Earliest pop memories

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

What is the first pop record of which you had any sentient knowledge whatsoever? How do you feel when you hear it now as an adult?

For me it's "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep". Am I wrong in thinking this tune has a kind of naive charm? The Lush cover was crap, mind.

Apropos of not a hell of a lot though, I discovered I was no longer in the first flush of yoof when a girl I worked with told me "Going Underground" was No 1 when she was born. Jeez.

― Venga, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

When I was about 4 or 5, I had something called 'Hits For Kids' on two cassettes with a clown on the front cover, which I think was a motorway garage type compilation. It had Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep on it, as well as We All Stand Together, In The Land Of Make Believe, Goodbye Sam Hello Samantha, Hang On Sloopy, Stand And Deliver... I'm sure it had a naive charm at the time and my brother and I would be singing along in the backseat; I honestly don't know what I'd think if I heard it today.

But in fact my first pop record was probably the Postman Pat soundtrack, which not only had the theme song on it but a song about all of the people in Postman Pat, including Jess the cat. Now that was classic.

― John Davey, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Not only first SONG but first LINE I am aware of being aware of - "Is it any wonder I'll reject you first" - David Bowie "Fame". No idea what that meant, still don't, but now I'm old enough to realize that searching for meaning in Bowie songs is a pointless exercise.

― dave q, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Possibly a Bernard Cribbins flexi-disc.

― the pinefox, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It was Marc Bolan on Top of the Pops, I don't rememeber the song, but I remember a shiney girl riding a motorcycle being involved. I could not have been more than a toddler when I saw it, but it made me excited then, and T.Rex makes me feel very young and excited now.

― Kate the Saint, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have vague, very early memories of dancing around the living room hearing, "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah...."

― Lyra, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Johnny Cash. The prison special. Also Simon and Garfunkel on trips to hospital.

― suzy, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'll show my age with my earliest pop obsessions: "Fascination," by the Human League, "If I Had a Photograph of You," by A Flock of Seagulls, and "We Got the Beat." All of these circa age 4, if I'm getting the dates right.

― Nitsuh, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Similar to Lyra: I remember my brothers and I tormenting my older sister every time she entered a room by screaming "Yeah Yeah Yeah" at the top of our lungs. I don't think we knew what song the words came from, it just sounded like the perfect way to annoy my bossy big sis.

― Arthur, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Up Up and Away by the 5th Dimension, while sitting on cold vinyl seats in the back seat of a Valiant. I think this may have stuck out in my head so much because I went to a Hot Air Balloon Festival around this time.

Also, 'Jumping Jack Flash' because the Igor always danced to this on 'The Hilarious House of Frightenstein'

'Born Free' and 'Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head' are permantly imbedded in the emotion response part of my brain. That poor Lioness! That poor guy getting rained on!

― Alan Hunt, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

mel and kim, "respectable". my first record at the age of 6. another stock aitken and waterman hit, in a year of some truly classic generic pop, the majority of which is well good, and often featured ace synth basslines (billy ocean: the going gets tough?)

― ambrose, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My earliest pop memory would be of my sister playing her "Material Girl" 7" on the home stereo and her pushing me to dance to it with her. I remember how I used to stare at the sleeve in complete wonderment, with Madonna dressed up in so many piles of jewelry, looking like she was from another planet.

― JC, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My earliest pop memory is seeing the video for Dancing In The Street and thinking that Mick Jagger and David Bowie were in their pyjamas well, I was only four, it's night time in the video, Jagger's wearing a kind of turquoise tracksuit thing and Bowie's wearing a kind of leopard print cat suit and a long coat which I took to be his dressing gown - you see, it all makes sense.

― jamesmichaelward, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My earliest pop memory is thinking pop music was rubbish because Showaddywaddy and Suzi Quattro kept popping up and ruining Saturday morning TV.

― Nick, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Bob Dylan , the live album was played when i was 5 or 6 .

― anthony, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Micheal Jackson's Thiller. That evil video, scared the crap out of me, had nightmares of zombies breaking through my walls. Before that my only knowledge of music was AC/DC, Iron Madien and Judas Priest that my brothers played at the time. It all sounded like noise, I couldn't hear anything, just some guy screaming in a leather jacket...

― zacko, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sgt. Pepper, Jim Croce Alabama Rain, Freeze Frame, all 45 s an d LP. I used to listen to then after I would swim. I remeber

― Mike Hanle y, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

gorillaz - 'clint eastwood'

― ethan, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Billy Ocean invented glitch, you know. Remember the chopped-up vocal during the bridge of "Caribbean Queen?" I think Thom Yorke said that was a big influence on Kid A, too -- he was listening to a lot of Billy Ocean, Klymaxx, and New Shoes at the time.

Plus: what a cool name. Billy Ocean.

― Nitsuh, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

In a recent interview the RZA admitted to being obsessed w/Billy Ocean. Of course I don't remember the reason; it probably went "60, 360, chess board, the circle of life, nahmean?"

