime (1971) Solid Brass (compilation) (1972) SP-4341 Foursider (compilation) (1973) SP-3521 You Smile - The Song Begins (1974) SP-3620 Coney Island (1975) SP-4521 Greatest Hits Vol. Other Delights Rewhipped (2006)
*Stereo
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