Hate sounding like skipping wax when I yet again insist I’m as eager as anyone to hurl my #TuesdaysWithJerry survey of A&M Records firmly into the era of Cat Stevens and Peter Frampton, to say nothing of the Police and Squeeze and scads more who arrived toward the end of that decade.
But there’s simply too many noteworthy ’60s LPs from label co-founder Herb Alpert and his zesty ensemble the Tijuana Brass to post about them once and move on. So here’s a second look; there may well be a third soon enough.
Frankly, given Mr. A’s significance to this story, he’s sure to turn up time and again in this extensive revisit inspired by the August passing of his lifelong business partner Jerry Moss.
Why spotlight this pair over other equally enjoyable titles?
Two reasons:
* Seventh album ’S.R.O.’ (November ’66) includes the first instance of Alpert singing, on a breezy rendition of then-new Broadway fave ‘Mame.’ No great shakes as a vocalist, the trumpeter nonetheless gained greater fame for that very talent 18 months later, when his effectively intimate tone sent the original (and still definitive) version of Burt Bacharach & Hal David’s ‘This Guy’s in Love with You’ speeding to the top of the charts. That’s an important milestone in this saga, but it’s worth mentioning that an Alpert vocal had already cracked Top 40 radio by then, as ‘Mame’ moseyed up to No. 19.
* Eighth album ‘Sounds Like’ (May ’67), beyond widening the TJB’s moods (sink luxuriously into ‘Shades of Blue’ some quiet night) and featuring future live staple ‘Wade in the Water,’ also closes with one of the group’s most renown recordings, their theme to the Bond spoof ‘Casino Royale,’ another Bacharach gem that worked better as an instrumental.