Tag Archives: Herb Alpert

♫ We’re All Alone ♫ (Redux)

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I apologize … I know I only played this just over a year ago (January 2020), but tonight … well, tonight I have less hope than at any other time in my life, less faith in people than ever before, and  for the past two days, tears have been flowing and the smile I paste on for my family is as false as a clown’s mask.  I needed this song tonight, so please forgive me.

An aside … last time I played this, blogging friend Jim Borden left the following comment:

“The Boz version will always be one of my favorites, just like Boz. My first date with the woman whom I have now been married to 38 years was a Boz concert… ” 

So for you and your lovely wife, Jim, I have added the Boz version.

This song was written by Boz Scaggs who introduced it on his 1976 album Silk Degrees. The song was first a hit for Frankie Valli.  But the version that made it to the top ten on the charts in both the UK and the US was the one released in 1977 by Rita Coolidge, and it is that one I want to play for you tonight.

The Rita Coolidge version of We’re All Alone was featured on the album Anytime…Anywhere released in March 1977.  According to Coolidge …

“When I was with A&M Records, it was like a family. I would visit Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, and it was a very open, communicative group of people. One day I was in Jerry Moss’ office and he said that the Boz Scaggs album Silk Degrees was in a million homes and there was a song on it that was perfect for a woman to sing. He said, ‘It’s called “We’re All Alone” and as he’s not doing it as a single, I think you ought to record it.'”

The original lyrics of We’re All Alone include lines “Close your eyes ami” and “Throw it to the wind my love”. Coolidge sings these lines as “Close your eyes and dream” and “Owe it to the wind my love”.  And, on a personal note … you guys know my poor hearing and how I always get lyrics mixed up … in the line that says “Close the window, calm the light”, I always thought it was “Close the window, come alive”.  Oh well.  🙄

For some reason that I cannot identify, and don’t feel like digging too deep to find, this song always first takes my breath, then brings a tear to my eye.

We’re All Alone
Rita Coolidge

Outside the rain begins
And it may never end
So cry no more, on the shore a dream
Will take us out to sea
Forevermore, forevermore

Close your eyes and dream
And you can be with me
‘Neath the waves, through the caves of hours
Gone, forgotten now
We’re all alone, we’re all alone

Close the window, calm the light
And it will be all right
No need to bother now
Let it out, let it all begin
Learn how to pretend

Once a story’s told
It can’t help but grow old
Roses do, lovers too, so cast
Your seasons to the wind
And hold me dear, oh, hold me dear

Close the window, calm the light
And it will be all right
No need to bother now
Let it out, let it all begin
All’s forgotten now
We’re all alone, all alone

Close the window, calm the light
And it will be all right
No need to bother now
Let it out, let it all begin
Owe it to the wind, my love, hold me dear

All’s forgotten now, my love
We’re all alone

Songwriters: William R. Royce Scaggs
We’re All Alone lyrics © Spirit Music Group, BMG Rights Management

♫ This Guy’s In Love With You ♫

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I have long … and I do mean long, like since I was about 12 or 13, some 50+ years ago … been a fan of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.

This Guy’s in Love with You is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and recorded by Herb Alpert. Although known primarily for his trumpet playing as the leader of the Tijuana Brass, Alpert sang lead vocals on this solo recording, arranged by Bacharach.

As documented in an A&E Biography episode featuring Bacharach, the recording originated when Alpert, while visiting at Bacharach’s office, asked, “Say, Burt, do you happen to have any old compositions lying around that you and Hal never recorded; maybe one I might be able to use?” Alpert said he made it his practice to ask songwriters that particular question: often a “lost pearl” was revealed. As it happened, Bacharach recalled one, found the lyrics and score sheet in his office filing cabinet, and offered it to Alpert: “Here, Herb … you might like this one.”

Alpert’s previous material consisted of instrumental songs recorded with The Tijuana Brass Band. This, released in 1968, was his first released on A&M Records that contained vocals.

Alpert sang this to his first wife in a 1968 TV special called The Beat of the Brass; the sequence was taped on the beach in Malibu. The song was not intended to be released, but after it was used in the TV special, thousands of telephone calls to CBS asking about it convinced label owner Alpert to release it as a single two days after the show aired.

The song hit #1 in the U.S. and Canada, and #3 in the UK.  In 1969, Dionne Warwick’s version, This Girl’s in Love With You, peaked at #7 in the US.

This Guy’s In Love With You
Herb Alpert

You see this guy, this guy’s in love with you
Yes I’m in love who looks at you the way I do
When you smile I can tell it know each other very well

How can I show you I’m glad I got to know you ’cause
I’ve heard some talk they say you think I’m fine
Yes I’m in love and what I’d do to make you mine
Tell me now is it so don’t let me be the last to know

My hands are shakin’ don’t let my heart keep breaking ’cause
I need your love, I want your love
Say you’re in love and you’ll be my girl, if not I’ll just die

Tell me now is it so don’t let me be the last to know
My hands are shakin’ don’t let my heart keep breaking ’cause
I need your love, I want your love
Say you’re in love and you’ll be my girl, if not I’ll just die

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Burt F. Bacharach / Hal David
This Guy’s in Love With You lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

♫ Wonderful World ♫

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When you hear the song title “Wonderful World”, you likely first think of the immortal Louis Armstrong … which I played twice last year and once already in June of this year.  I love Louis, love that song … but for tonight, I am playing a different song with a similar title … this one by Sam Cooke, another of my way-back-when favourites.

