CoronaVinyl Day 236 (A): Whipped Cream & Other Delights by Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass

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We're back at the top of the alphabet for a fifth go-round, and today's selection is Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass's fourth studio album, 1965's Whipped Cream & Other Delights.

Perhaps because he was mainly an instrumentalist, Alpert is one of those musicians that you doesn't come to the top of your mind as a huge star, but man, he managed to have a hell of a career.  Alpert was a trumpeter, and got his start in the music business as a songwriter.  One of his credits is co-writing Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World."  He co-founded A&M Records in 1962, and he has put out music pretty much ever since then.

Throughout the '60s, he recorded with his Tijuana Brass, and Whipped Cream & Other Delights was their biggest album.  It's all instrumental, with elements of jazz, Latin music, pop, and even a little polka.  It went to #1 on the Billboard album chart in both 1965 and 1966, and it was the #1 album on the Billboard Year-End album chart for 1966.  It has gone 6x platinum in the U.S.  Two songs from the album charted on the Billboard Hot 100, with "A Taste of Honey" reaching #7 and "Whipped Cream" going to #68.  In addition, "Whipped Cream" and "Lollipops and Roses" from the album -- as well as "Spanish Flea" from the group's follow-up album Going Places -- were featured on the game show The Dating Game.

Perhaps it's best known for its cover, featuring model Dolores Erickson (who was three months pregnant, by the way) covered in what looks like whipped cream, but it's actually chiffon and shaving cream. 

As a musician, Alpert has sold over 72 million records worldwide, had five #1 albums on the Billboard album chart, and had 14 platinum albums.  He's the only musician that has had a #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 as both a vocalist ("This Guy's in Love with You" from 1968) and an instrumentalist ("Rise" from 1979 -- which was later sampled by "Notorious B.I.G. in his hit "Hypnotize")).

He has also received numerous awards and accolades over the years, including nine Grammy Awards, an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College of Music, the National Medal of Arts (awarded by President Obama in 2013), a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and, along with his A&M Records co-founder Jerry Moss, the Grammy Trustees Award, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as non-performer lifetime achievers.

Favorite Song on Side 1:  "A Taste of Honey"
The album kicks off with the group's catchy and spicy rendition of "A Taste of Honey," which was original a Broadway tune, but was also covered by The Beatles a few years earlier.  Alpert's version is more up-tempo, and it won the Grammy for Record of the Year.

Favorite Song on Side 2:  "Lollipops and Roses"
The album closes with one of the songs that would later be featured on The Dating Game, and it's a punchy jazz tune.