Going Places (Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass album)
Going Places is the fifth album by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and, along with their prior album, Whipped Cream and Other Delights, is one of the group's most popular releases. It was originally released by A&M Records in 1965 and has appeared in many formats, such as vinyl, 8-track, cassette, open reel and eventually CD. The album was reissued in 2005 by the Shout!Factory label as part of the Herb Alpert Signature Series. 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 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 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.
Issued twice on open-reel tape, the first edition presents the tracks in the same order as the LP. Because of the running-time differences, Side A includes a significant blank spaceat the beginning of the program, which allowed for a shorter break at the side change.
"Tijuana Taxi" was featured in the "On a Clear Day I Can't See My Sister" episode of Fox's animated seriesThe Simpsons, the third episode of the Amazon original series "" and the "Tube Stakes" episode of the comedy series "King of Queens". It was also featured prominently in the 1993 Australian filmFrauds to underscore the pranks pulled by the character of Roland Copping, played by Phil Collins.