"I Love a Rainy Night" by Eddie Rabbit, definitely. Ma and Pa singing along in kitchen: must be good!

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'd completely forgotten: before the abovementioned stuff I was pretty taken with Eddie Rabbit as well. I think around the same period I liked "Jessie's Girl."

― Nitsuh, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Earliest pop memory for me is sitting in our kitchen eating toast while 'Yellow Submarine' played on the wireless, I must have been 3 or 4.

Sheesh! What is it with my life & bloody Beatles songs? On the conception number 1's thread, my conception & birth were celebrated with the Fab 4 at number 1. Maybe that's why it took me 35 years to actually buy a Beatles LP. Still, I guess being born mid-1960's, chances are that you were going to hear the Beatles, even in lil' ol' NZ.

― Bill E, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My ealiest pop memory is dancing like crazy to Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary"; I was probably about 3. Where this record came from, I have no idea, since my parents weren't into rock and roll.

Then follows a long gap, but then I remember at age 7 or 8 seeing a clip on TV of Ike and Tina doing "Proud Mary" and being hypnotised by the wild beat, fast dancing, and the editing of the clip: go-go boots! Tina's hair! The fringe on the back-up chicks' dresses!

Ike and Tina's version still makes me feel very excited and happy when I hear it.

― Sean, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Do You Know The Way To San Jose, aged about four, maybe?

Rediscovered Bacharach when I was about 17 or 18, to my delight.

― Nick Southall, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

'Hyperactive' Thomas Dolby and 'Eat It' Weird Al Yankovic.

Curiously, I'd say I appreciate these records far more than the first ones that I ever bought for myself (The Beatles? ugh, what was I thinking?)

― emil.y, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ernie(the fastest milkman in the west) by benny Hill UK #1 1972. I feel much the same way as I did when I first heard it i.e gutted by the pathos and drama in it.

― Billy Dods, Thursday, 26 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

either the inevitable beatles or Zager & Evans' "In the Year 2525". yoiks.

― pauls00, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Billy Dods, you speak a great and important truth. "Ernie" is a heartstopper.

"Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" has a profound early resonance for me too - something about that line "Where's your mamma gone? Far, far away...". Both this and Nilsson's "Without You" featured heavily in terrifying separated-from-parents-unable-to-speak dreams when I was a pre-schooler. Possibly for this reason, they still pack a disproportionately heavy emotional punch.

Other than that: Lt. Pigeon's "Mouldy Old Dough" and Alice Cooper's "School's Out" still sit somewhere in my head, framed with tinny TOTP applause and truncated Tony Blackburn enthusiasms.

― Michael Jones, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

In a recent interview the RZA admitted to being obsessed w/Billy Ocean.
Will Oldham took his Madonna obsession a bit too far when he broke into Bernhard's place.

― nathalie, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mine was The Human League's "Don't You Want Me". I was, god, like five at the time. I even had the 7" from which the astral swoon of "Seconds" covered side B. Phenomenal music.....If only the bulk of their output measured up! The heroic - albeit camp - classicism of the "Dare" album encapsulates what was unique and/or special about music of this period. I find it funny as fuck that the beginning of my conscious years coincided with this era of "cocaine, shoulder pads and power-dressing"(as artist/pundit Momus affectionately summed it up). Although I took it for granted then, it is truly bizzare and interesting in retrospect. Maybe this sounds glib, or I'm not giving populist American taste enough cedit (yeah, right...) but it begs the question: If the Brits hadn't been the pioneers of the music video format, how would such effete, self-consciously European minor-key music ever have touched the U.S. pop charts, let alone, breifly dominate them? How do I feel about it as an adult? I adore and collect the stuff. Although the period served up more than its fair share of trite shit, the early League, the early Eurythmics, Visage's "Fade to Grey", proto-80's Kraftwerk's "The Model" and Giorgio Moroder's "The Chase", to name a representative few, are classical dance/pop par excellance. If only the original era had more stamina, and there were more songs of this caliber. They're "ice masquerading as fire", they're about working your 9 to 5 job, going home, and going to the stage - a fetishized projection of power relationships, class , and fantasy that fuels dreams. We don't really have aspirations of upward mobility, were just content to dream about them and ocassionally act them out in our bedrooms at 3:00 AM.

― Tom Fischer - closet New Romantic, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Do They Know It's Christmas" being played at a church service in Swanscombe, Kent in December 1984, when I was 4 years 4 months. My mum tells me that she donated money to the miners' fund at this service, though I can't remember this bit.

― Robin Carmody, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

slyly announcing your pending birthday.

― keith, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

If only I were younger and have some kind of cool 'eighties memory, too--but mine was witnessing my three older sisters in their communion dresses, strumming "Blowin' In The Wind" to my grandfather's guitar.

― X. Y. Zedd, Sunday, 29 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Erm, yes, though it wasn't meant that way :). 23rd August, FWIW ...

― Robin Carmody, Monday, 30 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.