A Taste of Honey by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965.
It also spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Easy Listening chart.
At the next Grammy Awards, the record won four times, including Record of the Year.
Table of Contents
- The Story Behind the Song
- Cutting the Record at Gold Star
- How It Charted
- Four Grammys in One Night
- Covers and Legacy
- FAQ
The Story Behind A Taste of Honey
A Broadway Theme First
Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow wrote the tune in 1960.
It began as instrumental theme music for the Broadway staging of Shelagh Delaney's 1958 British play.
Scott's own 1960 album on Atlantic carried the first recordings.
That original instrumental won the Grammy for Best Instrumental Theme in 1963.
Lyrics, Then the Beatles
Billy Dee Williams, who appeared in the Broadway production, cut the first vocal version in 1961.
Lenny Welch had a vocal hit with it in 1962.
The Beatles sang Welch's arrangement on stage.
They recorded it on February 11, 1963, for their debut album, Please Please Me.
Instrumentals by Martin Denny and the Victor Feldman Quartet reached No. 50 and No. 88 in 1962.
Acker Bilk took his clarinet version to No. 16 in the UK in 1963.
Most of those versions were slow and wistful.
Alpert's would be brighter, louder and far more famous.
Cutting the Record at Gold Star
Larry Levine's Suggestion
Alpert planned Whipped Cream & Other Delights as an album of food-themed songs.
Gold Star engineer Larry Levine was cutting an acetate of the title track when he offered an idea.
He named the Scott and Marlow tune, and as he told Mix, "That's how it got onto Herb's list."
Mix dates the session to late 1964, in the small Studio A at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood.
The Players in the Room
At the time there was no real touring Tijuana Brass, only session players Alpert hired.
Mix names Hal Blaine on drums and Julius Wechter on percussion.
Alpert overdubbed the harmony trumpet parts himself, and a trombone went on later.
The Kick Drum That Stayed
The record opens slow and loose, with mariachi-style trumpets.
Then it snaps into a walking four-on-the-floor beat.
The band kept missing that entrance together, so they cut the track in sections.
Alpert asked Blaine to count each fast section in on his kick drum, as an edit cue for Levine.
Alpert liked the thump and kept it in the final mix.
Blaine later said the beat "sort of became the hook of the song."
How the Single Charted
Flipped From the B-Side
Mix says the song was first meant as the B-side of "The Third Man Theme."
That track stalled at No. 47.
A&M issued the single in August 1965 with the roles reversed, "The Third Man Theme" now on the B-side.
| Chart | Peak |
|---|---|
| Billboard Hot 100 | No. 7 |
| Billboard Easy Listening | No. 1 (five weeks) |
| Canada (RPM) | No. 4 |
The Album Behind It
The song opened side one of Whipped Cream & Other Delights, released in April 1965.
The album reached No. 1 on Billboard's Top LPs on November 27, 1965, and held it for eight weeks.
Model Dolores Erickson posed for the cover in chiffon and shaving cream, not real whipped cream.
Four Grammys in One Night
The 8th Annual Grammy Awards were held on March 15, 1966.
Alpert's record won in four categories:
- Record of the Year, to Alpert and Jerry Moss as producers
- Best Instrumental Arrangement, to Alpert
- Best Instrumental Performance (Non-Jazz), to Alpert
- Best Engineered Recording (Non-Classical), to Larry Levine
Grammy.com counts three wins for the group, with Levine's award listed separately.
Covers and Legacy
Other Notable Versions
- Barbra Streisand sang it on The Barbra Streisand Album in 1963.
- Tony Bennett's 1964 vocal reached No. 94 on the Hot 100.
- The Temptations recorded it for The Temptations in a Mellow Mood in 1967.
Where It Fits
The single belongs to 1965, the year Whipped Cream went to No. 1.
The full story is in our Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass biography.
For the wider sound, see our 1960s jazz and easy listening guide.
Or tune the Radio Dial to 1965 and hear what played around it.
FAQ
Who wrote A Taste of Honey?
Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow wrote it in 1960 for the Broadway version of the play.
Songfacts credits Marlow with the lyrics.
How many Grammys did the song win?
Alpert's record won four at the 1966 ceremony.
Three went to Alpert, including Record of the Year, and one went to engineer Larry Levine.
Who played drums on the record?
Hal Blaine.
His kick-drum count-in was meant as an edit cue, but Alpert kept it in the record.
What album is the song on?
It opens side one of Whipped Cream & Other Delights, which A&M released in April 1965.
Did the Beatles record it first?
Yes.
Their vocal version is on Please Please Me, released in March 1963, two years before Alpert's instrumental.
Wikipedia's entry on the song lists more covers, and Mix's Classic Tracks feature has the full session detail.
Press play above and hear A Taste of Honey the way Alpert made it.