"Rise" is an

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instr ...

written by Andy Armer and Randy 'Badazz' Alpert, first recorded in

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

trumpeter The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

Herb Alpert 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 ...

. Released as a single from Alpert's solo album ''

Rise Rise or RISE may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * '' Rise: The Vieneo Province'', an internet-based virtual world * Rise FM, a fictional radio station in the video game ''Grand Theft Auto 3'' * Rise Kujikawa, a vide ...

'', the song reached #1 on the ''Billboard'' charts. It is the instrumental sample for

The Notorious B.I.G. Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), better known by his stage names the Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, or simply Biggie, was an American rapper. Rooted in East Coast hip hop and particularly gangsta ...

hit " Hypnotize".

Background

"Rise" was written by Herb Alpert's nephew Randy, in collaboration with Andy Armer. The A&R representative at

A&M Records A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...

, Chip Cohen, knew Randy Alpert was into funk and disco music. He asked Randy to rework Tijuana Brass hits as funk tracks.Unterberger, Andrew.
Randy ‘Badazz’ Alpert Remembers ‘Rise,’ Sampled in The Notorious B.I.G.’s ‘Hypnotize’
, ''Billboard''. March 1, 2017. Herb Alpert recalls, "I think we started by playing ‘

A Taste of Honey ''A Taste of Honey'' is the first play by the British dramatist Shelagh Delaney, written when she was 19. It was intended as a novel, but she turned it into a play because she hoped to revitalise British theatre and address social issues that ...

’ 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 In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (ofte ...

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 first artist to reach the top of the Hot 100 with a vocal performance ("

This Guy's in Love with You "This Guy's in Love with You" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and recorded by Herb Alpert. Although known primarily for his trumpet playing as the leader of the Tijuana Brass, Alpert sang lead vocals on this solo recording, ar ...

", 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 Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to ''Billboard'' by stat ...

. The recording also received a

Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance The Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by ma ...

. 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 Bell Biv DeVoe, also known as BBD, is an American music group from Boston, Massachusetts, formed from members of New Edition, consisting of Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins and Ronnie DeVoe. The band is best known for their debut album, the multi- ...

permission to sample the song, because he was a fan of the group. He declined to let ''

The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based American Mafia, Italian-American mobster, portraying h ...

'' use the song during a scene where someone was being beaten. Alpert also refused to let

Pfizer Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered on 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in 1849 in New York by two German entrepreneurs, Charles Pfize ...

use "Rise" in a campaign for

Viagra Sildenafil, sold under the brand name Viagra, among others, is a medication used to treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension. It is unclear if it is effective for treating sexual dysfunction in women. It is taken by m ...

which would have relied on the

double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially a ...

implied by the song's title. In October 2016 the "Rise Remix EP" was released on the Herb Alpert Presents label. It has seven selections with six remixes as well as the original track.

Personnel

– trumpet *Tim May,

Chris Pinnick Chris Pinnick is an American guitarist and songwriter, probably best known for his work with the band Chicago from 1980–1985. Pinnick was born on July 23, 1953 in Van Nuys, California and took up the guitar at the age of seven. An early exampl ...

– guitar *

Abe Laboriel Abraham Laboriel López Sr. (born July 17, 1947) is a Mexican-American bassist who has played on over 4,000 recordings and soundtracks. ''Guitar Player'' magazine called him "the most widely used session bassist of our time". Laboriel is the f ...

– bass guitar * Mike Lang – acoustic piano *Andy Armer –

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...

electric piano *

Julius Wechter Julius Wechter (May 10, 1935 – February 1, 1999) was an American musician and composer who played the marimba and vibraphone. He also played various percussion instruments. He composed the song "Spanish Flea" for Herb Alpert and was leader of The ...

– marimba * Steve Schaeffer – drums *

Don Hahn Donald Paul Hahn (born November 26, 1955) is an American film producer who is credited with producing some of the most successful animated films in recent history, including Disney’s '' Beauty and the Beast'' (the first animated film to be no ...

, Don Koldon – engineer

Charts

All-time charts

Covers and samples

*A sample of "Rise" is the entire musical groove of the 1997 song " Hypnotize", recorded by

and co-produced by

Sean "Puffy" Combs Sean Combs (born Sean John Combs; November 4, 1969), also known by his stage names Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Puffy, or Diddy, is an American rapper, actor, record producer, and record executive. Born in New York City, he worked as a talent directo ...

. *

sampled "Rise" in their 2016 song "

Run Run(s) or RUN may refer to: Places * Run (island), one of the Banda Islands in Indonesia * Run (stream), a stream in the Dutch province of North Brabant People * Run (rapper), Joseph Simmons, now known as "Reverend Run", from the hip-hop grou ...

". The song's lyrics also quote The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Hypnotize".

In film and television

*Shortly after the song was released in 1979, it was used in the American soap opera '' General Hospital'' during the scene where

Luke People *Luke (given name), a masculine given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) * Luke (surname) (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luke. Also known a ...

rapes Laura. Also played in Netflix "Spiderhead" during credits

References

Bibliography

*''The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits'', Billboard Books; 9th Edition, 2010, {{Authority control 1979 singles Herb Alpert songs Disco songs 1970s instrumentals Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Cashbox number-one singles General Hospital A&M Records singles