Eddy Arnold
June Christy
Charlie Byrd
That woman with whipped cream all over body
Show tunes — Annie Get Your Gun, Guys and Dolls, Camelot.
I began thinking about my parents’ records when I learned that “the Bride” had won a guitar signed by Jo Dee Messina. [http://secretdead.blogspot.com/2005/10/another-crushing-defeat-in-war-against.html] I like country music and feel sorry for those who don’t, although I’d have to put Messina in the guilty pleasure camp. But then I remembered how much I disliked my father’s Eddy Arnold records when I was young. Would that change if I were to hear them now? Did I dislike them because they were my parents’ records? The thing is, we’ve heard 106.5, the mainstream pop station, coming out of The Kid’s room. In a household where it’s very, very hard to develop a musical taste that someone doesn’t share, he may have hit on it. “We took you to see the Wild Magnolias! You’ve been backstage at a Springsteen concert! Your uncle is in a cutting edge band! [http://www.deadmeadow.com/] ARE YOU TRYING TO SHAME US?”
Then again, I loved the show tunes, particularly Annie Get Your Gun. One of my earliest memories involves lying on the floor with a green plastic car that had come on the top of the peanut butter jar, running it across the molding and singing along with Ethel Merman on “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better.” Do with that what you will.
It’s long been my observation that men are far more likely than women to remember the first album they ever purchased. But I remember the first “LP” whose cover obsessed me — not that whipped cream woman, but Camelot, which opened up like a book, with at least a half-dozen color photographs inside. Richard Burton, Julie Andrews and Robert Goulet. There also was a picture of a sheep dog. Rumor has it that the sheep dog once defecated on stage. Could there be a better story in the world when one is 8 years old?
Stories, please, of records. Yes, records, LPs, albums. The first you bought, the first you coveted, the cover that obsessed you.
Chris DeBurgh is awful?! Perhaps I should not mention that Don’t Pay The Ferryman is on my I-pod.
I think first concerts would be interesting. Mine was the worst, but I was a little girl, and we were at the State Fair, and my bests friend’s big sister HAD to take us if she wanted to go..I am proud to say I saw LEIF GARRETT in concert back in his Tigerbeat Days.
First concerts? Well, when I was nine, I read in the newspaper that Sonny and Cher would be appearing at a rally for Nelson Rockefeller. My saintly mother actually took us downtown, but Sonny and Cher never showed up. Rockefeller did, but I was blase about politicians. (I met LBJ when I was 4 because my dad was in the White House press corps.)
(C’mon, after that confession, how can anyone be embarrassed?)
Concerts are hard for me, as I don’t like crowds. I prefer midsize venues, speaking of which:
THE MOST AWESOME CONCERT IN THE WORLD IS GOING TO BE HELD IN BALTIMORE NOV. 1ST FOR KATRINA RELIEF. The Iguanas, the Subdudes, Rebirth and someone I’m forgetting.
P.S. Anyone who grew up listening to Louis Prima and it wasn’t on The Jungle Book soundtrack — now those are some cool parents.
We also had the “First Family” album. Plus a deck of playing cards, in which all the face cards were Kennedys, Shrivers, etc.
Parents – my parents had great taste, I think and I still think well of the music I grew up lstening to – and they were LPs though my folks still had some of the older heavier records – 78s. Our record player – I think it was in one of those humongo consoles (for those of my age group) had 3 settings for 33s, 45s and 78s. I remember classical (in these sorts of boxes, maybe tehre were several discs per box?) show tunes, and lots of varieties of jazz. Some Dixieland, which was okay, lots of Brubeck (I still love “Take Five” but now when I hear it, I see Ilya Kulik in that SHIRT, skating to it). Belafonte – my mom and I BOTH have crushes on him – Sarah Vaughn, Ella, Nina Simone. Show tunes but NOT Annie Get Your Gun; I were more Rogers and Hart, Rogers and Hammerstein than Berlin. I think. But The King and I, South Pacific, My Fair Lady. I still know every word.
Comedy albums too – that WONDERFUL Vaughn Meader album, oh yeah (“The PT boat….is MINE”) Cosby, Gary Moore (Elsie the Glow Worm who tried to glow plaid), Danny Kaye (Manic Depressive Pictures presents “Hello, Fresno, Goodbye!”).
