Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass & Other Delights: 7 Highlights From the Hollywood Bowl Show

The show made excellent use of vintage footage of Herb and the Brass. The visuals amounted to a pop-culture time capsule of the 1960s. We got to see Herb as “the Mystery Challenger” on What’s My Line; footage from Herb and the Brass TV specials produced by such pros as Gary Smith & Dwight Hemion; clips from The Dating Game, which featured several of the Brass’ songs as music cues; Herb doing shtick on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh -In, TV’s top-rated show from 1968-70; the Teaberry Shuffle gum commercial from the 1960s that used the Brass’s “The Mexican Shuffle”; Herb talking with Louis Armstrong on The Kraft Music Hall;  Herb doing a funny bit with Sérgio Mendes on The Hollywood Palace mixing up their groups’ origins; and excerpts from actual music videos created for such hits as “Rise” and “Route 101.”

There was also a Billboard 200 chart showing Whipped Cream & Other Delights at No. 1.

Herb performed “This Guy’s in Love With You,” the Burt Bacharach/Hal David song that in 1968 became his first (and A&M Records’ first) No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Alpert is not a trained, polished singer, but that worked to his advantage on this song in which the singer is exposed and vulnerable in a naked declaration of love.

Alpert played “A Taste of Honey,” which in 1966 became the second (and still most recent) instrumental track to win a Grammy for record of the year. The smash came just five years after the first instrumental to win in that category, Percy Faith’s “The Theme From ‘A Summer Place,’” but if you didn’t know better, you’d swear the two records were separated by several decades. Faith’s recording of “A Summer Place,” which legendary composer Max Steiner composed for a 1959 film of the same name, is serene and elegant. Alpert’s take on “A Taste of Honey,” which Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow wrote for a 1960 Broadway show, has the pulse and energy of the 1960s.

The ensemble performed an extended version of “Rise,” the sleek instrumental that became Alpert’s second No. 1 hit on the Hot 100 in October 1979, at the tail end of the disco era. Though it was from that era, it isn’t locked into that era, because it isn’t overtly disco. It was Alpert’s idea to slow the track down to 100 beats per minute, giving it a groove-strut tempo.

When “Rise” reached No. 1, it made Alpert the first (and still the only) artist to top the Hot 100 with both vocal and instrumental tracks. The song returned to No. 1 in 1997 when it was sampled in The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Hypnotize.”

At the Bowl, the track sparked a jam session by the band, the longest and most drawn-out of the night.

Alpert told the story of how Al Hirt, a popular trumpeter of the early 1960s, turned down the sexy and playful instrumental “Whipped Cream.” That was a lucky break for Alpert and the Brass. The song became the ensemble’s highest-charting and longest-charting Hot 100 hit since 1962’s “The Lonely Bull.” More importantly, it helped inspire the title and direction of the album Whipped Cream & Other Delights.

Alpert dedicated “Ladyfingers” to his grandchildren. The song, which was featured on the Whipped Cream album, blew up on TikTok. Alpert proudly pointed out it happened organically: “I didn’t solicit it.”

As Alpert performed Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile,” the screen showed images of four late friends who played a huge role in Alpert’s life and the A&M story – Karen Carpenter, Burt Bacharach and Sérgio Mendes, all of whom recorded for A&M, and Jerry Moss, with whom Alpert co-founded the label on a handshake deal in 1962.

Alpert could have included far more artists he’s known who have passed away, but the spot was more effective because he was selective. Bacharach composed A&M’s first two No. 1 hits – “This Guy’s in Love With You” and “(They Long to Be) Close to You” and went on to record seven studio albums for A&M. Alpert met his wife, Lani Hall, through Mendes. She was one of the lead singers of the stellar late 1960s group Sérgio Mendes & Brasil 66. And Alpert signed Carpenter and her brother Richard when they were just 19 and 22, respectively. They became one of A&M’s best-selling acts of all time globally, and remain in the conversation 43 years after her death.

Paul Williams was Herb’s warm-up act. He didn’t perform, but he helped put Alpert and A&M Records into context. “A&M was like the Magic Store,” Williams said.

He praised A&M’s “artist-first” philosophy and said it was born from an experience Alpert had when he was signed as an artist to another label and thought the bass was a little light on his record. When he attempted to adjust the bass knob, an engineer slapped his hand (!) Williams’ takeaway? “Shouldn’t the artist always have a voice in what happens with his music?”

Williams also recalled the day in early 1969 when Herb and Chuck Kaye, head of A&M’s publishing arm, Almo/Irving Music, introduced him to the newly signed Carpenters. The duo — which immediately endeared themselves to Williams and his songwriting partner Roger Nichols, by knowing a song they had written for the “sunshine pop band” The Peppermint Trolley Company — went on to have major hits with three Williams/Nichols songs: “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Rainy Days and Mondays” and “I Won’t Last a Day Without You.”

“When an angel sings your songs, your life changes,” Williams said. 

“The Lonely Bull (El solo toro)”

“The Work Song”

“Memories of Madrid”

“Whipped Cream”

“Spanish Flea”

“Ladyfingers”

“Lollipops and Roses”

“Bittersweet Samba”

“Mexican Shuffle”

“Tangerine”

“(I’m Getting’) Sentimental Over You”

“Love Potion No. 9”

“This Guy’s in Love With You”

“Route 101”

“Rise”

“A Taste of Honey”

“Zorba the Greek”

“Smile”

“Casino Royale Theme”

“What Now My Love”

“A banda”

“Tijuana Taxi”

“Up Cherry Street”