Herb Alpert was born on March 31, 1935[3] and raised in the Boyle Heights[4] section of Eastside Los Angeles,[5] California.

[13] Alpert started attending Fairfax High School in Los Angeles beginning in 10th grade.

A number of songs written or co-written by Alpert during the following two years became Top 20 hits, including "Baby Talk" by Jan and Dean and "Wonderful World" by Sam Cooke.

[21] Alpert was dissatisfied with his first efforts to record the song, then took a break to visit a bullfight in Tijuana, Mexico.

Something in the excitement of the crowd, the traditional mariachi music, the trumpet call heralding the start of the fight, the yelling, the snorting of the bulls, it all clicked.

"[22] Alpert adapted the tune to the trumpet style, mixed in crowd cheers and other noises for ambience, and renamed the song "The Lonely Bull".

[23] He personally funded the production of the record as a single, and it spread through radio DJs until it caught on and became a Top 10 hit in the fall of 1962.

For this album and subsequent releases, Alpert recorded with the group of Los Angeles session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew, whom he holds in high regard.

Some of that popularity might be attributable to the album's notoriously racy cover, which featured model Dolores Erickson seemingly clothed only in whipped cream.

However, as writer Bruce Handy pointed out in a Billboard article, two other Brass albums, Going Places (1965) and What Now My Love (1966), "held the third and fifth spots on the 1966 year-end chart despite pleasant yet far more anodyne covers.

[28] Also in 1967, the Tijuana Brass performed Burt Bacharach's title cut to the first movie version of Casino Royale.

1 hit for his A&M label, was a solo effort: "This Guy's in Love with You", written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, featuring a rare vocal.

The real instrument is me, the emotions, not my lip, not my technique, but feelings I learned to stuff away—as a kid who came from a very unvocal household.

"[11] The results were noticeable; as Richard S. Ginell wrote in an AllMusic review of Alpert's comeback album, You Smile - The Song Begins, "His four-year sabbatical over, Herb Alpert returned to the studio creatively refreshed, his trumpet sounding more soulful and thoughtful, his ears attuned more than ever to jazz.

In late 2024, Alpert announced that he was forming a new Tijuana Brass group and would do a tour in 2025, to celebrate the landmark Whipped Cream and Other Delights album.

[39] Alpert has a second career as an abstract expressionist painter and sculptor with group and solo exhibitions around the United States and Europe.

The 2010 sculpture exhibition "Herb Alpert: Black Totems" in Beverly Hills brought media attention to his visual work.

[43] Alpert and Moss were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 13, 2006, as non-performer lifetime achievers for their work at A&M.

In 2016, Alpert's foundation also bestowed a $10.1 million donation to Los Angeles City College to provide music majors with a tuition-free education, the largest gift to an individual community college in the history of Southern California, and the second-largest gift in the history of the state.

[51] In partnership with his daughter Eden, in 2004 Alpert opened Vibrato, a jazz club and restaurant located in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles.

[52] On September 17, 2010, the TV documentary Legends: Herb Alpert – Tijuana Brass and Other Delights premiered on BBC4.

An AllMusic review concluded: "Ultimately, Steppin' Out represents not just the third album in a trilogy, but a loving creative partnership that, for Alpert and Hall, spans a lifetime.