Herb Alpert - Rise

"Rise" is an instrumental written by Andy Armer and Randy 'Badazz' Alpert, first recorded in 1979 by trumpeter Herb Alpert. Released as a single from Alpert's solo album Rise, the song reached #1 on the Billboard charts.

"Rise" was written by Herb Alpert's nephew Randy, in collaboration with Andy Armer. The A&R representative at A&M Records, Chip Cohen, knew Randy Alpert was into funk and disco music. He asked Randy to rework Tijuana Brass hits as funk tracks. Herb Alpert recalls, "I think we started by playing ‘A Taste of Honey’ or ‘Tijuana Taxi'. And it just felt like the wrong approach. I didn’t feel comfortable playing that way."

As Alpert and Armer were working on Cohen's assignment, they decided to write an original song for Herb as well. The result was "Rise". The song was originally upbeat, but Herb Alpert suggesting slowing it down. Randy reduced the tempo from 120 beats per minute to 100, and the track started to feel appropriately funky.

It reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in October of that year and remained in the top position for two weeks. Herb Alpert thus became the second artist to reach the top of the Hot 100 with a vocal performance ("This Guy's in Love with You", 1968) as well as an instrumental performance. "Rise" was also successful on other charts, peaking at number four on the R&B chart, number 17 on the disco chart and spending one week atop the adult contemporary chart. The recording also received a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. Songwriters Armer and Alpert were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition.

"Rise" has been frequently requested as a sample by various artists. Randy Alpert declined most of them. When he heard the tape of Notorious B.I.G. rapping over "Rise" he was wildly enthusiastic about it and immediately approved the sample. He later gave Bel Biv DeVoe permission to sample the song, because he was a fan of the group. He declined to let The Sopranos use the song during a scene where someone was being beaten. Alpert also refused to let Pfizer use "Rise" in a campaign for Viagra which would have relied on the double entendre implied by the song's title.

Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter who led the band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass in the 1960s. During the same decade, he co-founded A&M Records with Jerry Moss. Alpert has recorded 28 albums that have landed on the Billboard 200 chart, five of which became No. 1 albums; he has had 14 platinum albums and 15 gold albums. Alpert is the only musician to hit No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 as both a vocalist ("This Guy's in Love with You", 1968) and an instrumentalist ("Rise", 1979).

Alpert has reportedly sold 72 million records worldwide. He has received many accolades, including a Tony Award, and eight Grammy Awards, as well as the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2006, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.