South of the Border is the third album by American easy listening brass band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, originally released in 1964. The name of the group, for this album, is "Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass".

Background

South of the Border was Alpert's fifth gold record, and continued the progression of the Tijuana Brass from its mostly-Mexican sound to a more easy-listening style, with a collection of cover versions of popular songs. Included were "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face", originally featured in the Broadway musical My Fair Lady and The Beatles' 1963 hit "All My Loving". It also featured an instrumental cover of its title song, "South of the Border", which was most famously done as a vocal by Frank Sinatra. One number, a Sol Lake tune called "The Mexican Shuffle", was reworked for a TV ad for a brand of chewing gum, and styled "The Teaberry Shuffle". Bert Kaempfert, author of several songs covered by the Brass, returned the favor by issuing a cover of "The Mexican Shuffle". The number called "El Presidente", was a reorchestration of Sol Lake's "Winds of Barcelona", which had appeared on Volume 2. The cover features model Sandra Moss (Mrs. Jerry Moss at the time) at the Patio del Moro apartment complex in West Hollywood.

Popularity and critical reception

South of the Border enjoyed sustained popularity. It appeared on the Billboard Top LPs chart for a total of 163 weeks. For the week ending May 21, 1966, South of the Border, at No. 17, was one of five Tijuana Brass albums listed in the top 20 of Billboard Magazine’s chart of Top LP’s. The others were What Now My Love (2), Going Places (4), Whipped Cream & Other Delights (8), and The Lonely Bull (20). In a retrospective review for Allmusic, music critic Lindsay Planer praised the album's variety and described the ballads as "never seeming maudlin or unnecessarily over the top."

Track listing

Side 1

Side 2