Herb Alpert

INCLUDES FREE MP3 ALBUM DOWNLOAD

PLUS 1 BONUS TRACKS

This quintessential collector's edition includes Herb Alpert's sensational debut album, The Lonely Bull, originally released in December 1962 and long unavailable on vinyl. It was the first LP to be cut for A&M Records (an operation which, at the time, consisted only of Herb Alpert, Jerry Moss, and a small garage in West Hollywood), and proved a tremendous success.

The music here is very danceable, with strong percussion and fast tempos. The Mexican melodies lend a cross-cultural vitality that would persist in the trumpeter's work. The title-track (originally a tune called “Twinkle Star”), with its cinematic mix of dramatic brass fanfares, background noise (featuring the sounds of a crowd cheering “Olé” inside a bullfighting arena in Mexico), female chorus, twangy guitar, and mandolins, was truly a novelty and became an instrumental hit. It served as an ideal launching pad for Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass.

The album contains several more world music-flavored numbers. In addition to the original LP, this WaxTime collector's edition includes one bonus track: “Tell It to the Birds” – a hard-to-find single from Herb Alpert's first steps as a vocalist, using the pseudonym Dore Alpert. It was recorded in 1962 as the first release on the Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss label Carnival Records.

PERSONNEL:

HERB ALPERT: trumpet, guitar, piano, bass, drums, and
trombone (also vocals on “Tell It to the Birds”).


Additional session musicians and chorus are unknown.
Recorded by Charles Underwood at Conway Recorders
studio, Hollywood, California, 1962.

SIDE 1

01. THE LONELY BULL 2:18
02. EL LOBO (The Wolf) 3:02
03. TIJUANA SAUERKRAUT 2:49
04. DESAFINADO 3:43
05. MEXICO 2:34
06. NEVER ON SUNDAY 2:42

SIDE 2

01. STRUTTIN' WITH MARIA 2:06
02. LET IT BE ME 3:00
03. ACAPULCO 2:43
04. LIMBO ROCK 2:09
05. CRAWFISH 2:25
06. A QUIET TEAR 2:21
07. TELL IT TO THE BIRDS 2:25 *

*BONUS TRACK