What were the FIRST SINGLES and ALBUMS (and tapes) you GOT/BOUGHT/were gifted/won in your younger musical life ??

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first singles that the family had included Carpenters "Little Grass Shack", Jackson 5 "ABC", John Denver "Country Roads", Planet of the Apes storybook comic with narration record

first albums that the family/Mom had (among Broadway soundtracks; Andy Williams; Perry Como; Sinatra; etc.)
included an errant copy of Rubber Soul, to which my aunt gave us her Meet the Beatles; Haunted House record

Mom also had cassettes of Red and Blue Beatles compilations and Rolling Stones Exile on Mainstreet

first albums I picked out to buy included K=Tel compilations Loony Tunes; Goofy Greats; Mindbender; 24 Great Truck Driving Songs;
24 Great Tearjerkers; Dance Machine; as well as Fonzie's Favorites; Who Are You

first albums I bought myself included Wings _ Back to the Egg; Billy Joel _ 52nd Street; Cheap Trick at Budakon;
The Cars and Candy-O and Panorama; Clash _ London Calling; Blondie _ Parallel Lines and Eat to the Beat;
The Babys _ Head First; DEVO _ Duty Now for the Future and Freedom of Choice; The Jam _ All Mod Cons;
Van Halen I & II on 8-tracks; The Police _ Zenyatta Mondatta on cassette

first singles I bought myself included "I Want You to Want Me" by Cheap Trick; "Train in Vain" by The Clash; "Pop Muzik" by M;
"Come Back" by J. Geils Band; "One Way or Another" by Blondie

and for junior high graduation, someone gave me a .38 Special album

won Journey's Departure LP from Circus magazine giveaway

wax tadpole, Monday, 16 November 2009 18:26 (fifteen years ago) link

and also bought KinKs Low Budget and One for the Road

wax tadpole, Monday, 16 November 2009 18:29 (fifteen years ago) link

hehe, looks like we're the same age. I used to rock out to the Fonzie's Favorites 8-track on my 2-XL

first 'real' music LPs were from a neighbor's garage sale when I was five - picked out Big Brother's Cheap Thrills and Rolling Stones Through the Past, Darkly for their covers. The music was way over my head and didn't really play on my mono kiddie record player. Both blew my mind a few years later.

purchased:
very first rock LPs: The Beatles - Live at the Hollywood Bowl, Sgt. Peppers, Beatles Red
8-tracks: Beatles Blue, KISS - Destroyer, Rock'n'Roll Over, Styx - The Grand Illusion, Van Halen II
singles: The Knack "My Sharona", Lipps Inc. "Funkytown", Chic "Freak Out", Sugarhill Gang "Rapper's Delight" (full 12inch)
LPs: KISS - The Originals, Double Platinum, Styx - Pieces of Eight, Cheap Trick - Budokan, DEVO - Q: Are We Not Men, B-52s

probably my very first album that I chose myself was this fucking monstrosity:

http://i637.photobucket.com/albums/uu92/damien_stone/Sounds-To-Make-You-Shiver-764297.jpg

which still brutal and imprinted records as being Portals to Another Place in my wee little noggin

black lightning light (herb albert), Monday, 16 November 2009 19:10 (fifteen years ago) link

red and blue Beatles records came first. then the radio.

first bought with own money = The Wall, 2nd was The Cars 1st.

I never really bought singles until I got into punk, 1979 wasn't exactly the height of the 45. I did lap up every gothy British 12" I could find though, probably starting with Siouxsie.

sleeve, Monday, 16 November 2009 19:19 (fifteen years ago) link

http://media.sheknows.com/filter/l/gallery/the_best_of_michael_jackson_cover.jpg

-- bought from the scholastic record club, maybe around 1982? 1983?

figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Monday, 16 November 2009 20:07 (fifteen years ago) link

my first store-bought cassette:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9a/He%27s_the_DJ.jpg

figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Monday, 16 November 2009 20:08 (fifteen years ago) link

(i didn't get a CD player until ca. 1993.)

figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Monday, 16 November 2009 20:08 (fifteen years ago) link

i bought exactly 3 records before all the stores turned to tapes and cds
Top Gun Soundtrack
Bon Jovi- Slippery When Wet
Run DMC- Raising Hell
or had my mom buy them, i should say. i was 7. Those were all 1986.
I think the first tape I had was Look What the Cat Dragged In by Poison.

