Before yer muvver was born...

Mum's mum nearly went into opera when a girl in Glasgow, and sang — in a strange thin, pure rather beautiful way — almost to the day she died, aged 95. She also had many musical boxes, with sentimental popsongs from the teens on them, names I forget and you won't know (OK, Marcello might).
Mum's dad was a capable pianist (his borther gave professional concerts for a while, but gave it up to be a doctor). Liked "proper" music.
Dad's mum: I have no idea. She liked Berlioz's L'Enfance du Christ, which I never have. A very clever, difficult, judgmental woman, massive intellectual snob.
Dad's dad: loved OKLAHOMA! His favourite song was "She's Just a Girl Who Can't Say No'. Dad heard it on TV at Xmas, and burst into tears (his dad died in 1976; I don't believe he actually likes the song).

can't remember names, but here goes: Sweet bands, Honky tonk and country (yeehaw!)... They also played in a few local dances - but often mentioned that their fiddler was excrutiatingly terrible.

All I know is that my mother's mother was a huge Elvis fan--obsessive- -and she dragged my little future mother along and made her listen.

Whatever was big in Madras in the 30's and 40's, I'm guessing. Not that I have any idea what that is. My grandmother is a big Phil Collins fan now though.

2 of my grandparents were utterly non-musical. The other two were very musical, my dad's mum even trained to be a concert piannist before being stranded in the backwaters of Africa. She used to play the concertina, and then later, she had a hammond type organ installed in her house. She used to play lots of old Tin Pan Alley type stuff, which amused me greatly when I was a wee dot. The only song I can actually recall was "Alley Cat" which I made her teach me how to play because I liked the way she made the organ went "MEOW!" on certain bits.

My grandmother (father's side) LOVED motown. Simply LOVED it. My grandparents (on mom's side) only dug classical muzak and jazz. Pop ''n' rock was for them the devil's work.

Mother's dad: most musical-minded, but basically liked anything that wore a cardigan, eg. Perry Como, Percy Faith, Nat King Cole/Belafonte. Musicals, bigstyle. Simon and Garfunkel. He thought Prince was cooler than Michael Jackson in the '80s. Would let me play tapes in his climate-controlled talking Lincoln Continental, even stuff like New Order and The Smiths as was really curious about all the stuff I liked.

Mother's mum was non compos mentis so I guess the Mantovani records were for her.

Dad's parents (the fashionista and the martinet): classical, Bing Crosby, all Rat Pack, Streisand, Neil Diamond, film soundtracks, musicals. My grandmother liked disco. My dad was into blues and rockabilly, except for Johnny Cash this set their teeth on edge.

I'm a very late child of a very late child. My grandparents on my father's side were actually born in 1878 and 1882. It seems odd to be connected to the 19th century in such a direct way. I can imagine my paternal grandparents listening to Sousa marches at parades, those very thick early Edison phonographs of numbers like "Alexander's Ragtime Band," and to popular ballads via player pianos. Jazz must have come as a shock to them, and I've often regretted not playing some punk rock to my grandmother before she died in 1980, but since I was terrified of such an old lady, I never dared.

Motherside: Bluegrass music. But sung in french with frequent breakdowns into reels and jigs. Fatherside: My grandmother thought it was a sin if you talked during Lawrence Welk. My grandfather new better then to try to mess with her.

My dad's mom listens to Janis Joplin. My mom's mom listens to like Barbra Streisand and Sinatra. I never knew my dad's dad, he could listen to Slayer for all I know. My mom's dad liked novelty songs, Tie Me Kangaroo Down and that sort of thing.

I liked "Tie Me Kangaroo Down" too. Maybe I'm your grandpa.

My father's parents died when I was young, so I don't know first hand, but I surmise that they liked the sort of music that Toscanini liked and that they considered other forms of music illegitimate.

I knew my mother's parents well, yet I cannot recall them ever listening to the radio or even owning a record player, much less playing records. They may well have; I just don't remember. I knew what my Grandma Julie didn't like - actually, everyone within earshot knew what Grandma Julie didn't like, which included far more than just modern music. Anyway, Grandma Julie did not like rock 'n' roll, did not like much youth culture from 1955 onwards (though she did find The Graduate hilarious, esp. Hoffman's way of walking sideways into rooms). When my mom was a little girl, Julie would take her to see Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy movies; also, Julie and my mother adored the 1930s movie version of The Mikado, so I assume that operetta and parodies of operetta were favorites. When as a teenager in the 1960s I brought home Billie Holiday records, my mom was familiar with all the old songs by Gershwin et al., and I can assume that she and her mom would have liked many of the show tunes and pop tunes of the Kern, Porter, Rodgers, Gershwin era. My mom tells me that when she was real little, in the 1920s, her parents would make her and her older sister Joan do a song and dance for company to "Me and My Shadow," Joan standing in front and my mother popping out from behind her as her shadow. She also says that Julie would claim to have, as a little girl (this would be about 1900), followed Salvation Army or other proselytizers around Brooklyn and Manhattan as they sang "Stand up! Stand up for Jesus!" and, as the song faded, would pipe forth with "For Christ's sake, sit down!"

I don't know Grandpa Harry's favorites, but I always imagine him as the sort of guy who would sing "Yes, sir, that's my baby" and "Standing on the corner watching all the girls go by."