I don’t recall my first albums but they were $3.33 at Korvette’s I think. I had a little box to hold my 45s which I cringe to remember. I recall liking lots of British Invasion – from Gerry and the Pacemakers to Chad and Jeremy, but not what I owned. What I STILL HAVE? Lots of records follwed me around, and I have yet to replace – Jeffereson Airplane (the early years, no Starship), Janis – okay I DID buy a 3 disc set of Joplin – Big Brother (the Crumb cover), Kozmic Blues and Pearl), Kris Kristofferson, Peter,Paul and Mary.
Listening to a CD last night I realized I probably have a major collection of obscure women artists. I’ve probably got the biggest collection of CDs and albums featuring Laurie Lewis than anyone on earth.
Jackie Kennedy: “And over there is a little BITTY picture….”
Records. I had thousands of ‘em. Here’s some albums I picked up in the late 60′s early 70′s because I liked the cover and at the time knew little, if anything, about the band.
King Crimson: ‘Court Of The Crimson King.’ It’s still one of my faves.
Black Sabbath: ‘Paranoid.’ Includes “War Pigs” “Iron Man” and “Planet Caravan.” Diversity.
Genesis:’Trespass’ Their first album. Brilliant.
Iggy and the Stooges. Ok, I bought this because I liked their name. Two great tracks though, ’1969′ and ‘ I Want To Be Your Dog.’ Their 2nd album, ‘Funhouse,’ had a better cover and both records had to be played at maximum volume.
The MC5: “Kick out the jams motherf*#*#!! “
Kiss [their first album]: A guilty pleasure.
Miles Davis: ‘Bitches Brew.’ I found it inaccessible and frustrating. An old copy of his ‘Birth Of The Cool’ made up for it.
Cream. ‘Disraeli Gears’ I remember saying they were more musically talented than local heroes ‘Grand Funk Railroad.’ Sacrilege![But some G.F.R. stuff still holds up pretty well.]
Jethro Tull: ‘Aqualung ‘ First time I ever used the word ‘juxtaposition’ in a sentence.
Jeez, I could go on forever…
–john–
Parent’s records:
Whipped Cream Lady, of course
Zorba the Greek
Black Orpheus
Lester Lanin Goes to College
Leontyne Price doing Madame Butterfly, Callas as Carmen
Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water
The Soviet Army Chorus and Band
The Weavers at Carnegie Hall
Donovan’s Sunshine Superman
Grateful Dead’s Skull and Roses double album
Joan Baez’s Gracias a la Vida
The Dukes of Dixieland
The first comedy LP we kids memorized was “Bert and I,” Marshall Dodge and Robert Bryan masquerading as a couple of old Mainers:
Summer person who has just screeched to a halt in fancy sports car: Which way to East Millanoket?
Local dude: Don’tcha move a goddamn inch.
First record I ever bought myself was the soundtrack for The Sting, second was a K-Tel album of Beach Boys songs sung by a cheesy cover band.
Most recent concert I attended was CSNY at the Oakland Coliseum last year, with my sister Freya. We both wept the entire time and stupidly forgot to bring Kleenex.
My first concert was the Allman Brothers back in 1998. My favorite concert was Pearl Jam at PNC Bank Arts Center in 2003. My dad has a whole bunch of old Stones, Beatles, and records of that ilk.
For years I didn’t know that the Doors had originally performed “Light My Fire” because my parents had the Jose Feliciano version. How unhip was that. The first album that I bought was a Jackson 5 (when Michael was still cute and not creepy) and my first concert was John Denver at the New Haven Coliseum in 1973. Now that’s embarrassing.
Oh ye gods, Karen; I might have been AT that concert too. BLUSH (ok, one of Andi’s true guilty pleasures. I LIKED John Denver.)
Omigod, it’s a nightmare of vinyl! The whipped cream lady is now the ONLY album cover I can see (of course we had it). As well as Perry Como, Jack Jones, Henry Mancini (and his orchestra)..the Peter Gunn theme WAS pretty cool. The best of the best was all of the big band stuff they had…Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, Glenn Miller. They tried valiently to teach me to jitterbug in the living room, but alas, it wasn’t until Arthur Murray that I was finally able to master the swing.
