Song:Rise
Album:Definitive Hits
Trumpeter Herb Alpert is probably best remembered for his 60s recordings with The Tijuana Brass. After his run in the 60s, he struggled in the 70s until Rise topped the charts in 1979. He is the only artist in history to have vocal and instrumental number one hits. He was born Mar. 31, 1935 in Los Angeles. His parents were amateur musicians and his older brother played drums. Alpert took trumpet lessons as a child and played dances as a teen. After serving in The Army, he tried acting but decided on music instead. In 1957, he became a staff songwriter for Keen Records and wrote hits like Wonderful World for Sam Cooke and Alley Oop for The Hollywood Argyles. He also had his own band Dante & The Evergreens and recorded as a singer for RCA as Dore Alpert. In 1962, Alpert founded A & M Records with Jerry Moss. He started experimenting in his garage recording studio. On a trip to Tijuana, Alpert got the idea to do an Americanized version of a mariachi band. When he got home, he recorded The Lonely Bull complete with crowd noise. The song reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1962. It was also the first A & M album release. They were called Herb Alpert &The Tijuana Brass but there was no band at first. Alpert overdubbed his trumpet several times. He did form a touring band in 1964. His biggest hit was A Taste Of Honey which reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965. Alpert's first #1 hit had him singing Burt Bacharach's This Guy's In Love With You. He sang it to his wife on a 1968 TV special and then it was released as a single. Obviously Alpert is a very limited singer. The Tijuana Brass ended and Alpert struggled through most of the 70s until he topped the charts with Rise in 1979. Rise was written by Alpert's nephew Randy "Badazz" Alpert and Andy Armer. It gained a following when it was used in a major story arc on the daytime soap General Hospital. Then dance DJs picked it up and that led to mainstream radio play. It's obviously much different from the Tijuana Brass recordings but change was necessary. The album Rise was recorded after the single was a hit. Alpert had a top five hit in 1987 with Diamonds featuring Janet Jackson. You can get all his hits on this comp. Alpert & Moss sold A & M to PolyGram in 1993 and they started a new label Almo Sounds. Alpert currently records for Concord and his latest CD I Feel You was released last year. Here's the video for Rise by Herb Alpert. The woman Alpert is cavorting with in the video is his wife Lani Hall. She was a singer for Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 and she currently sings on her husband's CDs.They have been married since 1974.
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