mizzell, Monday, 16 November 2009 20:30 (fifteen years ago) link

Someone gave us that Star Wars record for Christmas, and I was --embarrassed---. Now I wish I had it. What a moron I was. Anyway, I just finally got a bunch of Fifth Dimension from emusic to replace my LPs, which were favorites of mine. I bought 45s all the time and my grandfather had a jukebox and used to give us old 45s, many of them rock and pop hits. I didn't buy any LPs until I was about 10 or 11.

yellow eyes, so help me god, HE HAD YELLOW EYES! (u s steel), Monday, 16 November 2009 21:12 (fifteen years ago) link

First LP I got given that I can remember was K-Tel style compilation 20 Solid Gold Hits vol.3 which had T-Rex's The Slider on it - got it for my birthday. First record I bought with my own money was the 7" of Rod Stewart's You're in my heart, followed by 10CC's Dreadlock Holiday (still got 'em both). First record I won was the 7" of the Dr Who theme from the BBC Radiophonic workshhop - won it in a colouring competition! - still got that too. First LP I remember buying with my own money was the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack (tho I think I may have split the cost with my brother.)

Bill E, Monday, 16 November 2009 22:54 (fifteen years ago) link

snap, amateurist!

funereal sneezeguard (gnarly sceptre), Monday, 16 November 2009 23:19 (fifteen years ago) link

Blondie "Rapture" 7" (b-side Walk Like Me) from the TGY

sarahel, Monday, 16 November 2009 23:20 (fifteen years ago) link

snap, amateurist!

huh?

figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Monday, 16 November 2009 23:29 (fifteen years ago) link

tapes: inxs, ub40, simon & garfunkel
CD: stone temple pilots -- purple
soul asylum -- let your dim light shine

69, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 00:26 (fifteen years ago) link

The first single I ever bought with my own money was either Blondie "Call Me" or Lipps, Inc. "Funkytown"

I forget which one was first but it was definitely one of those two. I bought them when they came out, so whichever one was chronologically first I guess. I *think* it was probably the Blondie. I still have both of those 7"s too. I remember being OBSESSED with "Call Me", I would play it over and over and over again.... much to the dismay of my parents, probably

The first LP I ever owned was Men At Work's 'Business As Usual'. I asked for it -- and received it -- as a Christmas present whatever year it came out

Stormy Davis, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 03:17 (fifteen years ago) link

the first 10" I ever owned was likely "Perfect Sound Forever", ha

Stormy Davis, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 03:19 (fifteen years ago) link

my parents had shitty musical taste but I distinctly remember the day they brought home the 'Saturday Night Fever' soundtrack. that thing was in constant rotation at our home for months...

Stormy Davis, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 03:21 (fifteen years ago) link

first single was "convoy" by c.w. mccall.
first album was the white album.

were gifted

think u mean "were given."

armed with swords and hash (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 08:31 (fifteen years ago) link

yeah, given, thanks

"Convoy" was also on that K-Tel Mindbender comp.

yeah, Stormy, "Call Me" might've been the peak of Blondie's singles run as it hit right at the tail-end
of their Eat to the Beat run, but before the obvious (but nevertheless chart-topping) decline in verve of Auto American

"Funkytown" was a total Skateland roller-jam too

first 10" records I bought were Cheap Trick's Found All The Parts EP (an odd follow-up to Dream Police LP)
and Black Market Clash, both part of Epic Records' "Nu-Disc" campaign to make the 10" a palatable format
(it is a great medium format), and then some little live Bowie tenner ... way later came Pave Sound Forever
and a used copy of The Fall's Slates

sleeve-o, yeah The Wall was a huge touchstone, but my friends' bought the single and double album, so I put it off until later

black lighter, Thru the Past Darkly had the diamond-y/octagonal die-cut-shaped cover sleeve, right?

Cheap Thrills was one of those weirdo (pun) album cover that I would see in National Record Mart and think,
"Hmm, that's funky weird-lookin'," that along with that nudie-ish Blind Faith album cover

I borrowed KISS _ Double Platinum on 8-track from friend

another friend bought The Knack stuff up through "Baby Talks Dirty" single (which probably pushed it with radio programmers)
so I held off, but later got their under-rated largely unheard "But the Little Girls Understand ..." LP

which bring us to The Records "Starry Eyes" single which was another early one I bought,
a great little Beatles' '64-esque power-popper that managed to get leaked through the dialed airwaves

oh, also bought the B-52's "Rock Lobster" single after seeing them on Saturday Night Live