Comedy albums, yes, the Vaughn Meader first family. And Bill Cosby. Some guy I wasn’t allowed to listen to, because he was too “blue”. Later, older siblings brought Cheech and Chong in, as well as Dylan, Creedence Clearwater, CSN&Y.
First bought 45s of course. First album? Probably The Beatles…or god forbid, The Monkees.
My mom always cranked up music in our house when we were little, and we’d be the ones asking her to turn it down- how funny. She liked Fleetwood Mac the Tusk album (I don’t know if the album was called that but that’s the song I remember). Steely Dan, Steve Miller, Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin…we also had the box with the handle on top of 45s with various artists, I wish we still had them.
The first record album that came to my mind when I was first reading this subject was the Rolling Stone one with the zipper on the cover that you could zip, or Led Zepplin’s Houses of the Holy. Covers you could play with, CD’s just dont have the same flair.
My first album was Grease given to me by “Santa” and then I thought I was so cool to buy Olivia Newton John’s Totally Hot album. The second one I bought myself was either the 45 single of Another One Bites the Dust by Queen or Tattoo You by the Rolling Stones.
“…back in 1998.”
This phrase just made me feel really old. Thanks, Dave. Thaks VERY MUCH.
“P.S. Anyone who grew up listening to Louis Prima and it wasn’t on The Jungle Book soundtrack — now those are some cool parents.”
Yeah, the first time I heard David Lee Roth do “Just a Gigolo” I thought Prima had re-recorded it and went “man, that is just sad…”
The first record I bought was REM Out of Time, I think that’s the one with Losing My Religion on it. Then I went through a stage of liking utter crap… and now… I just buy stuff I enjoy without worrying too much about it.
First concert: Queen, the JAZZ tour, December 1977. I was a sophomore in high school. Live music became a passion right away.
My first album was Billy Joel’s 52ND STREET, which I bought because it had the theme from “Bosom Buddies” on it (“My Life”). It was full of references that confused me (“Dom Perignon in your hand, and a spoon up your nose”), but I wore that LP into the ground. And one song, “Stiletto,” was the inspiration for the murder mystery plot in my first novel.
And for the record, I don’t dislike all country music. Just most of the stuff The Bride inflicts upon our children.
Let me set the record straight: I don’t inflict anything on our children, Duane Swierczynski! We love to listen and sing along with just about every country song we hear. Too bad you don’t like to join in… and Laura, I have to agree that men seem to remember their first record purchase better than women. I can’t remember the first one I bought, or I’m too ashamed to admit that it was probably a Barbra Streisand album, thanks to my own mother’s taste in music. The first country album I ever bought was definitely Faith Hill. She was my first introduction to country music and I still love her! I’m going to pick up that guitar tomorrow and I can’t wait to see Parker’s face when he sees it for the first time!
Eeek. The ‘whipped cream’ album? I own it and it’s not inherited. (… this is a tad embarrassing, to say the least) Herb Alpert’s ‘Whipped Cream and Other Delights.” Just looked, it’s from 1965. Laura, this link’s for you http://music.msn.com/album/?album=42341029&affid=100003#
Cannot recall the very first album I purchased – pretty sure it was early one by Elvis and, of course, it was all vinyl way back then. However, the first ‘collection’ I put together by any particular artist were the recordings of Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66. EQUINOX is still one of my favorites, though now I listen to it on cd. Remember that group? Laura’s parents probably were fans of theirs too, I’d wager.
[Chove chuva, constant is the rain...] Brazilian lite.
Oh, and now that I think of it, Herb Alpert married the SM &B’66 lead singer, Lani Hall. Good trivial pursuit question that..
My folks had a lot of stuff that would now be regarded as Retro Lounge: Martin Denny, Louis Prima, that sort of thing. Talk about what goes around coming around. They also had an original pressing of “James Brown Live at the Apollo” which I really liked (When I came home from my first year of college, I found that they had sold it at a yard sale for 25 cents. I could have strangled them). My absolute favorites though, the ones I played the gooves out of, were two comedy records: “A Child’s Garden of Freberg” by satirist Stan Freberg, which contained the classic “Dragnet” parody “St. George and the Dragonet”, and Andy Griffith’s “Just for Laughs” which contained his signature “What It Was, Was Football.” Oh, and Laura, my Mom had the Camelot soundtrack, too.
