| Going Places | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass |
| Cover: | HerbAlpertGoingPlaces.jpg |
| Released: | 13 September 1965 |
| Genre: | Pop, easy listening, mariachi[1] [2] |
| Length: | 29:27 |
| Label: | A&M A&M LP 112 / A&M SP112 |
| Producer: | Herb Alpert, Jerry Moss |
| Prev Title: | Whipped Cream and Other Delights |
| Prev Year: | 1965 |
| Next Title: | What Now My Love |
| Next Year: | 1966 |
Going Places (stylized as !!Going Places!!) is the fifth album by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. It was originally released by A&M Records in 1965 and has appeared in many formats.
The group's title reverted to its original name for this album; its second, third and fourth albums had been released as Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass. While the first four Tijuana Brass albums were recorded by Alpert backed by studio musicians, demands for live appearances dictated that Alpert assemble an actual touring band. The songs on Going Places are a mixture of sessions featuring Alpert's touring band and those with other session musicians, according to the liner notes in the Shout!Factory CD release.
The single version of "Tijuana Taxi" features more of the bicycle-horn sound effects than does the album version. "Tijuana Taxi" and "Spanish Flea" were included as part of the "Carmen" medley on the Herb Alpert's Ninth album. The B-side of the "Taxi" single, "Zorba the Greek", was edited for length and was augmented by live-concert sound effects.
"A Walk in the Black Forest" was a cover of a better-known version of the song that same year by Horst Jankowski. Two years later, the song was featured as the theme of a short-lived game show, Reach for the Stars. The Piggly Wiggly supermarket chain also used it as a theme for its TV commercials. The song "Spanish Flea", composed by Alpert's friend and fellow mariachi band leader Julius Wechter, was one of several Brass tunes heard regularly on The Dating Game.
The album was released in many formats, such as vinyl, 8-track, cassette, open reel and eventually CD. It was reissued in 2005 by the Shout!Factory label as part of the Herb Alpert Signature Series.
"Going Places" spent six weeks at Number 1 on the Billboard album charts in 1966. For the week ending May 21, 1966, "Going Places," at No. 4, was one of five Tijuana Brass albums listed in the top 20 of Billboard Magazine’s chart of Top LP’s, a feat that has never been duplicated. The others were "What Now My Love" (2), "Whipped Cream and Other Delights" (8), "South of the Border" (17) and "The Lonely Bull" (20).[3]
Allmusic critic Richard S. Ginell rated the record 3.5 of a possible 5 stars, writing, "this album captures them at the peak of their exuberance.... No other TJB record has as much unbuttoned fun and humor as this one—-and not surprisingly, it spent six weeks at number one in 1966."
"Tijuana Taxi" was featured in the "On a Clear Day I Can't See My Sister" episode of Fox's animated series The Simpsons, the third episode ("Becoming Mr. Playboy") of the Amazon original series and the "Tube Stakes" episode of the comedy series King of Queens (Season 2, Episode 5). The song was also used in KCET's Kids Club birthday promo on PBS Kids. It has also been used as the run-out music for Leyton Orient F.C. since the 1980s.
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1966 | Billboard Pop Albums (Billboard 200) | 1 |
| 1967 | Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart | |