This Guy's in Love with You

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"This Guy's in Love with You"
Single by Herb Alpert
from the album The Beat of the Brass
B-side "A Quiet Tear"
Released April 1968
Format 7"
Genre Pop
Length 3:55
Label A&M
Writer(s) Burt Bacharach, Hal David
Producer(s) Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss

"This Guy's in Love with You" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and recorded by Herb Alpert. Although known primarily for his trumpet playing as the leader of the Tijuana Brass, Alpert sang lead vocals on this solo recording, arranged by Bacharach.

History

As documented in a Biography cable episode featuring Bacharach, the recording originated when Alpert asked Bacharach, "Say, Burt, do you happen to have any old compositions lying around that you and Hal never recorded; maybe one I might use?" Alpert said he made it his practice to ask songwriters that particular question; often a lost "pearl" was revealed. As it happened, Bacharach recalled one, found the lyrics and score sheet, and offered it to Alpert: "Here, Herb ... you might like this one."[citation needed]

Alpert saw the possibilities in it for himself. The composition had a recognizable Bacharach-David feel, a spot for a signature horn solo in the bridge and in the fadeout, and it was an easy song to sing within Alpert's vocal range. He originally sang "This Guy's in Love with You" on a 1968 television special, The Beat of the Brass. In response to numerous viewer telephone calls following the broadcast, Alpert decided that the song should be released as a single recording, and it reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart in June of that year, remaining in the top position for four weeks. It was not only Alpert's first No. 1 single, but it was also the first No. 1 single for his A&M record label. The song also spent ten weeks at No. 1 on the Easy Listening chart. For the single's B-side, Alpert chose "A Quiet Tear," an album track from his first album in 1962, The Lonely Bull.

Eleven years later Alpert became the first (and only) artist to have reached the prized No. 1 position of the Billboard Hot 100 with both a vocal performance and an instrumental performance when his instrumental, "Rise", reached the top of the hit chart.

"This Guy's in Love with You" was succeeded at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 by "Grazing In The Grass", an instrumental by Hugh Masekela. On the Billboard Easy Listening chart, Alpert's song was both preceded and succeeded at No. 1 by instrumental hits from Hugo Montenegro ("The Good, the Bad and the Ugly") and Mason Williams ("Classical Gas"), respectively. Besides this hit in English, he recorded the song in Spanish and Italian.

Cover versions

"This Girl's in Love with You"
Single by Dionne Warwick
Released 1969 (1969)
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References

  1. Video on YouTube
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Bibliography

  • The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 6th Edition, 1996

External links

Preceded by Billboard Easy Listening number-one single (Herb Alpert version)
June 8, 1968 (10 weeks)
Succeeded by
"Classical Gas" by Mason Williams
Preceded by Billboard Hot 100 number one single
June 22 – July 19, 1968 (4 weeks)
Succeeded by
"Grazing in the Grass" by Hugh Masekela