Later, they had a bunch of stuff on 8-track. My favorite of those was CSNY’s “Deja Vu,” followed by a compilation called “The Big Hits Now” which had Joe Tex singing “Skinny Legs and All” and the Temptations singing “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone.” Great stuff.
The first album I ever bought was “Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy” by The Who. From the first chords of “I Can’t Explain”, I was hooked. Finally, I realized, someone else knew what it was like to be a frustrated horny teenager. The next milestone was Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks” which I played over and over, mesmerized by the poetry and that, ah, unique voice. “Idiot Wind” was my anthem for a while there, and I obsessed over the enigmatic stories of “Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts” and “Tangled Up in Blue”, where the parts left out of the narrative seemed to mean more than the bits left in.
A few years later, it was Springsteen’s “Born to Run” for many of the same reasons, plus I was living in a town full of losers and really wanting to be able to say I was “pullin’ out of there to win.”
Parents’ records:
Hedva and David
Zero Mostel Sings Israeli Folk Songs
Fiddler on the Roof
A Cal Tjader album
The Wiz
1001 Strings
And the whipped cream album
We had a Smokey the Bear LP, and my sister played the same two Shaun Cassidy and Barry Manilow albums every morning for 962 years. My first LP purchases were Bill Cosby albums, which I memorized, word by word by inflection, and recited at school. 5th grade or 6th, I’m not sure which.
My first listening experience on my first Walkman was Al DiMeola, <i>Sequencer</i>. Walter Reed Junior High. I remember my bandmate trying it out during lunch in the quad, and saying, “Wow, it’s like everybody’s boppin’ to Al DiMeola.”
A few months ago when I got in iPod for my birthday, I bought the same album at iTunes and had the same experience walking to the subway in Queens. The first time in a long time that music plays inside your head, with no change in the stereo field when you move, is a transcendental experience.
Which has since passed.
Yeah, my parents had the whipped cream lady LP, but what I liked best of theirs was a comedy album, <a href=”http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00001ZT1M/002-4792770-7659233?v=glance”>Vaughn Meader’s The First Family</a>, a spoof of the Kennedy White House. Of course I didn’t get the jokes but my parents and their friends used to just scream while drinking daquiris and listening to this record in the rathskeller (that’s what my dad called our wood-paneled basement), so I figured it had to be something I shouldn’t know about.
First LP I bought? Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John. I had to save up — it was a double album that cost $8.00!
I was raised by hippies, so actually they had a pretty cool record selection when I was little. The ones I remember most is Jesus Christ Superstar, and The Smothers Brothers Comedy albums. I listened to The Smothers Brothers all the time, and to this day can recite the album almost word for word, and I still think they are HILARIOUS. My boss and I went to see them in concert and I was giddy!
The first record I bought on my own was Billy Idol’s self titled, I just thought he was the hottest thing EVER, and it was not long before he covered my bedroom walls. It was also an IMPORT. I saw Billy in concert in Feb, and well even though he looks like 20 miles of bad road, I still loved him.
I saw Liz Phair last week, I am going to see Henry Rollins tonight, Veruca Salt Next week, and Aimee Mann the week after..I don’t go to concerts often – I see a years worth in one month.
Oh yeah! Jesus Christ Superstar and Smothers Brothers. Us too. And Tom Lehrer.
We don’t talk about my parents’ records. They had truly awful, awful taste. As in Cliff Richard awful. Or in my mum’s case, Chris “The Mono-browed Purveyor Of Ultimate Filth” de Burgh awful.
The first record (well, cassette) I ever bought was Black Sabbath’s last album with Ozzy, ‘Never Say Die’. Good, too.
My parents hated it.
Not my first, but the most memorable was Chet Baker. I was madly in love with him. I’d prop his album up and lip synch to Dinah Washington while I stared adoringly at that bedeviled face.
Ah, Laura-what memories your posts unearth!
I listened (and memroized with inflection) the Bill Cosby comedy albums, too, but they belonged to my parents.
<i>
“Noah!”
“What?”
“How long can you tread water?”
</i>
The first album I bought was TOMMY – THE WHO. I now have it on CD, and I can still sing along while playing air guitar or air drums, depending on the song.
I also bought two BEACH BOYS collections the same week.
You know, Laura, if you really want this to get interesting, let’s talk about the first five (six, seven…) 45 singles we bought. I’m not going to be the first to reveal — mine are really awful. And I still like some of the songs.
