Short answers, pulled from the story.
Herb Alpert was born on the 31st of March 1935, in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. He grew up as the youngest of three children to Tillie and Louis Alpert, Jewish immigrants from Radomyshl in present-day Ukraine and Romania.
Herb Alpert adapted an original melody called Twinkle Star after hearing mariachi music at a bullfight in Tijuana, Mexico. He renamed the track The Lonely Bull, personally funded its production, and it became a Top 10 hit by fall of 1962.
Herb Alpert declared the trumpet his enemy and stopped performing publicly until he sought out teacher Carmine Caruso. He returned to the studio four years later with a more soulful sound that focused on emotions rather than technique.
Whipped Cream & Other Delights became the number one album of 1966 and outsold major acts like The Beatles and Frank Sinatra. Its popularity was partly due to the notoriously racy cover featuring model Dolores Erickson seemingly clothed only in shaving cream.
Barack and Michelle Obama presented Herb Alpert with the National Medal of Arts award on July 2013 inside the White House East Room. This recognition honored his contributions to music alongside his work as an abstract expressionist painter and sculptor.