Herb Alpert is the only recording artist to hit No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop chart as both a vocalist ("This Guy's In Love With You", 1968), and an instrumentalist ("Rise", 1979). He is the "A" along with Jerry Moss as the founders, executives. and producers of A&M Records; signing many major acts as a prominent record label for a long time.
While many people thought Alpert was of Mexican descent along with his Tijuana Brass band musicians because of the style of music they played on their hit albums and singles, Herb was of Jewish descent with his parents emigrating to the U.S. from eastern Europe. The Tijuana Brass band did not include any Mexicans or musicians from Tijuana. Herb, with and without the band, has won seven Grammys and sold more than 72 million records worldwide. He started out solo with some L.A. session musicians from The Wrecking Crew. By the end of 1964, because of a growing demand for live appearances by the Tijuana Brass, Alpert hired a team of top session musicians.
Alpert's musical inspiration from Tijuana was a result of him going to Tijuana from Los Angeles in 1962 to watch Mexican bullfighter Carlos Arruza. The bullring band of the time was led by Miguel Bravo, a well-known local musician who was good friends with Rafael Mendez, one of Mexico’s most famous trumpet players and an inspiration to Alpert. Mendez would show up for the bullfights and sometimes play with the band and Alpert heard him playing.
While attending the University of Southern California in the 1950s, he was a member of the USC Trojan Marching Band for two years. In 1956, he appeared in the uncredited role as "Drummer on Mt. Sinai" in the movie The Ten Commandments.
Alpert also was a producer and songwriter having written or co-written or produced hits by other acts including "Baby Talk" (producer) by Jan and Dean and "Wonderful World" (co-writer) by Sam Cooke.
Here is a list of A&M Records acts.
List of former A&M Records artists - Wikipedia