My mom had a collection of .45s from the 1950s. The Crickets, Everly Borthers etc. I still know all the words to “Bird Dog”. She also had some showtunes, including the music from Camelot.
My first LP? Led Zeppelin II. Over the next couple years, I bought the whole Zep collection on vinyl. A few years later I joined the Army. I came home after my hitch to find that my younger brother had lost LZ II while I was away. Bastard. I showed him. I swiped his Kiss Alive II album as compensation. Not exactly an even trade, but it was a better than grabbing his Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.
My parents didn’t own any albums. Well, mostly didn’t own any albums. My dad had one that featured a southern gospel song he had written but that was about it. I didn’t own any music until high school really. I got The Beach Boys “I Get Around” from some people at church for my birthday but the first tape I bought for myself was Alan Jackson’s “Lot About Living and a Little ‘bought Love.” The first CD I bought was DC Talk’s Jesus Freak. Over the years I’ve never amassed a huge cd collection. I think the most I’ve ever had at one time was sixty and most of thoseh have been sold off for cash over the last year.
I periodically overhaul my collection and sell off about half of it and buy new stuff. A couple of times I tried jumping on the contemporary Christian bandwagon during these overhauls but that never lasted. I like rock too much. The most coveted CD I ever wanted was the Metallica S&M disc. I loved the idea of blencing classical music which I loved with rock music which I loved. And then there’s the show tunes…
My first concert was DC waaaaaaaaay back when I was in junior high but the first real concert I went to was Elton John and Billy Joel in 1994 I think. The best concert I’ve ever been to was the Summer Sanitarium Tour a couple of years ago.
Ooh, lots of memories with this one. I also saw John Denver in 1973, in Austin, with my husband and my friend that I now go to Bouchercon with.
First album was Meet the Beatles, but first 45 was “I Get Around” by the Beach Boys”
First concert was Herb Alpert in 1968 with youth group, and one of our group got up and started clapping in the middle of that song that had the long pause in it. He’s the same guy that also quoted that Noah thing from Cosby.
Don’t remember my parents listening to their albums, but they had show tunes and Glenn Miller also.
El Syd: So much music and so many years for collecting. Who’s to say? It all started with a 45 rpm record of “Mule Train” by Frankie Laine in 1949……..
June: He didn’t mention that he went on to collect eight different variations of that song. I can sing along with you, Laura, to “Anything You Can Do…”. I grew up hearing all the Broadway show albums, as well as Al Jolson records. Is there anyone out there except for us who knew “Bluebird of Happiness” by the opera singer Jan Peerce?
Sorry John S that I wasn’t clear. I meant the guy from the youth group was quoting that Noah thing.
All the comedy that people mentioned here, my parents watched on TV. I remember watching the Smothers Brothers with them. Saw them on tour several months ago and they were still really funny.
June:I’m surprised that no one has mentioned hearing parents play Frank Sinatra albums. His career covered such a long span.
Before her marriage, my mother was executive secretary of Capitol Records’ distribution department from 1961 through 1964 — so she had an amazing collection, including all of the Beatles’ and Beach Boys’ early stuff, the Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall records, and a lot of jazz and folk (her favorite). I wore those records out as a pre-teen, and shudder to think how much they’d be worth now.
First record I bought with my own money: Billy Joel’s THE STRANGER. I think my twin sister still has it.
I bought my first album on my first music shoping spree. It was Paul Simon’s first solo album (the one that had Me & Julio and Mother and Child Reunion). I had ten bucks and spent the rest on singles: Bang a Gong (T. Rex), American Pie, Stay With Me (the Faces) and I can’t remember the two other singles I bought.
The first album/CD I ever received or owned was Mariah Carey’s Musicbox. Of course, I hesitate to mention that I received that for Christmas, along with a new CD player, and one other CD…
oh gosh. do I dare? yeah why not.
Michael Bolton – Soul Provider.
GAH.
How’d I miss this till now? Anyway, my parents’ house is a veritable treasure trove of LPs. My dad was an obsessed audiophile (quadrophonic! 4-track! Record players that don’t work properly anymore!) and would make trips to New York in the 1960s specifically to scour the record shops. Oh man. So aside from all the usual classical music stuff (although Georg Solti’s stereo version of The Ring Cycle remained unopened until my brother got curious about it in high school) and volumes upon volumes of original cast albums of broadway musicals — famous and obscure — there were the comedy records.
