Rise (1979) 2/28/20

Trivia Question: Who is the only person to hit #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 with both a vocal performance AND an instrumental?

Trumpeter Herb Alpert!

In 1968, he hit #1 with his vocal on the Burt Bacharach song, "This Guy's in Love With You."

In 1979, he reached the top with today's "Great Song of the '70s!"

You'd think that someone who racked up more than two dozen instrumental hits with the Tijuana Brass in the Mid-60s would have topped the chart with one of their songs, but TJB never got higher than #5 on the Hot 100. (1965's "Tijuana Taxi')

So Herb had to wait for "Rise" to come along.

"Rise" was originally an uptempo disco tune, but session drummer Steve Schaefer suggested they record it again as a much slower (100 bpm) "groove" number...and before you know it, chart history was made.

In addition to #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts, "Rise" peaked #4 on the R&B chart, and #17 on the Disco chart.

At the Grammy Awards, Herb won for "Best Pop Instrumental Performance, (Songwriters Andy Armer and Randy Alpert were nominated for "Best Instrumental Composition.")

But on top of all that, the song became even MORE popular when the soap opera "General Hospital" used it repeatedly for several weeks to underscore the infamous "Luke Rapes Laura" plot line. That helped boost sales to over one MILLION copies!

TRIVIA: The woman Herb is dancing with in the video is his wife, singer Lani Hall., who recorded several hits with Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66.

From 1979: