Song:This Guy's In Love With You
Album:Definitive Hits
Of course Herb Alpert is best known as a trumpeter and leader of the very successful 60s instrumental group Tijuana Brass. So it's ironic that his only number one hit in the 60s was This Guy's In Love With You where Alpert sings. Alpert would be the first to admit that he can't sing. At the time Alpert was just supposed to perform the song on his 1968 TV special The Beat Of The Brass. So I'm sure he was surprised when people went nuts for it. Of course Alpert started Tijuana Brass and A&M Records in his garage and his first big hit was The Lonely Bull. There wasn't even a band at first. Alpert used studio musicians. But he started touring in 1965 and he was very successful especially because of the cover for the album Whipped Cream. Alpert is appearing on TV regularly and then he does his own special for CBS in 1967. It did so well that CBS asked him to do a second show. It was called The Beat Of The Brass and it aired on Apr. 22, 1968 and there was an album released to go with it. The story goes that Alpert was at Burt Bacharach's house and he asked Bacharach if he had any old songs that he wasn't using lying around. Alpert claims that he would routinely ask this of songwriters. Bacharach gave him This Guy's In Love With You. It was suggested to Alpert that he could sing this song on the TV special. Alpert agreed to do it as long as there was room for a trumpet solo. The video was filmed in Malibu and Alpert is singing the song to his wife Sharon. The song was not supposed to be released. It was just for the TV show. But when viewers started phoning TV stations asking where they could get the record, A&M released it as a single and added it to the album The Beat Of The Brass. It topped the charts. Bacharach arranged the song and conducted the orchestra. I think his arrangement and Bacharach's piano riffs were a big part of the record's success. Alpert faded after this and he would disappear from the charts until his 1979 number one hit Rise. That means Herb Alpert is the only one to have number one vocal and instrumental hits. Here's the video for This Guy's In Love With You by Herb Alpert.
Good song, I like his music. We used to hear a lot of his instrumental hits back int he 70's on the easy listening radio stations. I remember seeing the cover for his album whipped cream, it was something else! Thanks Frank.
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