First record I bought with my own money

[Htown Harry]

I enjoy the threads about music. (Thanks Purron!) The musical taste and sophistication of the board always impresses.

This thread will be a little different, I expect - full of bubblegum songs, overplayed pop standards, bad metal and songs only a truly devoted fan would remember fondly.

(My firsts aren't too bad. My second purchase proves my theory...a Paul Revere and the Raiders LP.)

Post how you made the money, your first single and your first album. A story describing how playing it for a special friend got you your first kiss is optional.



Paper route

Single: Baby It's You

Album:

 

[Zero]

Are You Experienced
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Are_You_Experienced_-_US_cover-edit.jpg

 

[samclem]

Single: Superstitious (S. Wonder) I think this one has held up to the test of time.

Album: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (E. John). Next: Led Zeppelin IV.

Saved up paper route money. I remember the albums were $8.99 when I bought them, which seemed like a lot. According to the inflation calculator, that would be $48.06 today. I guess music has gotten a lot cheaper than it used to be.

 

[Keim]

First cd: The Police: Every Breath You Take-The Singles
First cassette: The Cars S/T (Can't wait to buy their new one this week!)
First LP: Can't remember, but Tears For Fears: Songs From the Big Chair was one of the first.

Bought all of the above with money I raised by selling used golf balls.

Most recent CD: Cee-Lo Green: The Ladykiller
LP: Just bought two used today: Santana S/t and Sly and the Family Stone Greatest Hits. Made for some good listening tonight!
Most recent new LP was Jason Isbell: Here We Rest
Cassette: Who buys cassettes nowadays?

 

[Major Tom]

Well, it's embarrassing. My first 7" single was "Crazy Horses" by The Osmonds in 1972. I used to take it to school and we'd all mime to it - especially the part where Donny makes the wailing sound on the keyboard during the chorus.

Then things got better - Second 7" was "Gudbuy T' Jane" by Slade followed by a rash of singles by people like Bowie and T Rex, to name a couple.

I was 9 years old when I started buying records and was buying them on my allowance. 7" singles were 44 pence each in the UK. My Mum was a bit concerned about the kind of stuff I was spending my money on. She was very unsure about Bowie ("all that make-up") and wasn't too keen on "School's Out" by Alice Cooper either.

It was a few years before I started acquiring full length albums. One of the first was one my brother mailed to me from the US (he was already living over here and working in a recording studio in Hollywood). It was "Are We Not Men" by Devo. Those quirky guys from Akron, Ohio really captured my imagination. They were eccentric in a uniquely American way that I couldn't quite put my finger on, but I loved them.

Then came my introduction to The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix. I can't claim street cred by naming specific albums, as my introduction to both artists was by way of compilations - the Red and Blue Albums by The Beatles, and "The Essential Jimi Hendrix" Volumes 1 and 2.

Blank cassettes were very important too. I listened to the Top 40 countdown every week on BBC Radio 1 and sat with my fingers poised above the play and record buttons, ready to spring into action when the DJ (Tom Browne) announced a song I liked. I still have those cassettes.

Happy times, and thank you for starting this thread Harry!

 

[mystang52]

Single: Ronnie by the Four Seasons.
Album: Four Seasons Greatest Hits.
I quickly morphed into the Motown groups - Four Tops, Miracles, etc.
...and I think I was the only person who bought the First Album from an unknown group called...the Bee Gees. I have been their loyal fan ever since, through all of their musical changes.
I was poor, so it was hard scroungin up the money, and then parting with it to buy my records.

 

[HFWR]

Then things got better - Second 7" was "Gudbuy T' Jane" by Slade...

Saw Slade in 1972 in a small venue. We were on the very front row, resting our elbows on the stage. Always like their version of "Move Over".

Bought numerous 45s, but the first album was "Yesterday and Today" by the Beatles. Also, somewhere in the same time frame, I won a copy of "Magical Mystery Tour" from a radio station contest, and bought "Early Steppenwolf", for the whole-album-side version of "The Pusher".

 

[MikeD]

First 45: Paperback writer/Red Rubber ball by the Beatles. First LP:Sgt Pepper by the Beatles.

We are buying a new car in end of 2011/beginning of 2012. I'm going to buy this CD to listen to on the way home from the dealer:
Amazon.com: BBC Sessions: Led Zeppelin: Music

Mike D.

 

[golfnut]

First 45: Paperback writer/Red Rubber ball by the Beatles.

Do you mean Paperback Writer / Rain ? Just wondering since I bought this as well back in 1966.

Golfnut

 

[Major Tom]

First 45: Paperback writer/Red Rubber ball by the Beatles.

Do you mean Paperback Writer / Rain ? Just wondering since I bought this as well back in 1966.

Golfnut

I think he must do, as Red Rubber Ball was a song by The Cyrkle.

 

[MikeD]

First 45: Paperback writer/Red Rubber ball by the Beatles.

Do you mean Paperback Writer / Rain ? Just wondering since I bought this as well back in 1966.

