Herb Alpert’s Tijuana
Brass – Whipped Cream & Other Delights Remixed (CD)
Sound: B Music:
B
Herb Alpert has always embodied everything great the music
industry stands for. In 1962, he formed
one of the most music artist friendly labels in the history of the music
industry: A&M. For several glorious
decades, they went from a garage to one of the classiest, most powerful
companies in the business. While Alpert
and co-founder Jerry Moss would sing everyone from The Carpenters to The
Police, Alpert himself brought his own talents and band to the label. In 1962, The Lonely Bull became an
instant Jazz classic and helped to put A&M on the map. Then three years later, they released the
classic Whipped Cream & Other Delights, proving their success was no
fluke or novelty.
Mind you, this was with the British Invasion in full
swing, yet hits like A Taste Of Honey, Johnny Mercer’s Tangerine,
radio album cut favorite Peanuts and a clever cover of Love Potion #9
helped propel the album to the top of the charts for two months. Also gaining attention was the classic photo
on the album cover, one of the most erotic in music history, of a beautiful
young woman wearing nothing but a giant blanket of whipped cream with as tiny
whipped cream hat on her head. In real
life, the lights melted the dairy product, so the photographer had to use
shaving cream, but the result is iconic and still very sexy today. From the new mixes to the sexy new take on
that brilliant cover, Whipped Cream & Other Delights Remixed is one
of those rare remix albums that really delivers take-offs worthy of the
original. That Alpert himself joins in
with new trumpet solos does not hurt one bit.
The tracks are as follows, with the act involved in the
remix, starting with a key:
John
King of The Dust Brothers (A)
DJ
Foosh (B)
Mocean
Worker (C)
Thievery
Corporation (D)
Anthony
Marinelli, featuring Ozomatli (E)
Medeski
Martin & Wood (F, see their DVD-Audio reviewed elsewhere on this site)
Camara
Kambon (G)
Anthony
Marinelli (H)
1. Whipped Cream (E)
2. A Taste Of Honey (A)
3. Green Peppers (H)
4. Ladyfingers (G)
5. Love Potion #9 (E)
6. Peanuts (H)
7. Tangerine (B)
8. El Garbanzo (F)
9. Lemon Tree (D)
10. Lollipops And Roses (H)
11. Bittersweet Samba (C)
12.
Butterball (H)
Again, because people who loved the music and have
exceptional talent were involved like on the Future Retro set also
reviewed on this site, the results are terrific. This remains the band’s biggest selling and charting album,
though Alpert’s solo career was also hugely successful. Now that Ian Fleming’s first James Bond
novel Casino Royale is being made into a serious thriller, the great
soundtrack for the spoofy 1967 feature film with The Tijuana Brass’ great title
song (now on 192kHz/24bit HDAD/High Definition Audio Disc for DVD players) is
likely to resurface in amusing ways.
The time is now for a Herb Alpert revival and key albums from his back
catalog has also been reissued by Shout! Factory, who is behind this great release. There is a real love of music beyond genre
here and Whipped Cream & Other Delights Remixed is a real treat.
The PCM 16bit/44.1kHz 2.0 Stereo is very good, with depth
and fullness throughout most of the set, though these remix have their moments
of intentional distortion and interesting gimmickry. It is also up to the high fidelity the original recordings are
legendary for, so fans of the classic album who might want to hear the new one
should at least be satisfied with this sonically. No, it is not as cool as the original and what is? However, the effective result shows how
enduring these classics really are and that Alpert remains on the cutting edge
as ever. The DigiPak case also has a
small foldout with album info and a full view of the new cream-clad
beauty. How can anyone resist?
- Nicholas Sheffo
