I don't remember much, but I remember......

Nice thred Tireguy. In the late '50s, my two year older sister had pretty much commandeered my folks Zenith 45 RPM record player, and she bought Gene Vincent's "Be Bop A lula". I couldn'd get enough of that song, and have loved R&R ever since. And we had 45s of Buddy Holly, Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, The Everly Brothers etc. If you be livin', you gotta' have rhythm.

Fast forward to early 90's, and the "post-Bose" era. I was wandering around the music/electronics section of a Fred Meyer Dept. store in Coos Bay, Oregon. They had nothing but CDs-- no LPs, and I was totally fascinated by the silences within the music compared to cheap LP systems. Well, I bought a $250. JVC boombox that played CDs, and half a dozen CDs, one of which was Anne Murray's "Christmas Wishes". I now have a $40K+ digital based stereo system, but every year at Christmas time we still play the Anne Murray CD for hours at a time. It's a beautifully done CD. And BTW, for portable use, we still use the old JVC. Cheers. Craig

The first record I ever bought -- a 45-rpm -- was Elvis Presley's "You Ain't Nothing But A Hounddog", which I probably acquired in 1956 or early 1957. The first 33-rpm LP I got (in 1958) was "Dave Brubeck at Storyville", a Columbia release from Brubeck's club appearance at Storyville in Boston. I still have both of these recordings, and from time-to-time I haul them out when I'm feeling nostalgic (read: old).

Great thread Tim Tireguy; what a response too!
The first record I ever bought was in 1963, a Veejay 45 - Beatles "She Loves You" got it at an old TV repair shop in Riverside for about 89 cents; I guess I was age 9 or 10. I remember being scared to bring it home because dad hated those "longhaired commies" so I could only play it on the family's Zenith portable when no one else was around. One day I forgot to hide it & then mom noticed it on the turntable (yikes) she wasn't too upset, but said that I'd better keep it hidden from dad or I'd get myself killed. I recall eventually being found out somehow, but there were no actual consequences contrary to mom's dire predictions. Apparently I converted them somehow because a few years later they bought me "A Hard Days Night" LP as a birthday gift & I was thrilled; still have that one, although it hasn't been played in eons.

As a pre-teen kid I liked Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Elvis, Richie Valens, the Supremes, but I don't think I bought anything before the British invasion, and then I'm pretty sure it was the first lp released by the Dave Clark Five, followed by the Rolling Stones.

Then again, maybe it was The Singing Nun (my mother may have had something to with that one).

My first lp was Jimmy Hendrix's "Are You Experienced?" I purchased when it was just out and I was pre-puberty. I probably had to mow about 3 lawns to afford it. I actually had my father, an Episcopal priest, listen to the whole album with me. (His was the only stereo in the house, and it was in the living room.) Neither my father, nor I, had any idea what Jimmy was meaning. I also had him listen sometime later to Alice Cooper's lp "No More Mr. Nice Guy." What a sport, he thought it was pretty clever...come to think of it, I don't remember us sitting down together after that. [:)]

I am pretty sure my first 78 was either the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back," or the theme from the TV show "Hawaii Five-0."

I did not own a cd player until 1994. I am pretty sure I bought "Dark Side of the Moon" first because I am basically politically correct about most things.

Charlie