Whipped Cream & Other Delights [LP]

How a good-looking Jewish boy from Brooklyn discovered the secret of success in an updated form of mariachi music is perhaps beyond our scope. Then again, it might not be such a mystery after all. Aside from the obvious example of exotica, much easy listening depends upon more than a touch of ethnicity to maintain its musical roots. What Herb Alpert found in Mexican street bands was a previously untapped source of south-of-the-border melody and rhythm. With its unlikely combination of Alpert's cool Chet Baker-like trumpet and the blocky cadences of a marching band, the Tijuana Brass produced a lively, colorful mix that managed to appeal to hips and squares alike.
WHIPPED CREAM & OTHER DELIGHTS was Herb Albert's most successful album, helped--no doubt--by its highly provocative cover art. The tunes are mostly unknown originals or, in the case of Lieber & Stoller's "Love Potion #9," so transformed by the Tijuana "treatment" as to be almost unrecognizable. Special mention must go to guitarist John Pisano and marimba man Julius Wechter, both of whom round out the sharp corners of a potentially raucous sound.