HERB ALPERT AND THE TIJUANA BRASS. WHIPPED CREAM AND OTHER DELIGHTS, CONSIDERED (1965): He had all the bases – and the cover – covered

We might never know what A&M Records designer Peter Whorf was thinking when he decided to have model Dolores Erickson on the cover of this Herb Alpert album covered in whipped cream (in fact it was shaving cream) but it certainly did the trick.

The album topped the Billboard charts for two months and the cover has become a kitschy classic, often parodied.

At the time trumpeter Herb Alpert – who owned the A&M label with producer Jerry Moss – was on a roll: his hit single The Lonely Bull in '62 helped establish both the label and his own distinctive style, and his South of the Border album in late '64 saw him playing distinctive classics (The Girl From Ipanema, Angelito) alongside pop hits (Hello Dolly! and All My Loving).

Working with the famous Wrecking Crew session musicians, Alpert's sound was crisp, professional but also heartfelt.

However it was the saucily packaged Whipped Cream and Other Delights which really made a mark.

These days the album is sought out by collectors for the cover and it's a fair bet that many who own it probably haven't bothered to listen to it.

Pulled off the shelf at random for this on-going column it gets a fair hearing and is instantly familiar.

The bright opener A Taste of Honey had appeared on the Beatles first album in Britain (but didn't appear in the US until early '65), so it was an astutely chosen pop crossover hit from the film soundtrack and the Beatles. It also has some distinctive mood and rhythmic changes to keep it interesting.

Their version of Love Potion No 9 – also familiar in the Beat-era – is given a sashaying stripper-style swing and the folk ballad Lemon Tree (“the lemon flower is sweet but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat”) had been a hit that year for Trini Lopez.

Elsewhere the Tijuana escapism is to the fore with El Garbanzo (by Sol Lake who also wrote Bittersweet Samba) and the ever-popular Peanuts.

Alpert and Moss – the album's co-producers with Alpert doing the arrangements – were astute businessmen and knew what would sell, and this selection certainly did.

Among the musicians at the famous Gold Star studio are bassist Carol Kaye, pianist Leon Russell and drummer Hal Blaine, and Alpert's trumpet was multi-tracked and supported by Tonni Kalash.

In the time of James Last's Non Stop Dancing 1965 album – the first of about 30 he did annually – and Beatles tunes done in a baroque style, Whipped Cream is pretty classy and kinda fun. Their version of Toots Thielmans' Ladyfingers is lovely.

The vinyl copy I have has an inscription on it: "To Mum wishing you a happy birthday from Ruthie Fred and Ann Maree 1967."

So the album was still popular about two years after its release. 

Way back in 2001 I wrote about Alpert and said this: "Herb's music was appealing in a safari-suit way, too. When I first heard Lonely Bull I thought it sounded like surf music. You could play it back-to-back with the Theme from The Endless Summer and they became seamless beach music. Surf's up, ole!

"Herb's music was mostly for mums and dads back in the 60s - which means it's probably highly fashionable among those in their late-20s today - but it wasn't that bad.

"It was distinctive, lively and good-humoured. Why else would anyone record tunes as naggingly catchy as Spanish Flea or Tijuana Taxi (with that farting horn sound) if not out of a sense of pure fun?"

So Whipped Cream -- so successful Herb had to actually form a Tijuana Brass band to tour -- is worth playing if you bought it for the cover and never got round to listening to it.

However it's worth noting it's a very short album, just 28 minutes in total: not as short as Elvis' 24 minute Harum Scarum soundtrack from the same year and not that much shorter than the 35 minute Rubber Soul.

But short.

Still, as the old Stan Freberg joke goes, “it gets more plays that way”.

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You can hear Whipped Cream and Other Delights at Spotify here

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Elsewhere occasionally revisits albums -- classics sometimes, but more often oddities or overlooked albums by major artists -- and you can find a number of them starting here.