Herb Alpert brings 60 years of hit-making to Toronto’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre

You may remember him for his No. 1 smashes “This Guy’s in Love With You” and “Rise” — and for his signature “happy” trumpet sound fronting the Tijuana Brass — but Herb Alpert has worked his way into your musical DNA probably more than you realize.

Yes, there were the familiar ’60s instrumental hits like “The Lonely Bull,” “A Taste of Honey,” “Spanish Flea” and “Casino Royale” — all of which will likely be on the set list when Alpert, 88, performs at Queen Elizabeth Theatre Saturday with his wife, Lani Hall, a former singer for Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66.

But from 1962 through ’89, the L.A.-born Alpert partnered with producer Jerry Moss to form A&M Records, and helped either launch or establish some of the world’s most beloved and influential artists.

A short list: Bryan Adams, the Carpenters, Supertramp, Peter Frampton, Styx, the Police, Sting, Squeeze, Burt Bacharach, Quincy Jones, Cat Stevens (now known as Yusuf), Sheryl Crow, the Captain & Tennille, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Strawbs, Gino Vannelli, Lucille Starr, Joe Cocker, Nazareth, the Tubes, Chris de Burgh, Janet Jackson, Joe Jackson, Soundgarden and — for all of a week — the Sex Pistols.

Frampton’s multimillion-selling “Frampton Comes Alive!”? A&M. “Love Will Keep Us Together,” the No. 1 hit of 1975? A&M.

Carole King’s “Tapestry,” the biggest selling album of all time at 30 million copies until Michael Jackson and “Thriller” came along?

Well, that was actually Lou Adler’s Ode Records, but it was distributed by … A&M.

There are many, many more success stories, but Alpert said recently from his Malibu home that the label began as a necessity following the growing popularity of “The Lonely Bull.”

“Jerry and I happened quite by accident,” said Alpert, whose biggest success up to that point had been as a co-writer of the Sam Cooke R&B classic “Wonderful World.”

“We were just putting out a record. Back into 1962, there were a lot of record companies operating out of the trunks of their cars. We decided to do this ‘Lonely Bull’ record and Jerry was helping me produce it, inspired by an experience Jerry and I had in Tijuana (Mexico) at the bullfights.

“We thought we’d put out this record and see if radio would respond.”

It was planned for “The Lonely Bull” to be released on Carnival Records, but the duo discovered another label had already snagged the name. Alpert said the name A&M was actually the third choice.

“So we put this record out and wow, all of a sudden, it took off like a rocket ship, and Jerry was smart enough and able enough to gather our distributors for us.”

At the request of retailers and distributors, Alpert recorded a full album behind “The Lonely Bull” and the slight mariachi influence of his music caught fire.

But because Alpert struck lightning with an instrumental song, some A&M distributors thought it would be a difficult path on which to base a career, and suggested “they take the money and run.”

However, Alpert and Moss would not be deterred.

“I just thought, ‘There’s something about this sound that really feels good,’” Alpert explained. “So I didn’t try to remake ‘The Lonely Bull’ sideways and upside down: I tried to see how far I could take that sound with other songs.”

“The Lonely Bull” led to 1965’s “Whipped Cream & Other Delights” — its controversial cover featured a naked model covered in whipped cream — and the album proved so popular that Alpert was forced to actually assemble a Tijuana Brass to tour the world, selling out 20,000-capacity arenas.

Success at this point also enabled Alpert and Moss to buy silent film star Charlie Chaplin’s Chaplin Studios from CBS for a cool $1 million (U.S.) as A&M’s new headquarters. The three-acre lot consists of a number of sound stages — with a pool under one of them — and studios that were eventually opened up to non-A&M acts ranging from Joni Mitchell and the Doors to Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.

For the tour, Alpert’s opening act, the bossa nova ensemble Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, featured a young singer named Lani Hall.

“Lani and I became friends. In the early days, she was 19 years old when we started and always called me Mr. Alpert for about a year,” he chuckled.

