Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass – Volume 2
- Label: A&M Records SP-4103
- Country: Canada
- Released: 1963
- Grade LP: (VG) Sleeve: (VG+)
Volume 2 is the second album by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, known in this recording as "Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass". It was released in 1963 on A&M Records, and sold poorly upon initial release. After the Tijuana Brass became massively popular with hits from their later albums, Volume 2 was reissued in 1966 and eventually reached #17 on the Billboard album chart.
The album features some songs with a very Mexican flavor, but with more cover versions of pop hits than were included in that first album, "Spanish Harlem" having been a recent success for Ben E King. "Green Leaves of Summer" was the theme for the film portrayal of the famous Mexican-Texian battle in The Alamo. "Winds of Barcelona" would be reorchestrated as "El Presidente" on the Brass' next album, South of the Border. "Swinger From Seville" is a "strip-tease" tune, complete with audio of cries like "take-it-off" from a raucous audience. The song stands in contrast to the leadoff song, "La Virgen de la Macarena", the traditional title given to "Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza" (Our Lady of Hope) (or Mary, the mother of Jesus)... in Seville, Spain. The Brass' rendition of "A-me-ri-ca" begins with a bar of "Jingle Bells" as a prelude to a jazzy version of the West Side Story entry that gives no hint of that song's outspoken lyrics.
