Album Review

!!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 their most popular releases. It was released by A&M Records on all formats: LP, 8-track, cassette, open reel and eventually CD, and 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 that saw regular use on ''The Dating Game''.

The single version of ''Tijuana Taxi'' had more of the bicycle-horn sound effects than the album version did. ''Tijuana Taxi'' and ''Spanish Flea'' would both be reprised as part of the ''Carmen'' medley in Herb Alpert's Ninth. The B-side of the ''Taxi'' single, ''Zorba the Greek'', was edited for length and had live-concert sound effects added.

''A Walk in the Black Forest'' was a cover of a better-known version of the song that same year, by Horst Jankowski. That same track would briefly serve two years later 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, after its second, third and fourth albums had been listed as ''Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass''. While the first four Tijuana Brass albums had been done by Alpert backed by studio musicians, demands for live appearances had dictated that Alpert put together an actual touring band. The songs on this album are a mixture of sessions featuring Alpert's touring band and other session musicians, according to the liner notes in the Shout!Factory CD release. [wikipedia.org]