Producers: Herb Alpert & Jerry Moss
Track listing: Gotta Lotta Livin’ to Do / Lady Godiva / Bo-Bo / Shades of Blue in a Little Spanish Town / Wade in the Water / Town Without Pity / The Charmer / Treasure of San Miguel / Casino Royale
June 17, 1967
1 week
Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass’s streak of consecutive Number One albums was cut short at three, as Alpert’s seventh album, S.R.O., spent six weeks at number two, but was prevented from hitting the summit by The Monkees. But later that same year, the TJB, as the group was known, got revenge by knocking More of the Monkees from Number One with Sounds Like…. Alpert, however, wasn’t overly concerned about the streak. “I wasn’t a chart watcher,” he says. “I wasn’t going to allow myself to feel good or bad based on the weekly charts.”
For Sounds Like, Alpert joined forces with songsmiths Burt Bacharach and Hal David on “Casino Royal,” the theme to a 1967 James Bond spoof starring Peter Sellers and Woody Allen, among others. “Bacharach recorded it in London and apparently he didn’t like the end result,” Alpert says. “He sent me a tape of the song and the arrangement and I liked it a lot. So, he sent me the multitracks and I added in my trumpet. That song has a real special quality.” In May 1967, the single reached number 27.
Also featured on the album was Alpert’s cover of Gene Pitney’s 1961 hit “Town Without Pity.” One of Alpert’s concert favorites, “Wade in the Water,” finally made it on wax with the release of Sounds Like… as well. Says Alpert, “I tried to record it a little differently than the way it was normally heard. There is always a challenge to come up with a different twist on a song. One of the things that I always looked for when I recorded a song was how many different ways I could play a song.”
Like its predecessor, Sounds Like… was recorded at a fairly fast pace. Alpert finished the entire project in approximately two months, while breaking for an occasional live date. Recording at Gold Star Recording Studio in Hollywood, Alpert usually went for spontaneity rather than perfection. “On a lot of the tracks I would just have a basic idea of how I wanted it to sound rhythmically and I would go to the studio with the musicians that I felt would best represent the sound I was looking for,” he says. “I would develop the sound and a good part of the arrangement right on the spot in the studio.”
Similarly, Alpert often refrained from rehearsing his trumpet parts until he was actually ready to cut his tracks in the studio. “I did that to try to keep it as fresh as possible,” he says. “I didn’t have the need to play the melody over and over. Once I got the rhythm track that I liked, I would be playing the melody the first time when I recorded it. I always felt that by the first take or second take, I had it. By that time, I wanted to turn on the tape machine and play it back.”
Alpert’s spontaneity paid off, as Sounds Like… became his fourth Number One album after only three weeks on the chart.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of June 17, 1967
1. Sounds Like…, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
2. Revenge, Bill Cosby
3. I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, Aretha Franklin
4. More of the Monkees, The Monkees
5. Born Free, Andy Williams