What is the first piece of music you ever owned?

For some reason I actually remember my first record purchase. It was a 45 rpm called "Yellow River". I googled it and discovered it was sung by Elton John and released in 1970 (http://www.eltonography.com/songs/yellow_river.html)

My first classical music record was Bach--Toccata And Fugue. I would lay on my back with my head in front of my parent's tubed stereo console. Talk about near-field--I was 12" from the speakers, but I remember it sounding powerful and musical. Those were simpler days.

Gawd but I'm going to sound old talking about this (well, I am I guess ). The first music I personally owned were 45 records back around 1960 (I was in junior high when I discovered girls, and therefore dancing, and therefor music). We're talking Elvis and Johnny Cash, and dances like the stroll and (sigh) the twist.

But even before that, my dad had some 33 1/3 lp's that I considered mine, as I was the only one that listened to them. (We had this cheapo turntable that looked like a mini suitcase, with a latch for the top and each of the speakers on the side.) I can remember a fairly eclectic music selection even then. There was at least one by Elvis (his 'greatest hits' from about 1958 no less) and one by Johnny Cash (I still remember his rendition of "Rock Island Line"). I remember an LP that had "In the Hall of the Mountan King" from the "Pier Gynt Suite", one that had the entire "Grand Canyon Suite", and I fell in love with Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue". I loved those records.

You know, I hadn't thought about that in years. I couldn't have been more than 12 when I was listening to these at night while my dad was working a swing shift (there was just the two of us). Thanks, Tom, for prompting those memories.

First album my parents ever bought me was the Monkee's - can't remember the titles, there were two of them.

First album I ever bought for myself was Creedence Clearwater Revival "Cosmos Factory" and a week or so later Neil Young "Harvest". Still have them both...

Grease, on tape. Played it over and over on my portable tape player (you know, the one with the speaker built-in) until the damn thing ate the tape! I believe that was the first piece of portable electronics that fell out of my hand, against the wall, and into pieces on the floor. A few walkmans followed, for the same reasons, over the years. Learning how to fix those things was probably what landed me in engineering school, and the rest is history.

First CD, Led Zeppelin II. Not the best example of CD clarity, but it was the only Zeppelin CD they had at the time!

The First 2 LP's that I bought with my money were:

Harry Belafonte and Miriam Makeba - An evening with Belafonte/Makeba
Abba - Arrival

the first CD: Jean-MIchel Jarre, Rendez-Vous.

of course I still have them all...

Cherian said:

Not proud of this however, I was only 11.

Donny and Marie Going Coconuts cassette.

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I'm going to spread this news like wildfire...

And I'm going to have you play it next time we have a Chicago meet!

Joey

"Weird Al" Yankovic - "Bad Hair Day"

Probably 45s of Jan & Dean or Ricky Nelson. I would need to get out the Vitalis or Brylcreem to adjust my hair before spinning them again though.
Probably most of the people here aren't old enough to know of these products.

I Fear, I will Date Myself...

Tom,

Well, the first music I remember owning (1960) was my sister and my set of Walt Disney 12" (33.3) LP's of: Snow White, Peter Pan, Cinderella, Pinocio, Dumbo, Bambi... Mom & Dad bought for us. The LP cover folded open and you could follow the story in several pages of words / pictures, while the songs and story played... Fond memories for me... I still have some of these LP's. The only LP's I absolutely refused to give away. I could only find one actual photo of those early Walt Disney LP records, we listened to ~ Snow White...

The first rock song I remember owning was a 45 ~ record of Hayley Mills - Lets Get Together. I can't remember what was on the flip side of the 45. It was only two of her songs though, again the early 1960's...

8-track tape: Ohio Players-Honey;

Vinyl: Earth, Wind & Fire-That's the Way of the World;

CD: Miles Davis-Kind of Blue;

SACD: Diana Krall-(I'm blanking on the title at the moment);

DVD Audio: Grover Washington-Winelight;

iTunes download purchase: David Sanborn-Voyeur.

Zero said:

"Weird Al" Yankovic - "Bad Hair Day"

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I have that one somewhere

The Santa song still cracks me up.

My first LP: Led Zepplin II
First CD: Dark Side of the Moon
First Mobile Sound Fidelity Half Speed Master Recoding (LP): Dark Side of the Moon
Most often purchased LP: Dark Side of the Moon: 5 (Don't ask how I wore out the album covers too ;-)

silver98 said:

Most often purchased LP: Dark Side of the Moon: 5 (Don't ask how I wore out the album covers too ;-)

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Sorry gotta ask.
Were we using them to roll some herbs on, or to cut some snow on?

theWB said:

Sorry gotta ask.
Were we using them to roll some herbs on, or to cut some snow on?

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uh...., I can not recall, Senator...

When I first saw this, I thought there was no way I could remember my first piece of music, but it just occured to me. I'd had access to a lot of stuff... cassettes, 8-tracks (Olivia Newton-John Physical, the source of much pontification for a middle-schooler ), vinyl (C.W. McCall, Spike Jones), but the first piece I legitimately *owned* (and still do) was Styx Grand Illusion LP that my bro-in-law gave me. Weird.

CHEAP THRILLS - BIG BROTHER AND THE HOLDING CO. I bought this just for the cover art, I had never even heard of them before. It was on vinyl and had just been released for the first time. I actually saved up my school lunch money to buy it. I still love this record even today.

After I posted that I thought my first music was Kiss Love Gun, I realized that was my first album, but not my first music. I had a little portable cassette player when I was like 9 or 10 and I had the sound track from The Sting movie. That would be my first piece of music...

My latest is Hoobastank "Every Man for Himself" CD got it today. I heard a little bit of them on HDNet the other day and was intrigued so I looked them up on iTunes. Bought an older CD (can you say that when you purchase on iTunes?) on iTunes and then this one at Wal-Mart today... NICE! Kind of Rock/Alt, I like their sound.

Pcar928fan said:

I had a little portable cassette player when I was like 9 or 10 and I had the sound track from The Sting movie. That would be my first piece of music...

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Oh, man, you are so right! I totally forgot my very first piece of music. I know it came with more records than this, but all I can remember are Au Clair de la Lune, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Hickory Dickory Dock, and Edelweiss

MotorToad said:

Oh, man, you are so right! I totally forgot my very first piece of music. I know it came with more records than this, but all I can remember are Au Clair de la Lune, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Hickory Dickory Dock, and Edelweiss

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I think my little brother had one of those...I know I have seen one somewhere, but I know I never had one... that is CRAZY!

MotorToad said:

Oh, man, you are so right! I totally forgot my very first piece of music. I know it came with more records than this, but all I can remember are Au Clair de la Lune, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Hickory Dickory Dock, and Edelweiss

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Yup, I had this too.