OK, so it may not be a profound musical masterpiece, and not everyone may have heard it or own it (unlike the iconic Whipped Cream and Other Delights album, which everyone’s dad seemed to own), but it was not Christmas at our house unless the Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass Christmas Album was spinning on the Magnavox console several times through December.  Even to this day, not a year goes by that I don’t at least play it once.

It was also the first Tijuana Brass CD I ever bought, a rare German import that I lucked into courtesy of an audiophile store nearby, a few years before A&M would start releasing TJB CDs in the US.  Shout Factory has this album sounding better than ever on CD, yet I always pull out my vinyl copy and play that, as it brings back a lot of memories.

Musically it has an upbeat yet easygoing feeling to all of the tracks.  Alpert handled arrangements for the musical side, yet he enlisted west coast jazz legend Shorty Rogers to handle the vocal and string arrangements.  Many familiar holiday tunes get Tijuana Brass arrangements (such as “Winter Wonderland,” “Jingle Bells” and “Sleigh Ride”), while a few surprises are in order.  The rarely performed “The Bell That Couldn’t Jingle” (penned by Burt Bacharach) makes an appearance, and the album closes on a calm note with Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”  It is a bit different than other TJB albums, but a welcome change of pace from that tried and true formula.  And now that it’s December 24th, it’s about time I gave it a spin…

Thanks for joining us in this Christmas Album Countdown series!  Enjoy your holidays, and we’ll see you back here before you know it!