Taylor Swift’s present chart domination has put one other chart titan, Herb Alpert, again within the information. Final week, Swift turned the primary dwelling artist to place 4 albums within the high 10 on the Billboard 200 since Alpert & the Tijuana Brass achieved the feat in April 1966. Swift repeats the feat this week.
Alpert congratulated Swift on matching his achievement with a candy message on TikTok. “Hello Taylor, that is Herb Alpert,” he says within the clip. “I’ve been getting calls from everywhere in the world from publications desirous to understand how do I really feel about you breaking my document of — I don’t know — 150 years in the past. I really feel nice! I believe you’re a beautiful artist, honest, you’re gracious and also you deserve it. You deserve all of it. Congratulations.”
On Billboard’s most up-to-date checklist of the Best of All Time Billboard 200 Artists, Alpert is No. 7 – simply forward of Swift at No. 8. (Swift will probably transfer up within the subsequent replace.)
Alpert, 88, had such a huge effect from the Nineteen Sixties to the Nineteen Eighties, as each an artist and a document firm founder, that his title continues to resurface within the information. In 2006, he and his enterprise accomplice Jerry Moss (they’re the A and M in A&M Data) had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame within the non-performer class.
In 2013, President Obama introduced Alpert with the Nationwide Medal of the Arts. The next yr, the trumpeter gained a Grammy for greatest pop instrumental album for Steppin’ Out. The award got here 48 years after he gained 4 Grammys for the Tijuana Brass instrumental hit “A Style of Honey.” In 2020, Herb Alpert Is…, a documentary written and directed by John Scheinfeld, was launched. The movie featured feedback from Sting, Questlove, Quincy Jones and extra.
Alpert has achieved rather a lot in his life and profession. His chart dominance from 1965 to 1968, when he had 5 No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 and one No. 1 single on the Billboard Scorching 100, is an enormous a part of the story, however there’s far more to it. Have a look.
-
He was the primary artist to take a Burt Bacharach music to No. 1 on the Scorching 100.
By mid-1968, Perry Como, Gene Pitney, Bobby Vinton, Dionne Warwick, Jackie DeShannon and Tom Jones had all notched high 10 hits with songs written by the peerless staff of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, however Alpert was the primary artist to take a Bacharach/David music (or any Bacharach music, for that matter) to No. 1. It occurred in June and July 1968 when Alpert’s tender vocal model of “This Man’s in Love With You” topped the chart for 4 consecutive weeks.
Fittingly, these two nice groups – Alpert & Moss and Bacharach & David – acquired trustees awards from the Recording Academy the identical yr (1997).
-
He is the one particular person artist to high the Scorching 100 with each a vocal hit and an instrumental hit.
Eleven years after “This Man’s in Love With You” reached No. 1 on the Scorching 100, Alpert returned to the highest spot with an instrumental smash, “Rise.”Alpert is, to at the present time, the one particular person artist to high the Scorching 100 with each a vocal hit and an instrumental hit.
Two different artists, Rick Derringer and Barry White, deserve point out. As a member of The McCoys, Derringer reached No. 1 in 1965 with the vocal hit, “Hold on Sloopy.” Eight years later, as a member of the Edgar Winter Group, he reached No. 1 with the instrumental hit “Frankenstein.” Derringer additionally produced the latter hit.
White reached No. 1 in 1974 with a vocal hit, “Can’t Get Sufficient of Your Love, Babe.” The R&B maestro composed and produced the smash. He additionally composed and produced the Love Limitless Orchestra’s instrumental smash “Love’s Theme,” which had hit No. 1 earlier that very same yr. However he didn’t play an instrument on “Love’s Theme.”
“Rise” might be greatest recognized to youthful music followers for its pattern in The Infamous B.I.G.’s “Hypnotize,” which topped the Scorching 100 in Could 1997.
-
He spent extra weeks atop the Billboard 200 in 1966 than some other artist.
Alpert and the Tijuana Brass headed the Billboard 200 for 18 weeks in 1966, in comparison with 17 weeks for The Beatles and eight for The Monkees.
-
He had one in every of simply two instrumental hits to win a Grammy for document of the yr.
Alpert and the Tijuana Brass’ “A Style of Honey” (1965) and Percy Religion’s “Theme From A Summer season Place” (1960) are the one two instrumental hits to win the Grammy for document of the yr. Although they had been launched simply 5 years aside, they sound like they’re from totally totally different eras. Religion’s shimmering instrumental evokes the Fifties (the music’s composer Max Steiner was a high movie scorer relationship again to the Nineteen Thirties), whereas “A Style of Honey” has the sooner tempo and extra city sound of the Nineteen Sixties.
-
He co-founded probably the most extensively admired document firms of all time.
In 1962, Alpert and Moss based A&M Data, which is on nearly everyone’s shortlist of probably the most profitable and admired labels of all time. A&M was often called an artist-friendly label, taking such disparate artists as Joe Cocker and the Carpenters and turning them unfastened, trusting their instincts. It proved to be a successful strategy: The label’s many different hit acts included Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, Quincy Jones, Brothers Johnson, Peter Frampton, Rita Coolidge, Supertramp, The Police, Sting, Janet Jackson and Amy Grant.
A&M was initially named Carnival Data, however the title had already been taken, forcing a swap. (Thank goodness!)
-
He married an A&M artist. They’ll have fun their golden anniversary in December.
In 1966, Alpert signed Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66. He even took a presenter credit score on their debut album,Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, which was launched in August 1966 when Alpert’s title on the entrance cowl of an album was price its weight in gold.
In December 1973, he married the ensemble’s lead singer, Lani Corridor. They’re nonetheless married and sometimes document and carry out collectively.
-
Early in his profession, he labored on high 10 hits by Jan & Dean and Sam Cooke.
Alpert teamed with Lou Adler, one other up-and-comer within the L.A. music scene, to co-produce Jan & Dean’s “Child Discuss,” which reached No. 10 on the Scorching 100 in September 1959, and co-write Sam Cooke’s “Great World,” which reached No. 12 in June 1960. (The latter music has made the highest 20 two different instances – for Herman’s Hermits in 1965 and Artwork Garfunkel with James Taylor and Paul Simon in 1978).
Alpert and Adler would staff once more, and make historical past collectively, within the Seventies when A&M Data distributed Adler’s Ode Data, which was dwelling to such artists as Carole King and Cheech & Chong. King’s 1971 basic Tapestry was one of many landmark albums of the Seventies.
-
He topped the R&B chart as a lead artist (although he had a significant help).
Alpert topped the Scorching Black Singles chart (as at this time’s Scorching R&B/Hip-Hop Songs was then referred to as) in 1987 with “Diamonds,” which featured lead and background vocals by Janet Jackson, who was then signed to A&M, and Lisa Keith. Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis wrote and produced the smash.
-
He’s a two-time Tony winner.
Alpert gained Tony Awards as a producer of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and its sequel, Angels in America: Perestroika, which gained greatest play in 1993 and 1994, respectively. Alpert was additionally nominated as a producer of Jelly’s Final Jam, a greatest musical nominee in 1992, and Seven Guitars by August Wilson, a greatest play nominee in 1996.
-
He was nominated for an Emmy.
Alpert’s first TV particular, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, was nominated for an Emmy for excellent music or selection program (1968). The nomination went to the present’s producers, Gary Smith and Dwight Hemion (who additionally produced specials for Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Bette Midler and plenty of extra.)
The next yr, Alpert was personally nominated for excellent particular person achievement in music for The Beat of the Brass (on which he sang “This Man’s in Love With You”).