What is the first album you purchased, and do you still have it?
My record collection is my passion. I started buying albums when I was in 9th grade. I was hooked. I don;t think I missed a weekend visit to the local record shop in the mall from the time I was 16 until I graduated college. I still own those albums that I took so much care to choose..Just wondering if anyone else holds such memories dear and are sentimentally holding on to their old albums. I still play them and enjoy them every bit as much as I did back in the day. And my first album was Elton John...Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Sometimes I look at the covers and think, I have listened to these so much, I am jaded. But I put them on and enjoy them as much as I ever did.
"No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun...."
10 years old, and the panic begins....
Had been listening to Sabbath Paranoid since age 6-7. War Pigs, was probably my favorite song along with Iron Man, since I was into comics. Being 7.... Iron Man was, honestly, the bigger deal. Oh yeah, Johnny Cash, Folsom Prison was a lot of fun too, even at age 7.
Like Jim said "This is the strangest life I've ever known". Not quite, but warming up to it... Perhaps I'd better flip it, cook it on the other side a bit.... Do that too often, though, and it remains uncooked and frozen in the middle.
First album was the Byrds' Turn, Turn, Turn when I was 12 as it had just come out and I finally had talked my dad into letting me play rock 'n' roll on the record player.
In reading these posts and seeing so many who like I, saved their first albums, I wondered...what else did I save? What other objects held such esteem? I have a handful of old toys, a few books, but music holds a special place in my heart.
I really have enjoyed reading these posts. I spent some time this evening flipping through my older albums and listened to a few. Amazing how I can still remember where I bought some of them, how old I was, etc. Great music therapy memories!!!
Some really great albums listed above, folks - Animals, Iron Butterfly, Pink Floyd, Goldfinger soundtrack, Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass!!
For me, the first LP I purchased (as opposed to inherited from my father upon his early passing) was the DCC pressing of Eagles Hotel California, which is still a reference LP for me.
My first I actually had five first albums, bought at a McCrory’s in York, PA back on 1965. I only still have one, the 4 Seasons’ Dawn album, and it still sounds as clean as it did back during it’s first play.
Great first album, tostadosunidos! All Summer Long was the first album I truly loved, my favorite of 1964. I wasn't yet sold on The Beatles, and gave my ticket to their '64 Cow Palace show to my mom, who went with my sisters. That summer I went to my first live show, The Beach Boys at The San Jose Civic Auditorium.
Only one year later Dylan played there, backed by The Hawks (later The Band, of course). You KNOW I wish I had gone to that show! I later made music with two guys who had gone, mighty hip for a 15 year old and a 13 year old (he was put ahead two grades in school. Smartest guy I have ever known. Great songwriter, too. He's dead now, but I have the tapes we recorded in 74-5, one of my prized possessions).
You are all so young. I have to reference a 78 recording of Vaughn Monroe singing Ghost Riders in the Sky. I must have been 6 or 7 years old. Wish I still had it. The other day at a ranch campfire when some folks were singing western songs someone in their 30s actually referenced that recording. It is a true classic.
Decembers Children (MONO) - Rolling Stones (purchased Dec. 1965 - paid $2.79)Still my favorite Stones album along with "Aftermath" and "Out of Our Heads".Stopped buying Stones albums after Brian Jones death.Check out Brian Jones pic on the cover of "Between The Buttons" - totally wasted!
My parents had a console stereo in the living room. I had 3 older sisters and I listened to their records. But the first record I bought, with my own money, came when I was in Junior High School.
Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band - "Bongo Rock" - I've listened to this record several hundred times. Was a passing fade back in the day. But their version of "Apache", from this album, became the most sampled song ever.
Still have it and still listen to it about once a year.
I guess I've blocked-out part of my childhood. I got my TT in high school, but my parents had a large console record player. So my first record was "Meet the Beatles." It was kept in the built-in record holders with my parents' Perry Como and Ray Conniff singers. Lost it long ago.
Can’t remember what came first. Either The Beatles “The Beatles” or CCR Green River. Bought the The Beatles LP with 11th birthday money at Ted’s Records & Hobbies in Montréal. Sold it with all the rest of my 900 discs about ten years ago. What an idiot to not keep a few of the great ones. Listening to the 50th anniversary edition on Tidal these last couple of weeks. Incredible detail. I miss the physical properties of the vinyl but am very happy with the ease and quality of hi-res streaming.
"All Summer Long," The Beach Boys. I still have it but I'd be afraid to play it for fear of damaging my stylus. I'm sure it was abused in the first few years of its existence. I have some of the tracks on CD and still listen to them occasionally.
I made fun of @jond for not having a TT, but I didn’t have one until high school. In JHS I had a Panasonic tape recorder, first tape I bought was the Ventures "Walk Don’t Run." I loved surf music, even wore a surfer’s cross.
The first LP I bought was The Moody Blues "Every Good Boy..." Had to get it since the track "Procession" blew me away.
