Taylor Swift’s current chart domination has put another chart titan, Herb Alpert, back in the news. Last week, Swift became the first living artist to put four albums in the top 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 sweet message on TikTok. “Hi Taylor, this is Herb Alpert,” he says in the clip. “I’ve been getting calls from all over the world from publications wanting to know how do I feel about you breaking my record of — I don’t know — 150 years ago. I feel great! I think you’re a wonderful artist, sincere, you’re gracious and you deserve it. You deserve it all. Congratulations.”
On Billboard’s most recent list of the Greatest of All Time Billboard 200 Artists, Alpert is No. 7 – just ahead of Swift at No. 8. (Swift will likely move up in the next update.)
Alpert, 88, had such a huge impact from the 1960s to the 1980s, as both an artist and a record company founder, that his name continues to resurface in the news. In 2006, he and his business partner Jerry Moss (they are the A and M in A&M Records) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the non-performer category.
In 2013, President Obama presented Alpert with the National Medal of the Arts. The following year, the trumpeter won a Grammy for best pop instrumental album for Steppin’ Out. The award came 48 years after he won four Grammys for the Tijuana Brass instrumental hit “A Taste of Honey.” In 2020, Herb Alpert Is…, a documentary written and directed by John Scheinfeld, was released. The film featured comments from Sting, Questlove, Quincy Jones and more.
Alpert has accomplished a lot in his life and career. His chart dominance from 1965 to 1968, when he had five No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 and one No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, is a big part of the story, but there’s much more to it. Take a look.
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He was the first artist to take a Burt Bacharach song to No. 1 on the Hot 100.
By mid-1968, Perry Como, Gene Pitney, Bobby Vinton, Dionne Warwick, Jackie DeShannon and Tom Jones had all notched top 10 hits with songs written by the peerless team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, but Alpert was the first artist to take a Bacharach/David song (or any Bacharach song, for that matter) to No. 1. It happened in June and July 1968 when Alpert’s tender vocal version of “This Guy’s in Love With You” topped the chart for four consecutive weeks.
Fittingly, these two great teams – Alpert & Moss and Bacharach & David – received trustees awards from the Recording Academy the same year (1997).
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He’s the only individual artist to top the Hot 100 with both a vocal hit and an instrumental hit.
Eleven years after “This Guy’s in Love With You” reached No. 1 on the Hot 100, Alpert returned to the top spot with an instrumental smash, “Rise.”Alpert is, to this day, the only individual artist to top the Hot 100 with both a vocal hit and an instrumental hit.
Two other artists, Rick Derringer and Barry White, deserve mention. As a member of The McCoys, Derringer reached No. 1 in 1965 with the vocal hit, “Hang on Sloopy.” Eight years later, as a member of the Edgar Winter Group, he reached No. 1 with the instrumental hit “Frankenstein.” Derringer also produced the latter hit.
White reached No. 1 in 1974 with a vocal hit, “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe.” The R&B maestro composed and produced the smash. He also composed and produced the Love Unlimited Orchestra’s instrumental smash “Love’s Theme,” which had hit No. 1 earlier that same year. But he didn’t play an instrument on “Love’s Theme.”
“Rise” is probably best known to younger music fans for its sample in The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Hypnotize,” which topped the Hot 100 in May 1997.
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He spent more weeks atop the Billboard 200 in 1966 than any other artist.
Alpert and the Tijuana Brass headed the Billboard 200 for 18 weeks in 1966, compared to 17 weeks for The Beatles and eight for The Monkees.
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He had one of just two instrumental hits to win a Grammy for record of the year.
Alpert and the Tijuana Brass’ “A Taste of Honey” (1965) and Percy Faith’s “Theme From A Summer Place” (1960) are the only two instrumental hits to win the Grammy for record of the year. Though they were released just five years apart, they sound like they are from entirely different eras. Faith’s shimmering instrumental evokes the 1950s (the song’s composer Max Steiner was a top film scorer dating back to the 1930s), while “A Taste of Honey” has the faster pace and more urban sound of the 1960s.
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He co-founded one of the most widely admired record companies of all time.
In 1962, Alpert and Moss founded A&M Records, which is on just about everybody’s shortlist of the most successful and admired labels of all time. A&M was known as an artist-friendly label, taking such disparate artists as Joe Cocker and the Carpenters and turning them loose, trusting their instincts. It proved to be a winning approach: The label’s many other 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 Records, but the name had already been taken, forcing a switch. (Thank goodness!)
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He married an A&M artist. They will celebrate their golden anniversary in December.
In 1966, Alpert signed Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66. He even took a presenter credit on their debut album,Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, which was released in August 1966 when Alpert’s name on the front cover of an album was worth its weight in gold.
In December 1973, he married the ensemble’s lead singer, Lani Hall. They are still married and occasionally record and perform together.
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Early in his career, he worked on top 10 hits by Jan & Dean and Sam Cooke.
Alpert teamed with Lou Adler, another up-and-comer in the L.A. music scene, to co-produce Jan & Dean’s “Baby Talk,” which reached No. 10 on the Hot 100 in September 1959, and co-write Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World,” which reached No. 12 in June 1960. (The latter song has made the top 20 two other times – for Herman’s Hermits in 1965 and Art Garfunkel with James Taylor and Paul Simon in 1978).
Alpert and Adler would team again, and make history together, in the 1970s when A&M Records distributed Adler’s Ode Records, which was home to such artists as Carole King and Cheech & Chong. King’s 1971 classic Tapestry was one of the landmark albums of the 1970s.
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He topped the R&B chart as a lead artist (though he had a major assist).
Alpert topped the Hot Black Singles chart (as today’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs was then called) 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.
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He is a two-time Tony winner.
Alpert won Tony Awards as a producer of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and its sequel, Angels in America: Perestroika, which won best play in 1993 and 1994, respectively. Alpert was also nominated as a producer of Jelly’s Last Jam, a best musical nominee in 1992, and Seven Guitars by August Wilson, a best play nominee in 1996.
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He was nominated for an Emmy.
Alpert’s first TV special, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, was nominated for an Emmy for outstanding music or variety program (1968). The nomination went to the show’s producers, Gary Smith and Dwight Hemion (who also produced specials for Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Bette Midler and many more.)
The following year, Alpert was personally nominated for outstanding individual achievement in music for The Beat of the Brass (on which he sang “This Guy’s in Love With You”).