The Lonely Bull (album)

Infobox Album | Name = The Lonely Bull
Type = Album
Artist = Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass


Released = December 1962
Recorded = Conway Recorders, Hollywood, CA
Genre = Jazz / Easy Listening / Instrumental Pop
Length = 30:07
Label = A&M Records
Producer = Herb Alpert, Jerry Moss
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:fiftxq95ld0e link] | Last album =
This album = "The Lonely Bull"
(1962)
Next album = "Volume 2"
(1963) |

"The Lonely Bull", released in 1962, is the debut album from Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, and was also the first album ever released by A&M Records - which was co-founded by Alpert and Jerry Moss. The album was originally issued in both mono and stereo versions, though the stereo version essentially had the mono version on the right channel with a separate solo trumpet track on the left. Because of this, critics have noted that when listened to on headphones, the stereo album sounds excessively "heavy" on one side. This led many later fans to prefer the mono version.

The original stereo version of the album has since been reissued on the Shout! Factory music label.

A more balanced stereo remix of the title track, "The Lonely Bull", can be found on the Herb Alpert compilation "Definitive Hits".

Most of the tracks on the album were geared toward the TJB's Mariachi sound. There were also a few cover versions of popular songs, a trend which would grow in their next two albums, "Volume 2" and "South of the Border".

"Limbo Rock" covered a novelty dance song that had been a calypso-style hit by Chubby Checker. "Struttin' With Maria" was later used as the theme for a TV game show called "Personality", hosted by Larry Blyden. The tune "Acapulco 1922" uses the old song "Oh, You Beautiful Doll" (by Seymour Brown and Nat D. Ayer, 1911) as a starting point, with a mariachi spin.

Track listing

#"The Lonely Bull" (El Solo Toro) (Sol Lake) – 2:29
#"El Lobo" (The Wolf) (Harry Green, Lake) – 3:00
#"Tijuana Sauerkraut" (Herb Alpert, Jerry Moss) – 2:44
#"Desafinado" (Antonio Carlos Jobim, Newton Mendonca) – 3:42
#"Mexico" (Boudleaux Bryant) – 2:36
#"Never On Sunday" (Manos Hadjidakis, Billy Towne) – 2:38
#"Struttin' With Maria" (Alpert) – 2:10
#"Let It Be Me" (Gilbert Becaud, Mann Curtis, Pierre Delanoe) – 2:55
#"Acapulco 1922" (Alpert) – 2:38
#"Limbo Rock" (Billy Strange) – 2:05
#"Crawfish" (Lake Doran, Lake) – 2:20
#"A Quiet Tear" (Lágrima Quieta) (Alpert) – 2:23