Herb Alpert, an accomplished trumpeter and recording industry magnate, was no singer. And that's part of the charm of this overproduced ballad. For all its hokiness, Alpert's "everyman" vocal made this recording a home run back when I was a kid.
Out of the blue, I thought of this tune while driving from tonight's Maundy Thursday service. I hadn't heard it or even anything about the song for years.
Even now, listening to it again for the first time in all that time, both the vocals and the lyrics are so straightforward and winsomely vulnerable, a perfect expression for the man in love with the perfect girl for him.
The only lines I don't care for come at the beginning of the second verse: "I've heard some talk / They say you think I'm fine."
Nonetheless, this ballad works as a touching love song. I remember playing it over and over back in the day.
Having implied that Alpert was less than a polished professional singer, I have to say that, on this song, he sounds like Jim Morrison in a slightly higher key. Come to think of it, Morrison wasn't much of a singer either.
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