On
8 February Shout! Factory set
about restoring Tijuana sex-god
Herb Alpert back to his rightful
position as the King of Brass,
first up is the Lost Treasures
collection, 22 songs hand picked
by Alpert followed by re-issues
of two of his classic sixties
albums The Lonely Bull and South
of the Border.
Alpert
was a huge star in the sixties,
fourth most popular album act in
the states behind Elvis, The
Beatles and Sinatra, and once
had five albums in the top 20 at
the same time, no mean feat!
Alpert also proved he had the
business smarts setting up the
A&M record label (with Jerry
Moss) and making stars of The
Carpenters.
LOST
TREASURES came about when
Alpert discovered a whole stash
of previously unissued material,
mixing those in with previously
hard to find and rare cuts we
have a pretty much a whole new
Alpert album; some of the
trumpets parts on the songs are
new (some were apparently
missing the trumpet line) but
you really can’t tell, the
feel and lazy, relaxed vibe is
just the same, Alpert even used
the same trumpet he used for
many of his sixties records;
There
is a surprisingly diverse range of songs on here too from the Cat Stevens
cut Whistlestar (Stevens was a fan of Alpert, you’ve only got to listen to
his sixties hits such as Matthew and Son and I Love My Dog to tell that, and
composed the tune especially for Herb) to re-arranged versions of classics
by James Taylor (Fire and Rain), The Beatles (And I Love Her) and still
finds room for the songs of Bacharach and David most notably with his
previously unheard version of Close To You (this was scheduled to be his
follow up single to This Guys in Love With You but instead Alpert gave the
song to The Carpenters for their debut single). decidedly groovy,Lost Treasures easily stands up with Alpert’s best work.
THE
LONELY BULL, released in 1962 was Alpert’s debut album and
con-incidentally the first album put out by A&M records, inspired by
seeing the crowds reaction at bullfights in Mexico, the single of The Lonely
Bull was a major top ten hit also hits were the follow ups Never on Sunday
and Desafinado, Alpert and his syncopated trumpet had arrived in big style,
mixing in some nice jazz stylings amongst the “Ameriachi”.
SOUTH
OF THE BORDER, Alpert’s fifth album and originally released in 1964,
continues in much the same vein, despite not managing any major singles with
the album (The Mexican Shuffle peaked at #85) there are some delights on
here with The Girl From Ipanema and All My Loving by The Beatles, the whole
album in fact has a much more relaxed vibe about than Bull.
These
three releases have been fantastically and lovingly put together by Shout!
Factory, the groovy artwork of the original albums have been reproduced for
the new digipacks and each disc also features a very informative 24 page
booklet, with plenty of contributions from the man himself. More are
promised for April, with Alpert’s legendary Whipped Cream amongst the
titles, and we for one can’t wait.
There
is a surprisingly diverse range of songs on here too from the Cat Stevens
cut Whistlestar (Stevens was a fan of Alpert, you’ve only got to listen to
his sixties hits such as Matthew and Son and I Love My Dog to tell that, and
composed the tune especially for Herb) to re-arranged versions of classics
by James Taylor (Fire and Rain), The Beatles (And I Love Her) and still
finds room for the songs of Bacharach and David most notably with his
previously unheard version of Close To You (this was scheduled to be his
follow up single to This Guys in Love With You but instead Alpert gave the
song to The Carpenters for their debut single). decidedly groovy,
SOUTH
OF THE BORDER, Alpert’s fifth album and originally released in 1964,
continues in much the same vein, despite not managing any major singles with
the album (The Mexican Shuffle peaked at #85) there are some delights on
here with The Girl From Ipanema and All My Loving by The Beatles, the whole
album in fact has a much more relaxed vibe about than Bull. 
