The first record you bought?

We were listening to the radio this morning, a pretty eclectic PBS station, and 'Michael Row the Boat Ashore' by the Highwaymen came on, and I told DW that was the first record I actually bought on my own with my own money. Some 50-odd years ago. Then I reflected that it wasn't much of a song.... Hmmm, buyer's remorse 50 years later...

Jim Ricks

My first 45 RPM was "Revolution" by The Beatles. I think the reverse side was "Hey Jude." What a bargain at a measly 29 cents at the time, purchased with my own money.

My first album was "More of the Monkees," played on my record player all day long, over and over again, for an entire summer. I get nostalgic when I hear an occasional Monkees' tune on the oldies station. How could Monkees' music be old? I remember when oldies were the really old bands, like The Beach Boys.

This is a fun topic. The first record I ever purchased was "Escape" by Journey. Loved that album. I think I still have it down in the basement or at my parents house. Of course, I don't have a record player any more, so I wouldn't be able to play it if I found it.

I guess for the current generation, the question will be "What was the first song you ever downloaded?" Somehow, I don't think it will be quite as memorable.

Steve

Cindy, I'm with you...My first album was "The Monkeys" followed by "More of the MOnkees" played over and over. In fact, I still have them! LOL

Remembering Like It Was Yesterday.

Rock Around The Clock by Bill Haley & The Comets. That was in 1955. But, shux, I also remember the 1st CD I bought -- in 1981 . . .

. . . Jive Bunny & The Master Mixers -- The Album.

My 1981 CD player is long gone to Mt. Trashmore, but that original Jive Bunny CD is still in my collection & it still plays. As it happens, 1 of the Jive Bunny mix cuts includes Rock Around The Clock. Who'd a-thunk ?

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

My first album as a little girl was "Forever Michael" by Michael Jackson. I saved my little $2 a week allowance to purchase it. I was in love with Michael. Keep in mind, he was normal back then and we had no idea that he was a nut-case. I still have it. All I can say is that he sure looks different today!!!

This is a fun thread!

The first single I ever bought was "One" by Three Dog Night. I remember it vividly because it was also the first time my mother ever let me take the bus downtown by myself to go shopping--I must have been 10 or 11 (those were sure different times).

The first album I bought was "Blue" by Joni Mitchell. Like Dani, I saved and saved my babysitting $$ for months to get it. I wonder what an LP cost in those days. I made 50 cents an hour as a babysitter.

Ours were: Don't be cruel/Hounddog and Rock around the Clock. (I think the Comets are still Rockin' around in Branson). When we got our first record player I think my parents got us couple records with it and it was The Macguire Sisters, Muskrat Ramble/Sincerely (now those are old).

Peering Into The T. U. G. Crystal Ball . . .

. . . & seeing in just a few years there will be a TUG-BBS topic taking us down memory lane to recollections of the 1st MP3 we ever downloaded.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

Play them all - every single record ever recorded

Elvis Presley - " Hound Dog" (like Alan I still have it in my 45 RPM record case in the "music room"). I think it was around 1956. Next were some 45 RPM "EP's" (4 songs on a 45 RPM record). Then a 33 RPM album - I think it was The Ventures "Walk Don't Run" after literally hundreds of 45's. The albums didn't have much theming back then so often paying extra to get the extra 11 songs meant you really only listened to one. The Beach Boys & Beatles changed that.

Still some of the greatest music of all time - especially the mid to late 60's. Chicago I, II & III - before they became sappy balladeers. Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, the last of the Beatles, Paul McCartney solo before HE went all sappy (is there a worse bunch of songs than anything from "Wings"?), there were still plenty of one hit wonders back then too.

