Initially I’d planned for this lengthy look back at A&M Records to be a series of twofers, the better to coincide with #VinylTwosDays, a weekly scene I’m always happy to join. But as I started sorting through titles and structuring future installments, it quickly occurred to me that not everything will pair up so pleasingly.
Which is why I’ve opted to showcase this cornucopia on its own, rather than with the ‘Million Dollar Sound Sampler’ that surfaced only a month earlier in ‘67.
That one dropped sometime in November and it’s still a fine overview of the label at that time, despite bland cover art that doesn’t complement this picnic-like array very well. Far as I can tell, ‘Family Portrait’ likely arrived in mid-December, right around the time of a Herb Alpert-hosted television special filmed at the legendary Hollywood Palace, across the street from the even more iconic Capitol Records building.
Most of the talents gathered on this disc also appeared on the show, including established favorites like the Tijuana Brass Band, the Baja Marimba Band and the latest incarnation of Sérgio Mendes & Brasil ’66, as well as several new signings: Burt Bacharach, Wes Montgomery, Phil Ochs, Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart and, most recently, Liza Minnelli, whose contract was so freshly inked that her number on this comp, ‘The Debutante’s Ball,’ is from a forthcoming LP yet to be titled.
Also on hand: the Merry-Go-Round, the late great Emmit Rhodes’s launching pad, plus groovy jazz cuts from Herbie Mann (rethinking ‘House of the Rising Sun’), Brazilian master Antonio Carlos Jobim and, most enticing of all, a brief bit from another South American outfit, Tamba 4, who were a tease too: their classic ‘We and the Sea’ didn’t drop until August ’68.
As #TuesdaysWithJerry now bids adieu to the decade that begat A&M, I thought this collage encompassing most of what’s been reconsidered thus far was perfectly timed to the tail-end of this year.