Golfnut

Ya know, I think you're right. That was a long time ago. I remember not liking the flip side of Paperback Writer very much and figuring out that they only put one good song on a 45 so you have to buy more records at an early age.

 

[Major Tom]

A Beatles song that's no good? Sacrilege

 

[golfnut]

I honestly don't remember the first 45 I purchased. First album I purchased was Herman's Hermits On Tour (note there were no live cuts on the album).

Next album was Beach Boys Live (I think this was the title) and soon thereafter,purchased Help by the Beatles. Then I became a big fan of the Beatles. This morphed into being a big Stones and Who fan! In other words, no more Herman's Hermits.

 

[David1961]

First single I bought was "Light My Fire" by the Doors. I was about 7 and had no idea what the lyrics meant!

First CD was "Rubber Soul" by the Beatles

Don't exactly remember the first album I bought. I do remember receiving "Jingle Jangle" by the Archies as a birthday present, though.

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

Ya know, I think you're right. That was a long time ago. I remember not liking the flip side of Paperback Writer very much and figuring out that they only put one good song on a 45 so you have to buy more records at an early age.

Actually, I believe The Beatles were the exception to the standard practice of putting out a 45 record with lousy music on the B-side. Often their B-sides was either a song that was very good by itself, or was one of their experimental numbers--such as "Rain," The Inner Light," or "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)." (Some producers, like Phil Spector, would deliberately put a crappy tune on the B-side so that DJs would not consider playing it in place of the intended A-side. BTW: I remember an appearance on "The Johnny Carson Show" ["The Tonight Show"] by songwriter Paul Williams. He told Carson that he made a lot of money from royalties for a song that virtually no one heard--because it was the B-side of Tiny Tim's "Tiptoe Thru the Tulips" hit single).

Anyway, the first single I got was the dual hit record "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane." I played those tunes endlessly while reading the newest superhero comic book.

My mom had already bought many Beatles' albums, so I didn't have to buy any Fab Four album until Sgt. Pepper came out[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular].
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[easysurfer]

This is what I bought with my hard earned piggy bank money:

History: America's Greatest Hits - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Sarah in SC]

Mine was certainly Squeeze:singles 45s & under for the album
Cassette was Paul Young who was my teen heartthrob.

I really like cee lo green's f-you song Is the rest of the album good?
I think I'm going to get Adele's new release 21. Anyone have that?

 

[Keim]

Mine was certainly Squeeze:singles 45s & under for the album
Cassette was Paul Young who was my teen heartthrob.

I really like cee lo green's f-you song Is the rest of the album good?
I think I'm going to get Adele's new release 21. Anyone have that?

I think the rest of the album is great. I like every song on it.

 

[bbbamI]

I can't remember the first 45 I bought (it's been a very long time don't ya know), but this is the first album....

 

[Major Tom]

I can't remember the first 45 I bought (it's been a very long time don't ya know), but this is the first album....

I used to love Alice Cooper! When I was a kid, my SIL (who was around 10 years older than me) made me a white top-hat to go with the white jacket I had made so that I could look like him in the "Elected" video!

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

I can't remember the first 45 I bought (it's been a very long time don't ya know), but this is the first album....

Yep! That was a great album!

 

[Ally]

I don't think I bought singles, at least I don't remember having any. My first album was "Meet the Beatles" in HiFi and I was about 13. I made the money babysitting. I still have every album I ever bought, but some are pretty worn, because my kids started liking them as teens (Beatles, Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones, etc) and they used to play them all the time. I would come home from work and my records would be all over the place. I told them that they were supposed to rebel against my taste in music and get their own music. But they never did. I often wonder if they are worth anything. (my albums, not my kids - I know they are definately worth something. )

 

[Fireup2020]

Taped a penny to the Columbia House postcard and ordered:

Disco Dynamite
Solid Gold Rock-n-roll
Kiss
Kiss-Destroyer
Kiss - Rock and Roll Over
Rocky (soundtrack)

My mom had a royal cow! We got the postcard that a package was waiting for 7 year old me at the post office!! So, we drove to the post office (about 6 miles away...) Somehow I got to keep the LP's!! Woohooo!! That is how I became a Kiss fan (as a 7 year old, I probably thought the name was cute!) This was also not the first time I [-]suckered[/-] joined Columbia House! It got much easier when cassettes came out because they fit into the mailbox...and I checked the mail before my parents came home from work!

 

[Htown Harry]

I think I'm going to get Adele's new release 21. Anyone have that?

You won't be disappointed. It's excellent.

Check out this video....gives me goosebumps.

Adele: Tiny Desk Concert : NPR

 

[Htown Harry]

Taped a penny to the Columbia House postcard and ordered:

Disco Dynamite
Solid Gold Rock-n-roll
Kiss
Kiss-Destroyer
Kiss - Rock and Roll Over
Rocky (soundtrack)

Now THAT's what I expected to see! I asked DW - she fessed up to Donny Osmond, David Cassidy and the Carpenters as early purchases.

Great posts, folks. Keep 'em coming.