"would pipe forth" should be "piped forth."

Frank's got it almost right. The maternal grandparents did in fact own a record player (before 33 rpm LPs were produced) and had the original cast recording of Oklahoma and South Pacific, something like four large discs each. I believe I currently own these heirlooms. Grandma liked the Mills Brothers, too, and unless I am greatly mistaken, did occasionally watch Lawrence Welk on TV.

Did Frank fail to mention the paternal grandparents? Fully classical/serious, and nothing but. I imagine Il Barbieri de Sevilla was too frivolous for my grandmother's taste. Her two sons (my father and uncle) studied violin and piano, respectively, and my father became quite proficient. I now possess the piano. I am told that the main reason that classical music was not on as constant background music in my grandparents' house (unlike my parents') was Grandma's belief that serious music should be taken seriously. If one intended to play Brahms 4th Symphony, for example, one was supposed to sit down and listen to it, straight through -- not read or wash dishes or eat dinner at the same time. Hmmm.

As far as I know, every piece of music any one of my four Grandparents liked, I like as well, and a lot more, besides.

My grandfather on my fathers side was an extremly conserative man. With one exception. He gobbled jazz. Not the glenn miller shit either. Brubek, Monk, Bird, Late Davis, Sun Ra , Ornette Coleman , Ar mstrong, Jelly Roll Morton. Plus all the vocalists . This man was a construction exectuive who worked late hours at the office. A martini lunch , golf with th eboys, white collar 50s kind of fellow.
His wife was obsessed with classical but the odd stuff. Saint Saens, Richard Strauss, Schnittke, Lourie plus everything maria callas every sang.
My mothers parents did not listen to music at all.

Revive! Because of the recent Mom's taste vs. Dad's taste thread, and because it's Grandma's birthday, and because I'm bored & wistful on a lazy Friday afternoon when half the staff's gone home early.

Dad's parents were UTTERLY unmusical -- had no recorded music in the house, nor any means of playing it. No instruments, either. They did play the radio, primarily for the weather and farm market reports, I suppose. The same grandparents did give me a Fleetwood Mac LP one time for my birthday (Mystery To Me - they'd found it a t the dime store), and Grandma gave me a Buddy Holly cassette that they acquired in a box of junk at an auction.

The maternals had a hi-fi and were regular watchers of the Lawrence Welk show and Hee-Haw on teevee. Grandma Iva loved Bing Crosby. Among her few records was a Zenith/Columbia sampler with some Bob Dylan songs and a Dusty In Memphis album -- she let me have both of those. She would let me use the record player when I came over, and once wanted to hear the album I was listening to -- Talking Heads '77. She gave it a polite listen for a song or two, and remarked that the singer sounded funny.

More stories of musical interactions with the Grandparents, please! Especially if (unimaginable to me) you're young enough that Gran & Gramps were into the rock-n-roll sounds.

In some strange lyrical mix up, i thought this thread would somehow involve "La Di Da Di". Disappointment ensued.

Well, Grandma did used to put the bubbles in the tub so I could have a bubble bath...

my grandpa didn't have any musical tastes that i know of. my grandma played piano and gave lessons. she had some sort of certificate from a piano teachers' school. she liked light classical and judy garland and, later, lloyd webber. show tunes above all, i believe. that's mostly what she would play for me on the piano. and "malaguena." and hanukkah and other jewish songs. i think her tastes were fairly typical for her time and place; in no way was she aggressive in her tastes. i once played her "sittin' on the dock of the bay" and she said "sounds like a good new orleans record." once i had marvin gaye's what's going on playing in the car and she wanted me to turn it off. she didn't like rock music. i miss her.

Since I am your parent's age in most cases, I will go from there. My folks went dancing most saturday evenings. I assume they must have enjoyed swing and waltzes. My dad's father was a trumpet player in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. (circa 1890-1910) My dad loved polkas and and burlesque bands. My mom, a church organist, went for the standards of the day and could pick out a tune by ear very well.

As a kid during the British Invasion, dad had no interest in what I was listening to. Mom, would shout to me, upstairs, that the Beatles, or whoever was on at the time, were on The Ed Sullivan Show and maybe I ought to take a look at this. She also bought me my first guitar.

I don't remember my grandmother singing or talking about old songs very much, but I do remember she liked to sing, "Hey good lookin'" which I only learned much later is a Hank Williams song.

I remember that she liked "One Way or Another" by Blondie too (not that that was from her generation).

I remember my grandfather (the husband of grandmother above) watching Lawrence Welk.

(I don't have any memories of my father's parents, who died when I was quite young.)

My grandmother has a pretty singing voice. One day my sister and I visited her to find that she had "accidentally" (well, she does have alzheimers) taken a songbook full of old standards from some sort of senior singing group. We listened to her sing "my way" and "when irish eyes are smiling" in her thick french/egyptian accent. Really endearing. I also remember her telling me what a nice song "imagine" was before I'd ever heard it.

My mother's late father used to play the mandolin. I also clearly remember this time I was driving with him when I was about 10 years old. I put in a beatles tape (early stuff) and he grimaced called it noise. His car tape collection consisted mostly of French crooners and a couple of Pet Shop Boys tapes.