Jan and Dean, Little Old Lady From Pasadena. Before that only 75's. Extremely limited record collection meant you played your music many times over, strange to think playing the same songs over and over could be so entertaining. Doubtful I still have that album, bad tt's meant I ruined most of my old vinyl.
Pink Floyd - The Wall bought in West Germany when it was released and still have it. Still has the clear vinyl sticker of the album title on the cover.
The year was 1964 and I was 9 years old when I got the Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass album, South of the Border. I played that album over and over. It was part of the reason (probably a big part) of why I became a trumpet player! I selected his song "Spanish Flea" to play for the non-technical part of my tryout used to select ranking in the 11th grade, high school concert band. Along with my other skills, it got me 1st chair, 1st trumpet that year! In addition, I played in the marching band, jazz band and even in the pit band for the high school musicals. It was a great start to a side profession. I am sure it is why I have such an interest in all types of audio equipment and have since then to this very day! I still have the album, although it is heavily worn, and I can even play every single track in order, in my head at any time. College was a big turning point for me, I had to choose between what I hoped would be a career as a professional musician or an electronics engineer. My parents said I should get "a real job" and become an electronics engineer and not become just another struggling musician. It took years for me to realize, I could do both! I still listen to Herb Alpert (both the old and new music) and saw him live in concert at The American Music Theatre in Lancaster County, Pa., along with his wife Lani Hall (from Sergio Mendez and Brazil '66 fame) just a few years back.
Now for laughs, I will throw in a very strange a quirky musical side tale. Maynard Ferguson, another famous trumpet player and idol of mine (you might be seeing a pattern here) was giving a concert in the Reading, Pa. area many years back. I was at that concert. He fell and injured his foot. Long story short, they took him to a local doctor's office to have his foot x-rayed. The x-ray technician who photographed his foot, was the girl friend (soon to be future wife) of my good friend and office mate from AT&T, where we both worked at the time. I tried to get that x-ray (who wouldn't want such a quirky souvenir of a famous trumpet player?), but her ethics were admirably high and it never happened. Ha!
45....
Association-Windy LP....either Blue Cheer-Vincebus Eruptum or MC5-Kick Out The Jams. Bought them around the same time. Don’t have them anymore...
Deep Purple In Rock. Bought with lawn mowing money. With my father sending me reel to reels from overseas(he was in the Air Force) I found I liked the Deep Purple stuff he was sending me so I took a chance on In Rock. Didn't like it but still have it from over 50 years ago. I was very lucky to have a father who also sent me the Stones, Creedence, Santana, and so much more.
Sting, "Dream of the Blue Turtles". I was 10 years old. Still have it and play it every now and then. Side note - a few years later I lend it to a friend, who gave it back with the inner liner notes page all wrinkled. Ever since I do not lend any album or CD to anyone.
Billy - Billy Fury circa 1963 - bought when I was 10 - I still have it and it was played to death. Not sure why my parents allowed me to play it 10 times over in any one sitting escapes me! That's all I had - so had to make do. The only comment my mother made was when she looked at the cover and remarked on his funny tooth. So no musical connection with her there. I also used to go around record shops and listen to different versions of classical recordings. I remember being so frustrated regarding Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto until I came across a 99p version by Szeryng - and loved it and still have it too. With the help of ebay I have duplicated the same lps which have suffered less abuse, so I have a better listening experience of childhood days. Parents are strange people. I have always loved the Beatles music, but my father said he could not stand them, When asked why he replied .. "Because they have long hair". Well I suppose that is one way of judging music"!
Pink Floyd, "Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" mono vinyl and I still have it. I purchased it from Muffets Music in Providence, RI because they sold import records.... I believe that was in 1966 or 67.
Rubber Soul (U.S. version) Still have it and it still sounds great (my old Shure tracked at 1g and now I have a line contact stylus at 1.7, so my guess is that the groove depth that the stylus travels now was never touched in my youth) Probably my favorite album of all time. Is it because it was my first or because there is not a bad note on the album? I think more the latter. As for the OP's favorite GYBR. Still have that. In my top 20 of all time I'm sure.
@lowrider57 well my parents had one which I used but by the time I really became interested in music all my friends had tapedecks and starting to get CD players. And I got a TT later in life Rega P3 but never loved it.
I didn't have a turntable as a kid, my parents had one, and got into tapes in my early teens, mostly Dead bootlegs. So my first album would have to be the first CD I bought, which I bought with no CD player to play it on. "Standard Time: The Resolution of Romance" Wynton Marsalis.
I wasn't even really into jazz at that point but the wine shop I worked in sold off some CDs for $1 each so I bought it. Great album and got me heavily into jazz and I still have it.
@roberjerman- I think Goldfinger was my first album purchase too! For the same reason- saw the movie in the theatre as a kid. Shirley Bassey wailing " Gold Fffff-inga!" Love it. Don’t have my copy either. Alas.
"Wheatfield Soul"The Guess Who1969My original copy mysteriously disappeared from my collection sometime in the mid to late seventies.There's an idea for a thread...."LPs gone missing." I keep a list somewhere of the departed which numbers around fifteen or so. I've replaced some, others are still missed. Sniff.
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