The wealth of rock and pop music we have got to enjoy since the 50's is so great that it really bothers my how free radio has limited itself to very narrow choices and repeating those same 50 songs within their chosen group endlessly day in and day out. It is sad that there are so few truly independent stations left - you are very lucky if one is within your reception area - that actually dip into that deep pool of great music over 5 decades. It really bothers me that the canned music in restaurants - if well done - may be far better than regular radio for hearing interesting and sometimes off beat selections. I was originally pleased with the satellite radio selections both for the lack of ads and the music mix but, after 4 years, that too starts to be repetitive. I guess it's too easy to find a few favorites and just play them into the ground.

On the up side when you do hear a long lost song "friend" it can make your whole day.

Janie said:

This is a fun thread!

The first single I ever bought was "One" by Three Dog Night. I remember it vividly because it was also the first time my mother ever let me take the bus downtown by myself to go shopping--I must have been 10 or 11 (those were sure different times).

The first album I bought was "Blue" by Joni Mitchell. Like Dani, I saved and saved my babysitting $$ for months to get it. I wonder what an LP cost in those days. I made 50 cents an hour as a babysitter.

Click to expand...

My first date was to a Three Dog Night concert. My date's mother drove. We had $1.99 tickets and the opening act was Ike and Tina Turner. I was making .50 an hour babysitting too, and was glad to get it!

Back to the original thread. First record I bought myself was "Meet the Monkees". I had three older sisters who bought the good stuff, this one was too bubblegum for them so I had to buy it myself. I still know the words to every song but have a hard time remembering my own phone number sometimes.

Gayle

I bought two. Iron Butterfly (In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida) and Paul Revere and the Raiders.

I had to run upstairs and dig through the cupboard for them, but I found them. I don't know which came first, but Barbara Lewis "Make me your baby" was one of the first. Geez, now that was a walk down memory lane!

I Know It's Only Rock & Roll . . .

timeos2 said:

Paul McCartney solo before HE went all sappy (is there a worse bunch of songs than anything from "Wings"?)

Click to expand...

. . . but I like it.

Shux, 2 of those Wings tunes were actually OK -- Band On The Run & 1985.

My younger son (the rock & roll keyboard talent) used to dump on me for anything I professed to enjoy that smacked in any way of disco -- e.g., Twilight Zone / Twilight Tone by Manhattan Transfer, T.S.O.P. by M.F.S.B., etc. Later he pretty much came round to Duke Ellington's idea about music of all different kinds & styles -- If It Sounds Good It Is Good .

My late father -- grandfather of my rock & roll son -- convinced himself that The Beatles were responsible for all that dreadful psychedelic dope smoking & love beads & hippy-dippy unkempt clothing & draft dodging & long hair & sit-ins & protests & free love & free sex & I don't know what-all. I tried suggesting to the Old Man that maybe The Beatles were in part a just reflection of all that, rather than the cause. It was a hard sell. So it goes.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

I don't have any of my old 45's left, which is so sad that I gave them away. There were some good ones in my collection. But I have every album. Rick bought the Monkees albums as kid and so now we have two of a few of them.

Too bad an old vinyl isn't worth anything. They should be antiques, right?

My first album was "Partridge Family" and i used 5 silver dollar coins for it. My mother kept asking was i sure i wanted to spend my silver dollars?? Now i feel very old.

More Firsts.

First time I ate pizza -- 1959, at Gusti's Italian Restaurant on M Street in Washington DC. Had mushrooms & pepperoni on it. Yum.

Car I learned to drive on -- my dad's 1948 Chevrolet 6-cylinder sedan that ran on 3 cylinders.

The 1st girl I kissed. (Shhhh. Don't let on. It was not The Chief Of Staff.)

First time I fired a rifle -- a range-owned .22 at Camp Rock Enon, BSA, in Gore VA.

First beer -- a 12-oz. non-poptop Coors lifted from my friend's father's secret stash. (I also remember my last drink -- scotch & soda, 1985 -- but that's another story.)

I can't remember my 1st cigarette but I have an indelible recollection of my last -- a mentholated Marlboro that I bummed because I ran out of my own. I smoked it right down to the filter tip the afternoon of November 16, 1968, on my way home from Alaska after completing 3 years army active duty. (OK, army band active duty, but it was still military -- I mean, I got a DD-214 & everything.)