Wonderful World was originally written by music legends Lou Alder and Herb Alpert, but Cooke added the finishing lyrical touches, and the trio used the songwriting pseudonym “Barbara Campbell,” the name of Cooke’s high school sweetheart. Adler went on from this success to found Dunhill Records and manage big name artists such as Jan & Dean, The Mamas & The Papas, and Carole King. Not to be outdone, his writing partner, Herb Alpert, put the “A” in A&M Records after performing for several years with his band Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass.

Don’t let the bouncy rhythm and upbeat tempo fool you. According to Craig Werner, a professor of African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the song may have a more politically charged meaning. In his book, A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race and the Soul of America, Werner writes that “Wonderful World” may be one of the first examples of Cooke’s crossover into politics, where he informs white listeners that he “don’t know much about history” and “don’t know much biology” as a comment that these are the things to forget about African-Americans, and all they need to remember is love.

Throughout the years, “Wonderful World” has been covered by a number of artists including Otis Redding, Bryan Ferry, Michael Bolton, and Rod Stewart. After Sam Cooke’s death in 1964, there were a rash of “tribute” covers released including a 1965 up-tempo version by Herman’s Hermits, which reached #4 on the US Pop Singles chart and #7 on the UK Singles chart, and a rendition by The Supremes released on their 1965 album “We Remember Sam Cooke.” In 1977, Art Garfunkel put his spin on the hit for his album, Watermark, which featured harmonies by friend, James Taylor, and former partner, Paul Simon.

Wonderful World
Sam Cooke

Don’t know much about history
Don’t know much biology
Don’t know much about a science book
Don’t know much about the French I took

But I do know that I love you
And I know that if you love me, too
What a wonderful world this would be

Don’t know much about geography
Don’t know much trigonometry
Don’t know much about algebra
Don’t know what a slide rule is for

But I do know one and one is two
And if this one could be with you
What a wonderful world this would be

Now, I don’t claim to be an A student
But I’m trying to be
For maybe by being an A student, baby
I can win your love for me

Don’t know much about history
Don’t know much biology
Don’t know much about a science book
Don’t know much about the French I took

But I do know that I love you
And I know that if you love me, too
What a wonderful world this would be

Latatatatata ah
History (Mmmm)
Biology (Well a-tatatatata)
Science book (Mmmm)
French I took, yeah

But I do know that I love you
And I know that if you love me, too
What a wonderful world this would be

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: George David Weiss / Robert Thiele

♫ We’re All Alone ♫

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I was rolling smokes a bit ago, and humming a song by Little River Band … Reminiscing.  Perfect song for tonight, yes?  Sure … it was … ’til I realized I had already played it last January.  I considered redux-ing it, since I had my little heart set on that one, but I try to keep my redux-ing to a minimum, so I headed toward my TBP (to be played) list and closed my eyes and pointed.  And I wasn’t in the mood for the first song my pointy finger chose, so I tried again, and … BINGO!

This song was written by Boz Scaggs who introduced it on his 1976 album Silk Degrees. The song was first a hit for Frankie Valli.  But the version that made it to the top ten on the charts in both the UK and the US was the one released in 1977 by Rita Coolidge, and it is that one I want to play for you tonight.

(Is anyone else having trouble the last 2-3 days with the autosave in WordPress, or is it just me?)

The Rita Coolidge version of We’re All Alone was featured on the album Anytime…Anywhere released in March 1977.  According to Coolidge …

“When I was with A&M Records, it was like a family. I would visit Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, and it was a very open, communicative group of people. One day I was in Jerry Moss’ office and he said that the Boz Scaggs album Silk Degrees was in a million homes and there was a song on it that was perfect for a woman to sing. He said, ‘It’s called “We’re All Alone” and as he’s not doing it as a single, I think you ought to record it.'”

The original lyrics of We’re All Alone include lines “Close your eyes ami” and “Throw it to the wind my love”. Coolidge sings these lines as “Close your eyes and dream” and “Owe it to the wind my love”.  And, on a personal note … you guys know my poor hearing and how I always get lyrics mixed up … in the line that says “Close the window, calm the light”, I always thought it was “Close the window, come alive”.  Oh well.  🙄

For some reason that I cannot identify, and don’t feel like digging too deep to find, this song always first takes my breath, then brings a tear to my eye.

