Creamy Model

If I say Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, you say…creamy model? Well, if you were a red-blooded, all-American male teen growing up in the mid-sixties like my brother you do. Skip played one album over and over, and he and friends spent hours ogling the LP cover of the 1965 Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass’ “Whipped Cream & Other Delights”. The iconic album cover art featured a color photo of an ostensibly naked woman swathed in whipping cream with a teensy weensy portion of her breast exposed. The creamy model, holding a single red stem rose in her left hand, sat looking straight at you seductively and was playfully licking Chantilly cream from the index finger of her right hand. The first time I saw it, I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. It was a food themed album after all. Back in the mid-sixties, the LP creamy model cover was not only considered very risqué, but also a feast for the eyes of impressionable teen boys, like my brother and his friends. Truth be told, when Skip wasn’t around, I would sneak into his bedroom to borrow the album. I played my favorite tracks over and over – ‘Tangerine,’ ’A Taste of Honey,’ ‘Love Potion No. 9,’ and ‘Whipped Cream.’ While it was bittersweet that my parents were selling the Greenwich house we grew up in, Skip and I understood the time had come for them to downsize. Over the weekend, in preparation for the upcoming garage sale, I moved shoeboxes, clothes, and garment bags with a few vintage pieces – Dad’s old tux and Mom’s fur coat out the bedroom closets in our house. And that’s when I discovered stacks of old Playboys and the vinyl records in the back of my brother’s closet. I moved the treasure trove of vintage collectibles and left Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass’ “Whipped Cream & Other Delights” iconic album out for Skip to enjoy, chasing his creamy model teen memories in a thick cloud of blue smoke.