First wife -- still married to her.

First car -- The Chief Of Staff's brand-new 1963 Chevy II that she worked full time to save up for while taking night school college courses so she could graduate on time & so we'd have a newish car all paid for when we got married in 1964.

First job -- a 3-day construction gig cold-chiseling A/C duct holes through masonry walls.

Regrets, I've had a few -- but then again, too few to mention.

Life is good.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

The first album I recall buying was a Herb Alpert album in about 1966 or so. I think I was in the eighth grade. 45s came along around then, too, but my older siblings bought more than I did, so I got to play them for free.

Along similar lines, and in direct correlation to Alan's memories, was an article I read at the turn of the millennium about the Class of 2000. The article was talking about all the things that graduating class had, and didn't have. I don't recall what all they mentioned, but a couple of things come to mind:

1. They had never owned a record album. By the time they were musically aware, CDs had taken over, and vinyl records had gone away.

2. They never knew a time without AIDS, which completely affected the way they developed into adulthood. The sexual freedom their parents enjoyed was completely altered by the time this generation reached puberty.

3. They never knew a time when John Lennon was alive. He died before they were born.

Of these, I think the third was the most surprising.

Dave

The Beatles

My first album was the very first Beatles album. I bought it just after they appeared on Ed Sullivan in (Nov?)1963.

I sold it a year later for $5 - what was I thinking?????

Ann

first " 8 track " was won on the seaside heights boardwalk and was 3 dog night -naturally. the first album also won on the seaside boardwalk was Jethro tull's aqualung . I had an older sister who had abox of 45's we used to listen too. mostly early 60's music such as "soldier boy and leader of the pack "

when talking about wings don't forget "venus and mars / rock show " great song and "high"

Whoa!

Talk about a walk down memory lane. It was the early 50's, and I wanted to establish some credit, so I bought a small, red 45 rpm player, and a Connie Francis recording of "You Belong to Me". My boyfriend, and later husband, was in the Air Force, and the song made me all mushy...even though he never was stationed any further than Texas. Oh, the drama! ( I was happy he never had to go far away, but that was in the early years.....)

Me, too --- "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets. We even went to see them at the Idora Park Ball Room in Youngstown, Ohio.

I'm pretty sure that my first 45 was "Those Were the Days My Friend" and I want to say that "Turn Turn Turn" was on the other side but I might be wrong about that...would the flip side have a song by a different artist on it? I think the 45 had a picture of an Apple in the middle...Apple records?

I think I was about 11 when I got this. Now I have to go check release dates, etc. to see if my memory is any good!

Sharon

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P.S. Just checked Wikipedia and am amazed that I got it right...although it was released earlier than I thought:

Gene Raskin frequented The White Horse Tavern in the 1960s and the song lamented the passing of the golden folk days of Dylan, Paxton, Ochs, and The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem. The song was the final recording by the Clancys.

Although the song was popularized in the early 1960s by The Limelighters, Mary Hopkin still did the best known recording. It was released on August 30, 1968. Hopkin's recording was produced by Paul McCartney (catalogue number "APPLE 2") and became a #1 hit in the UK singles chart, and reached #2 in the US.

Paul McCartney, who produced the session, also recorded Mary singing "Those Were The Days" in 4 other languages for release in their respective countries: In Spain, Que Tiempo Tan Feliz. In Germany, An jenem Tag. In Italy, Quelli Erano Giorni In France, Le temps Des Fleurs

The UK and the USA had the B-side, "Turn! Turn! Turn!" which was written by Pete Seeger (but largely taken from the book of Ecclesiastes), which had been a U.S. #1 hit for The Byrds.

I bought my first 45 in the 5th grade, it was Wedding Bell Blues by the 5th Dimension.

"Hey, Baby" by Bruce Channel