Allan Sherman. Bob Newhart. Spike Jones (who my dad got to see live, lucky bastard). Wayne & Shuster. Homer & Jethro. That weird-ass Japanese girl singing cowboy music really, really badly. Old-time radio of Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Fibber McGee & Molly, Baby Snooks, and many more. And Stan Freberg (“Television” may be dated, but it’s still funny, and I heard his parody version of “Hearbreak Hotel” YEARS before the real one, so I still sometimes believe that “ow!!! ripped muh jeans…3rd pair today!” is what Elvis originally sang.)
And for whatever reason I was obsessed with Harry Belafonte. Probably because the woman always is smarter.
First album bought? Uh…Madonna’s self-titled album. God knows why. But I liked NKOTB for about 2 seconds at the same time, too.
And one last thing to point out: can you imagine a world where both Bob Newhart and Allan Sherman had #1 selling albums in the country? Because that was the early 1960s, and this just could not be possible now.
Lois said: <i>” First concert was Herb Alpert in 1968 with youth group, and one of our group got up and started clapping in the middle of that song that had the long pause in it. <b>He’s the same guy that also quoted that Noah thing from Cosby.</b>” </i>
Um, perhaps you have me confused with someone else? I don’t think I was at that concert. I was only five at the time.
)
Oh, did I forget concerts? I’m not that damned old. I mean, we had them in my day too. So I guess I’ll have to confess to seeing Elvis at the old Oakland Coliseum when I was a senior in high school. Frankly, my dears, I wasn’t impressed. I mean, come on-who the hell lays on the floor and sings?
Jesus, I feel so old. I was 14 when I bought my first album, Meet the Beatles. That was 1964 and probably 15,000 albums ago. I still play vinyl but my collection is down to around 300-400, mostly jazz and blues I bought in the 70′s when radio began to suck something awful. Last night I had Mingus and Bill Evans on the turntable.
The only record I remember my parents owning was The Pajama Game.
First concert? Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.
First concert date? Tommy James and the Shondells.
First concert where someone passed me a joint? Captain Beefheart.
Shortest concert? John Prime, early 70′s, fell off the stage before he’d played a single note. (I’ve seen Prine 3 times and have never heard him sing a complete song.)
Sentimental favorites? Hendrix and Joplin in ’69.
Best concert? The Stones in ’72 (?) with Nicky Hopkins on keys, Ry Cooder on mandolin and Stevie Wonder as the opening act.
Most recent concert? Dave Childers and the New Modern Don Juans. They’re great. Check ‘em out.
My folks didn’t listen to a lot of music, but they did have the Smothers Brothers, Trini Lopez, the Kingston Trio, Bobby Darin, and the lady whose name I can’t remember who did “Tennessee Waltz” and “How Much Is That Doggie In The Window”. My sisters and I listened to them on our old hi-fi while cleaning house.
The first LP I owned was Meet the Beatles, although that was a gift, not a purchase. First records bought were 45′s, and I was into the usual teeny-bopper idols of the time: David Cassidy and Bobby Sherman, but also some Elvis. I don’t remember the first LP I bought, but it would have been either CSN or Peter, Paul and Mary, I think. Loved Jesus Christ, Superstar (and still do). I liked John Denver up to and including Rocky Mountain High (yes, I saw that concert), but not the stuff he did after that. My first concert was CSN in SF, I think (all the big concerts were in either SF, Oakland, or Berkeley at the time).
We have fun in my house these days over the fact that my husband (the librarian metal-head) and daughter (who likes alternative and punk) bond over “that music that Mom can’t stand”; my listening these days tends to be confined to women singer/songwriters, ambient stuff, show tunes, and some classical.
My parents had a rather odd collection: Mel Torme, Allan Sherman, Gordon Lightfoot, Roger Whittaker, Nana Mouskouri, Liona Boyd, and an astonishing number of James Last cassettes. I still love the Torme and the Lightfoot. I feel a bit of nostalgia about the Sherman and the Last. The rest have dropped out of my consciousness.
