Brass

August 10th, 2012

Anyone out there old enough to remember the cover of this album, which sold six million copies in 1965? Or the band? Herb Alpert came from fairly close to Tijuana — Los Angeles — but, hardly Mexican, was a young man of Jewish Rumanian descent when he recorded a song called “The Lonely Bull,” which was inspired by the brass section of a mariachi band he had heard on a trip across the border. His band, the Tijuana Brass, included no Mexicans either. According to the Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass web site, the model on the album cover, Dolores Erickson, was pregnant at the time of the shoot. And that is not whipped cream. It’s shaving cream. Alpert and the band sold over 72 million records, mostly in the 1960s. He also has been a recording executive and a philanthropist, and today leads a band which features his wife, singer Lani Hall. You want to see the video of the album’s biggest hit? It was made fifteen years before MTV.

Labels: Mexico City

  1. 10 Responses to “Brass”

  2. By Tapen Sinha on Aug 10, 2012

    Yes, of course!

    Recently, A&M was in the news.
    http://www.noise11.com/news/am-records-to-release-50th-anniversary-album-20120720

    Tapen

  3. By Jorge Canavati on Aug 11, 2012

    I still have this LP

  4. By Randy Bolander on Aug 11, 2012

    Wow, what a Flashback! HA&TTB played a pivotal role in my transition from ingenue to degenerate hippy. It took a toll on my teenage romance with next door neighbor Kim Martin. We shared the love of the music, until one day I woke up to the smell of marijuana and the lyrics of Frank Zappa. Our paths permananently diverged. I often wonder what my life would be like had I been more sheltered.

  5. By Graham Ashmore on Aug 11, 2012

    Couldn’t take my eyes off this cover when I was a kid. Not so easy now.

  6. By ana manwaring on Aug 11, 2012

    I still have it too. Did it lead to my downfall into hippidom? Susie Creamcheese sure did. My family sheltered me and my record collection, HA & TTB among them,at a fancy private girl’s high school. It was there I was led astray by acid tripping debutantes. The school took us to see The Doors in 1967 and I remember toking up in the back of the school bus with the other freaks. (Jim Morrison was awesome.) In those days, anything seemed possible.

  7. By Jim on Aug 11, 2012

    I may have a copy – grew up on this as my Mom played it constantly. Grew up in the 60′s/70′s in Tijuana del Norte (San Diego). Thanks for the memory!

  8. By Vincent on Aug 12, 2012

    Appropriated,derivative,and in no way Mexican: agreed and point taken. Yet even when I was 10 I knew this somehow represented a broader musical enthusiam for things ‘international’, music included, among my mid-forties Canadian parents and their friends — none of whom had ever been to Mexico or even Tijuana. Still, to their credit, along with hackneyed German choirs covering Burt Bacharach, and Nana Mouskouri records, they also had Tito Rodriguez LP’s and had learned to cha cha cha.

  9. By Mariko on Aug 13, 2012

    This album was my father’s pride souvenir from his business trip to Mexico when I was a kid in 60′s. He taught me the joy of music and this album was probably one of early collections of his he shared with me.
    Great memory……

  10. By Neal Erickson on Aug 16, 2012

    Hi, David — Long time listener, first time caller.

    Talk about synchronicity: check out this article from today’s Seattle Times about the model (now 76): http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018926566_whippedcreamlady16m.html?prmid=head_main

    (Sorry for the long link)

    Cheers,
    Neal Erickson

  11. By Robert Broughton on Aug 18, 2012

    Neal, I, too, was wondering about Ms. Erickson. Thanks for the link.

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