Alpert signed composer Burt Bacharach in ’67, and the songwriting team of Bacharach and Hal David added a few hits over the next decades to the A&M canon, including Sergio Mendes’ “The Look of Love” and “This Guy’s in Love With You,” Alpert’s first No. 1, ironically as a vocalist in a trumpet-free arrangement.

What separated fiercely independent A&M from the rest of the pack, and attracted artists, was the respect accorded their work. Unlike the major record labels, bean-counting and bottom-line results weren’t the motivations for signing acts — and artists also had plenty of say in every aspect of their recorded material, right down to the album design.

“You know, they felt very comfortable,” Alpert said. “They didn’t have to come in with a great plan for recordings. Their artistry and their concepts and their history was enough for us.”

For Alpert and Moss, it came down to a music first, sales later concept.

“Jerry and I were trying to make good records, but records that we would buy ourselves, so that was our pursuit,” Alpert said. “We weren’t trying to make that magical hit record that everyone else could expect. We were going for the road less travelled with most of the artists we have.

“When I heard the Carpenters, it wasn’t the type of music that I play for my own personal collection. But there’s something about (Karen Carpenter’s) voice and Richard’s enthusiasm that struck me, like, this is the real thing. So I … gave them the tune ‘Close to You’ to record and man, bang! They hit hard. They’re still selling records, God bless (Karen). She was a fabulous artist.

“Cat Stevens, this guy and a guitar was all you needed … what a great artist this guy is.”

Alpert admitted there were misses.

“This guy played this record for me and I hated it, man. I thought it was too long, out of tune and there was the original recording of it, years before, that I liked better.

“I told him, ‘I think I’ll have to pass on this one, but keep going if you really believe in what you’ve got here.’ Anyways, that record I passed on for A&M turned out to be ‘Louie Louie’ (by the Kingsmen).

“It was number one for eight weeks in a row,” Alpert laughed. “It was egg on my face, but I still don’t like the record.”

A&M continued to prosper but, in the late ’80s, both Alpert and Moss thought they had taken the label as far as they could. They sold their label — founded with an initial $1,000 investment — to PolyGram (eventually Universal Music) for $500 million in 1989, with an agreement to run the label for another five years.

But a regime change at the company at the start of the ’90s cut short the duo’s reign, earning Alpert and Moss an estimated $200 million each as a penalty for early termination.

Had they know what the future held, would the principals at A&M have sold their baby?

“That’s a good question,” Alpert replied. “Probably not, if we knew exactly what was going to happen.

“But at the same time, you know it was hard to compete with the large corporations. I liked Prince. I heard the demo of Prince — so did Jerry — and we both thought that this guy has something special. But when push came to shove, and when Warner Brothers offered him an enormous situation, we couldn’t compete with that. If we had done that and made a mistake our ship was sunk; we had to be careful.”

These days, label concerns are the furthest thing from Alpert’s mind. The Queen Elizabeth Theatre show will feature Alpert, who is also an avid painter and sculptor, performing on his first love — the trumpet — and with his soul mate, Hall, as they play past hits and “other songs that are really fun to listen to.”

How did Alpert meet the trumpet?

“Well, I was fortunate in my grammar school,” he said. “There was a table filled with various instruments and I had to pick up the trumpet. Couldn’t make a sound out of it. I’d just blow hot air into the mouthpiece and it doesn’t work like that, but when I finally did make a sound I started taking some lessons.

“I realized that the trumpet was talking for me. I’m a card-carrying introvert and this trumpet was saying things that I couldn’t get out of my mouth, so, it was like my best friend. I still have fun playing. It’s something that grounds me and keeps me in the exact moment of my life when I’m playing.”

And what is it about Hall that makes his heart skip a beat after almost 50 years of marriage?

“I love her. She’s an angel. She is so sensitive. She’s an empath: she’s sensitive to everybody’s problems. We just connect. I couldn’t be happier.

“I’m very, very, very grateful and lucky that I have this relationship because I think love is the only answer. You can have all the money in the world, but if you’re not happy, if you don’t have a good relationship with someone, you’re missing something.”

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