BILLBOARD     CHART ACHIEVEMENTS:                     Black Singles:  # 7       Adult Contemporary:  # 21            Hot 100 Singles:  # 35      Top Ten at MATT RADIO

The unbelievable sales success of the Keep Your Eye on Me record is a testament to Herb Alpert's extraordinary ability to keep his ear to the ground-- no doubt aided by his position as vice-chairman and co-owner of A&M Records-- and adapt to the times. 

At a time when A&M's Janet Jackson was blazing up the charts, Alpert journeyed to Minneapolis and cut some tracks with Jackson's producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, producing the others himself in a mostly similar techno-pop vein.  Presto! Three Top Ten R&B singles came out of the album:  "Keep Your Eye on Me,"  "Making Love in the Rain," and the number one hit "Diamonds."  The flashy "Diamonds" no doubt was aided on its rush up the charts by Jackson and Lisa Keith's bouncy lead vocals; it's really their record and that of Jam and Lewis, despite Alpert's top billing.  Jackson and Keith also take the lead in the simple-minded lyrics of "Making Love in the Rain," which nevertheless has a haunting effect accented by Alpert's muted musings through an electronic gauze.

At first, Keep Your Eye on Me seems like a gleaming digital machine of a record, loaded with repetitive sampling effects and drum machines churning out that ubiquitous '80's backbeat.  But the techno stuff gradually gives way to Alpert's humane trumpet, which, in a touching valentine to the '60's on Acker Bilk's "Stranger on the Shore," is eventually allowed to soar unimpeded over the electronics.

Alpert continued recording throughout the 1990's, producing work like 1991's North on South Street, 1992's Midnight Sun, and 1997's Passion Dance.  After selling A&M to PolyGram in 1990 for a sum in excess of $500 million, he and Moss founded a new label, Almo Sounds, in 1994; among the imprint's hit artists was the group Garbage.  Alpert's own albums, including  Passion Dance and 1999's Colors, were also released on the label.  Alpert also tackled other forms of media, exhibiting his abstract expressionist paintings and co-producing a number of Broadway successes, including "Angels in America" and "Jelly's Last Jam."  He also established the Herb Alpert Foundation, a philanthropic organization dedicated to establishing educational, arts, and environmental programs for children.