I was intending to buy Are We Not Men after seeing DEVO on SNL too, to get the songs "Uncontrollable Urge" and "Jocko Homo,"
but kind of bought Duty Now by mistake, so you can imagine how that screwed with my musical head/mind, so I was all ready
for when Freedom of Choice hit, with that four song performance on that Fridays televison show on ABC, not to forget seeing
The Clash and The Jam and Boomtown Rats on Fridays too

as well as "Cars" by Gary Numan, also seen on SNL

and seeing that Elvis Costello & Attractions commercial for Get Happy! during SNL, 20 HITS! 20 HITS!

other friend had Rapper's Delight 12" and the kids at school were rapping it on the playground, but didn't do the falsetto "Say what?"
part for some reason

friend's older brothers would get all anti-disco when "Le Freak" came on the radio when we were playing basketball,
but I thought it was groovy

black lightning, we might've been the second-to-last generation to get that really great crossover mix of pop radio styles
which included rock, disco/soul/r&b, country, pop pop, ballady whatever, new wave (as well as awkward pop trying to be new wave),
oddball ("Fifth of Beethoven," "Music Box Dancer," "Devil Went Down to Georgia," "Nadia's Theme" and yes, "Disco Duck") wonder-hits,

before everyone, programmers/DJ's/listeners, got all hard-ass and insular/exclusionary/ about what they would play/listen to

we were also the sorta last generation to rollerskate whole-heartedly at the roller rink maybe

I also remember a friend getting Van Halen's "Cradle Will Rock" single and thinking it was too dark, so I kinda faded on =VH=
but later got around to realizing that Women & Children First and Fair Warning were the second set peak of =VH=
then later in high school my girl friends were grooving to Diver Down, and I was like, wtf ?

but yeah, a chicken in every pot and the Saturday Night Fever and Grease soundtracks in every family home stereo
and some Village People too

p.s. Fonzie's Favorites was/is actually a very well-rounded '50's comp. (Everly Brothers "Bird Dog"; "Since I Don't Have You";
"Silhouettes on the Shade"; Lee Dorsey's "Ya-ya"; "Heart and Soul"; "Lonely Teardrops"; forgot what else, can you remember ?
besides "Splish Splash" ?

wax tadpole, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 09:31 (fifteen years ago) link

sorry amateurist... just meant my first album was also He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper. Used to listen on a walkman in bed, and Nightmare on my Street gave me the willies when the beatbox dude did the Freddie impression.

Before that, I had a couple of cassingles my Tom Petty and the B-52s.

And I remember playing hockey on the street to AC/DC's the Razor's Edge.

funereal sneezeguard (gnarly sceptre), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 10:52 (fifteen years ago) link

other early albums were Queen - News of the World ("We Will Rock You", big robot on the cover) and The Wall ("We Don't Need No Education" was our 4th grade Anthem), which I didn't like/get as a kid beyond the hits. The Beatles and KISS made great kids music, Roger Waters not so much. I also had the single of "Bohemian Rhapsody". My friend's house had SatNightFever and Bee Gees and Grease.

and oh yeah, I saved allowance and bought the Bee Gees/Frampton Sgt Peppers soundtrack on 8-track and it sucked, was so disappointed that I bought the real Sgt Peppers on LP ("Lucy in Sky w/ Diamonds" was on the Blue comp and my favorite song so I needed the whole album).

black lightning light (herb albert), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 16:37 (fifteen years ago) link

Used to listen on a walkman in bed, and Nightmare on my Street gave me the willies when the beatbox dude did the Freddie impression.

― funereal sneezeguard (gnarly sceptre), Tuesday, November 17, 2009 10:52 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

OMG TOTAL SAMES re: ready rock c

69, Tuesday, 17 November 2009 19:43 (fifteen years ago) link

First tape bought: Please Hammer Don't Hurt Em
First CD bought: some Mannheim Steamroller thing

guammls (QE II), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 19:47 (fifteen years ago) link

First single bought with own money: Cliff Richard & The Young Ones – Living Doll (the 12” Disco Funk Get Up Get Down Go To The Lavatory Mix) – I was too young to have actually watched the program, so it must have just been because I knew it was comedy. I subsequently taped the final episode from a run of repeats, and it remained my only exposure for a couple of years.

First cassette bought with own money: a compilation of Bond themes that turned out to be cheesy synthesiser cover versions. FUK U AMERICA

zing touch me I'm (sic), Tuesday, 17 November 2009 22:40 (fifteen years ago) link


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