02 February 2011
Herb & The TJB - 1967
A few days after my father returned from Vietnam in 1967, I remember watching the first Herb Albert TV special with my family. My mother was a huge fan of Herb & the TJB and it was at her insistence we tuned in. I'm pretty sure I was missing Get Smart.
When Herb appeared my father let out a snort and called him a 'fruit cake.' I remember asking what 'fruit cake' meant and my question was answered with, "Never mind." My father guffawed through pretty much the whole show and watching these videos I can see why. He had been in a war and saw ugly things. Watching this must have been a bizarre contrast for him.
But I was never in a war and Herb isn't a fruit cake and I really enjoy this video and the memories. It might even be better than Get Smart.
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12 comments:
I am throwing in with your Old Man on this one....
But how about that Sunbeam Tiger Max drives in the beginning of Get Smart...at least in later seasons...
never met the man, herb, but love what he did for the music industry. i was just at his old studios in hollywood for a very cool johnny walker hosted event with about 25 models and 100 or so industry attendees. classic.
thanks for sharing your memories of your dad and his return and the juxtaposition of his life "in country" and then back home where silly things are normative.
My Dad is a big TJB fan, but he was in a different war and never left the US.
Interesting guy, Herb Alpert.
Jackie Gleason played in my grandparents house, too young to remember any comments regarding his lifestyle.
Herb created the best album cover of all time.
http://www.sobelmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/alpert1966.jpg
My parents had the roles reversed regarding admiration for Herb. The inside sleeve of our well used "intro" album showed a real small photo for his "Whipped Cream and Other Delights" that I used to look at and not exactly know why. (I was pretty slow to get it, and the photo was, as I said, tiny.) Then, sometime when I was a teenager, a friend pointed out to me that the model was wearing only actual whipped cream. "Look closely, you can see she's NAKED under all that stuff!"
I spent many minutes gawking in newfound wonder at the tiny photo wondering how and who did the "styling" for the photo shoot. Much later I finally saw the actual album, and heard it...most likely at your house.
-DB
Thanks for providing this clip from the late 60's. Popular entertainment was certainly different in those days. More smiles and less angst - something to be said for it.
Best Regards,
JRC
Herb was one of the great sounds of the sixties and instantly recognizable. I never spent a lot of time agonizing over these folks personal lives. Several of my favorite novelists and creative artists in different fields were, or are, total jerks and this is probably not unconnected with their level of achievement.
I only guffawed at the Charlie Chaplin Dancers. Herb was was big at the Looney household. I just watched most of the HATB videos on Youtube. More than once.
Herb Alpert always reminds me of moving through the line at Morrison's Cafeteria. It was either that or the muzak version of Elvis' "American Trilogy."
The LP jacket for Whipped Cream & Other Delights though, doesn't remind me of steam table buffet and geriatrics.
Stew - I'm not sayin I was intimate with that album cover but I sure do remember her.
JRC- "...smiles and less angst." Perfectlty said.
Joe- I think Herb has had a wonderful career, is still going strong and is giving alway lots of money to good causes.
I think my Dad (and I'll remind anyone still following - was several days back from a war) thought all of this as silly. And rightly so from his POV.
Herb is like country ham to me. I hear Lonely Bull and it takes me back so fast and so happily.
Sam Cooke mentored Alpert in his early days at RCA, and they worked closely together until Cooke's death. Alpert also co-wrote "Wonderful World" and some other Cooke songs.
Herb Alpert made wonderful music UNTIL he decided he could sing -- and proved he couldn't. "This Guy's in love with you" was just crap. Herb should have stayed with the trumpet.
Google up "The Baja Marimba Band" (with some Alpert vets) for some far better music.
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