I don’t have a particularly vivid memory of my first record purchase. I do remember a couple of K-Tel compilations that I listened to over and over again. I think one of them was called “K-Tel Sound Explosion.” I remember the first concert vivdly right down to the outfit I wore. It was Cheap Trick touring to promote whatever album that “I Want You to Want Me” is on. I wore white denim bell bottoms and a blue satin shirt. Have I dated myself?
The first album I ever owned was an Antal Dorati (Minneapolis Symphony) version of the 1812 Overature (my mother gave it to me as a gift). The first rock record I purchased was Meet The Beatles. I bought it on my school playground, as it was not yet in stores.
We had what many others here of a certain vintage did too: Tom Lehrer, Vaughan Meader, the Smothers Brothers, lots of Weavers. Burl Ives.
And also something that no one else has mentioned, unless I missed it: a bright and chirpy quartet (I think)singing songs of science for the newly dawned Space Age. So infernally catchy that I still remember some of the songs forty years later.
“The sun is a mass
of incandescent gas,
A gigantic nuclear furnace,
Where hydrogen is changed into helium
at a temperature of millions of degrees.
The sun is hot.
The sun is not
A place for you and me….”
Memorable, I think you’ll agree.
Joe
Oh, and like Dave, my first real concert (not including the Leonard Bernstein Young People’s Concerts that my mom dragged me to) was the Allman Brothers Band.
But in 1972, not 1998! At the long-since-vanished New York Academy of Music.
I think the opening act was Commader Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen.
No worries, Lois. It was my misunderstanding.
Laura, you are definitely not close to the top of the age spectrum on this subject. Remember, Syd bought his first 45 rpm in 1949 and never looked back, collecting from Alpert to Zappa, with classic,comedy, and country inbetween.
Until the last handful of years, he kept up with music as it developed into what it is today. Now, he keeps trying to replace 56 years on CD’s, as much of this music has been reissued. And all of it is here!
Don’t get too comfortable with CD’s. We have collected through 78′s, 33′s, 45′s, 8-track tapes, and now CD’s.
For Kerry…Patti Page did the recordings she mentioned: Tennessee Waltz and How Much Is That Doggie In The Window.
I think this is now the most popular thread ever posted to The Memory Project — who knew?
Over at Sarah’s site (www.sarahweinman.com), Otis Twelve even tracked down the identity of the whipped-cream model — and found out that she was actually slathered in shaving cream.
And while I’m not thrilled to be near the top end of the age spectrum here, I think it’s pretty cool that the contributors to date range from Christin, who’s never bought a real album, to those of us who purchased the Beatles on vinyl.
Hmmm . . . I wonder if reminiscences about our parents’ bookshelves would be as vivid.
The first records I ever received were two Elvis 45s from my grandmother one year for Christmas (to go with my new turntable). I was five and it started a life-long love affair with Elvis.
I don’t think these were my first, but I very specifically remember going to Kmart and buying three cassettes I really wanted with my babysitting money – Huey Lewis & The News – Sports, Lionel Ritchie – Can’t Slow Down and Bruce Springsteen – Born in the USA.
Anytime I hear a Patsy Cline song, it automatically makes me think of my parents. They had an 8-track of Patsy Cline’s greatest hits that they always used to play whenever they had company over. They also had an 8-track double-album set of the “American Graffiti” soundtrack, which my sisters and I loved to listen to.
My blog is named after a Trisha Yearwood song, so say no more about country music.
I forgot first concert. My sister is four years older than me, so when I was very young, I got to do things a little earlier than I probably should have. My mom took my sister, a few of her friends and me as a tagalong to see Shaun Cassidy at the Civic Center in Baltimore. I was only about 6 or 7 at the time and we all just about died when he came out for the encore wearing an Orioles jersey. Like Martika, around that same time, my sister and I also saw Leif Garrett at Kings Dominion in the free concert area in his Tiger Beat heyday. My first, more grown-up concert was Alabama, Juice Newton, Johnny Lee and Mickey Gilley also in Baltimore. It was the height of the “Urban Cowboy” craze and Alabama was the OPENING ACT.
Oh please,oh please, do the book thing, Laura.
Oh, I have a GREAT parents’ bookshelf story to tell….
Free to be You and Me. My first album all my own. Before that I wore out my parents’ “Liza with a Z” and also danced around the family room to Sammy Davis Jr. singing Candyman and Mr. Bojangles.