We’re All Alone
Rita Coolidge

Outside the rain begins
And it may never end
So cry no more, on the shore a dream
Will take us out to sea
Forevermore, forevermore

Close your eyes and dream
And you can be with me
‘Neath the waves, through the caves of hours
Gone, forgotten now
We’re all alone, we’re all alone

Close the window, calm the light
And it will be all right
No need to bother now
Let it out, let it all begin
Learn how to pretend

Once a story’s told
It can’t help but grow old
Roses do, lovers too, so cast
Your seasons to the wind
And hold me dear, oh, hold me dear

Close the window, calm the light
And it will be all right
No need to bother now
Let it out, let it all begin
All’s forgotten now
We’re all alone, all alone

Close the window, calm the light
And it will be all right
No need to bother now
Let it out, let it all begin
Owe it to the wind, my love, hold me dear

All’s forgotten now, my love
We’re all alone

Songwriters: William R. Royce Scaggs
We’re All Alone lyrics © Spirit Music Group, BMG Rights Management

♫ Wonderful World ♫

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I’ve been behind on everything since two days before Thanksgiving, when I began grocery shopping, planning, baking, etc., and I’m still not caught back up, but … getting there.  I have missed reading friends’ blogs, and tonight I was trying to make a dent in the backlog when I came across a poem written by fellow-blogger and friend, Paul, aka Parallax.  As I commented on his post, a song came to mind … this song … What a Wonderful World, by Sam Cooke.

Released on April 14, 1960, this song was mainly composed by songwriting team Lou Adler and Herb Alpert, but Cooke revised the lyrics to mention the subject of education more.

According to Craig Werner, a professor of African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the song may have a more politically charged meaning than at first glance. In his book, A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race and the Soul of America, Werner writes that “Wonderful World” may be one of the first examples of Cooke’s crossover into politics, where he informs white listeners that he “don’t know much about history” and “don’t know much biology” as a comment that these are the things to forget about African-Americans, and all they need to remember is love.

Wonderful World
Sam Cooke

Don’t know much about history
Don’t know much biology
Don’t know much about a science book
Don’t know much about the French I took

But I do know that I love you
And I know that if you love me, too
What a wonderful world this would be

Don’t know much about geography
Don’t know much trigonometry
Don’t know much about algebra
Don’t know what a slide rule is for

But I do know one and one is two
And if this one could be with you
What a wonderful world this would be

Now, I don’t claim to be an A student
But I’m trying to be
For maybe by being an A student, baby
I can win your love for me

Don’t know much about history
Don’t know much biology
Don’t know much about a science book
Don’t know much about the French I took

But I do know that I love you
And I know that if you love me, too
What a wonderful world this would be

La ta ta ta ta ta ta (history)
Hmm-mm-mm (biology)
La ta ta ta ta ta ta (science book)
Hmm-mm-mm (French I took)

Yeah, but I do know that I love you
And I know that if you love me, too
What a wonderful world this would be

Songwriters: Herb Alpert / Lou Adler / Sam Cooke
Wonderful World lyrics © Abkco Music, Inc

♫ We’re All Alone ♫

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There almost wasn’t a music post tonight.  After I wrote my early morning post, DOA, I was frustrated, angry, just wanted to go for a long walk, but as it was nearly midnight, that was out of the question.  So, I picked a random song from my playlist, We’re All Alone, and by the second verse tears were rolling down my cheeks.  Sigh.  Sometimes it all takes a toll, y’know?  Anyway … on to cheerier stuff …

Did you know that Rita Coolidge was once married to Kris Kristofferson?  I didn’t!  Sheesh … these people do get around, don’t they?

This song was written and originally recorded in 1976 by Boz Scaggs.  Any relation to Ricky?  I dunno … just a sec while I go check.  Nope, it appears that they are even spelled differently, with Ricky spelling his Skaggs, and from all I can figure in a 3-minute search, they are not related.

Rita Coolidge released her version, featured on the album Anytime…Anywhere, in March 1977.  According to Ms. Coolidge …

“When I was with A&M Records, it was like a family. I would visit Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, and it was a very open, communicative group of people. One day I was in Jerry Moss’ office and he said that the Boz Scaggs album Silk Degrees was in a million homes and there was a song on it that was perfect for a woman to sing. He said, ‘It’s called “We’re All Alone” and as he’s not doing it as a single, I think you ought to record it.'”

And the rest is history.

I think I shall dedicate this one to … well, you know who you are … the rest of you, just listen to the song.

We’re All Alone
Rita Coolidge

Outside the rain begins
And it may never end
So cry no more
On the shore, a dream
Will take us out to sea
Forever more, forever more

Close your eyes and dream
And you can be with me
‘Neath the waves
Through the caves of ours
Long forgotten now
We’re all alone, we’re all alone

Close the window, calm the light
And it will be all right
No need to bother now
Let it out, let it all begin
Learn how to pretend

Once a story’s told
It can’t help but grow old
Roses do, lovers too
So cast your seasons to the wind
And hold me, dear
Oh, hold me, dear

Close the window, calm the light
And it will be all right
No need to bother now
Let it out, let it all begin
All’s forgotten now
We’re all alone, oh, we’re all alone

Close the window, calm the light
And it will be all right
No need to bother now
Let it out, let it all begin
Owe it to the wind
My love

Songwriters: William R. Royce Scaggs
We’re All Alone lyrics © Spirit Music Group, BMG Rights Management