Short answers, pulled from the story.
Herb Alpert is the only musician to reach number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 as both a vocalist and an instrumentalist. He topped the chart as a vocalist with "This Guy's in Love with You" in 1968 and as an instrumentalist with "Rise" in 1979.
Alpert developed the Tijuana Brass sound after attending a bullfight in Tijuana, Mexico. He was dissatisfied with his early recordings of a song originally called "Twinkle Star", but the energy of the crowd, the mariachi music, and the trumpet calls at the bullfight inspired him to adapt the tune and rename it "The Lonely Bull", which became a top-10 hit in the fall of 1962.
Alpert and Jerry Moss founded the label in 1962 under the name Carnival Records, releasing "Tell It to the Birds" as its first single. After discovering another label already used the Carnival name, they renamed it A&M Records. Alpert personally funded the first releases. PolyGram acquired A&M in 1989 for $500 million.
The cover of Whipped Cream and Other Delights featured model Dolores Erickson appearing to be clothed only in whipped cream. At a concert in Milwaukee on the 6th of October, 2025, Alpert confirmed it was actually shaving cream. The album was the number-one album of 1966, outselling The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, and the Rolling Stones.
Alpert experienced a personal crisis in 1969, declaring "the trumpet is my enemy." He disbanded the Tijuana Brass and stopped performing in public. He later worked with teacher Carmine Caruso and described the process as learning to express emotions he had suppressed since childhood.
Alpert has donated tens of millions of dollars to music education. He gave $30 million to UCLA in 2007 to establish the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, $24 million to the California Institute of the Arts, more than $5 million to the Harlem School of the Arts in 2012, an additional $9.7 million to Harlem in 2020, and $10.1 million to Los Angeles City College in 2016.