The Whipped Cream Lady comes to Wallingford

As a youngster, there were three albums played in heavy rotation on the hi-fi in our home: I Hear a Symphony by the Supremes, Stoned Soul Picnic by The Fifth Dimension, and Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass’ Whipped Cream & Other Delights. I marveled over the Whipped Cream… album cover, wondering about the mysterious woman covered in cream. To me, she was the Queen of Cool Whip! The Reddi-Whip Lady! The Tops in Whipped Topping! And secretly, I, too, wanted to be covered in whipped cream (though, technically, the Whipped Cream Lady wore shaving cream, with a dollop of whipped cream on her head. Besides, I would have been soooo busted).

The woman on the album cover is Dolores Erickson, and tomorrow, Wallingford will be treated to her appearance at Golden Oldies Records (201 NE 45th St.) at 10:30am, where she’ll meet and greet fans, and pose in front of the store’s Whipped Cream & Other Delights mural.

If you’d like to know more about Dolores, there’s a fine interview from April posted on the Performing Songwriter website. She’s a Seattle native and attended the University of Washington until she began modeling for Macy’s. Dean over at Golden Oldies Records tells us she’s 77 years-old, “but still looks like a model.”

For those of you not familiar with Herb Alpert’s album, I can guarantee you most surely have heard the album’s first track, “A Taste of Honey”. KEXP DJ Cheryl Waters uses the song’s intro every day when she reads the concert calendar beginning with her signature, “Hit it Herb.”