What's the first album you ever bought?

[Jud]

Sgt Pepper as well for albums, though my French great-uncle Jacques insisted on buying it for me when he saw I wanted it. Then when I brought it home and played it, he said in disgust "Cats-music!", i.e., cats yowling. First album I paid for on my own was Cream's Wheels of Fire, I think.

 

For 45 rpm records, Beatles also. Got the earliest singles as hand-me-downs from cousins, then was buying my own from '65 or '66.

 

Sorry not to have anything kewler to report - typical kid of my era. Had pretty much the same experience as JohnMH: saw a double bill of Hard Day's Night and Help! when the latter came out and heard absolutely none of it for the screams from every girl in the audience.

[wkhanna]

Not that I'm suggesting anyone else posting a cool first album is a filthy rotten cheating liar with a highly selective memory. Oh no.

 

Uh oh...... I am 'Busted'.......

 

This is the closest representaion I can find of my 'First' record....

Amazon.com: Peter Cottontail/Easter Parade/Yankee Doodle Bunny: Betty Clooney, Anne Lloyd, Peter Hanley, The Sandpipers, Mitch Miller and Orchestra, Roy Rogers, Jimmy Durante: Music

 

My favorite cut was Jimmy Durante's Easter Parade, btw.

[wkhanna]

OK

Here it is......

 

 

 

At least I can say I have been a Clooney fan for a while.

[baxtus]

I slaved in a banana plantation as a child for 2 weeks to save for my first LP which was Linda Ronstadt: Hasten Down the Wind and I still enjoy the album to this day.

[JohnMH]

It was 1980, I was 14 and my first was a live jazz album.

And I couldn't give a toss what anybody else thought!

 

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3455[/ATTACH]

 

I am still looking for a digital version of this swinging tactile well recorded album.

 

You Europeans are so cool, Digipete. I didn't start discovering jazz until college in the '70s when the University radio station was a low power student operated station with friends who DJ'ed on it. At the time they had a great jazz on vinyl collection with many of the classic Blue Note recordings and many others. I quickly became hooked. Ironic that jazz seems to have always had a greater following in Europe than in the US, even though we claim it as our own here in the US.

 

My dad had a number of 78s of the big bands and a pretty decent Heathkit mono rig, but I didn't pay much attention at the time. My loss. Could have had some great times with my dad listening to these if I'd been more open to it at the time. I guess I was too busy being rebellious and wanting to listen to what my friends were listening to. These are still in the basement at mom's house. I'm tempted to get a 78 capable tt and cart to enjoy them again.

 

This thread is really making me nostalgic. Many of the albums being listed here, especially in the pop / rock genres, are in the collections of my brother or self.

 

Re-reading the original OP's question - the first album you bought - I should correct my original response.

 

I can't remember the first complete album I bought with my own disposable resources, but a fairly early one was Woodstock - the 3 album set circa 1970. I played the grooves off of that thing. I took it with me to work for my uncle running cable TV wiring between telephone poles the following summer. Drove aunt and uncle crazy playing it over and over on their living room console stereo in the evenings.

[AudGuy]

Yikes, this is really asking me remember the forgotten ... so long ago, lets see, hmmm ....

There was a bunch of albums that all got bought around the same time, when my interest in all this stuff got started.

 

It was one of these, I think ...

 

[another_kiwi]

This for me (and still their best I think, R.I.P. Bon)....

 

closely followed by the Oils 10-1.

 

Both on vinyl mid 80's, prior to that was the Dance Exponents and The models on cassette tape. Still good music to drag out.

[Audio_ELF]

Was [Kylie Minogue] even around in the eighties?

Her first Album came out in 1988. Actually I may have bought some "Now" albums prior to that ... I really feel in awe of these people who remember exactly what they bought as their first album - either their memories are infinitely superior to mine or they bought their first album much later.

 

I can tell you it probably came from Castle Records, sadly now departed as (it appears) all music sellers in the UK are; destroyed by the joint evils of Amazon, Tesco and Apple

 

Eloise

[souptin]

I really feel in awe of these people who remember exactly what they bought as their first album - either their memories are infinitely superior to mine or they bought their first album much later.

 

Yes, indeed. Us superior beings just instantly blossomed into music buyers with fully formed mature and sophisticated musical taste But I'm sure that if you keep trying, young Jedi, you too will learn the true path. When you buy your first Neil Young (and like it!) you'll know deep down that you've made the step.

 

In fact I'm surprised that nobody else has copped to buying a Now compilation (or equivalent) as their first purchase, or "Bubbles sing the hits of Abba" or some other hideous clone album that got hawked dirt cheap in the supermarkets. I guess everybody's developing musical taste depends on so many different things - parents, older siblings, radio...

 

Incidentally, although I can't argue with the joint evils of Amazon, Tesco and Apple, some of the guys that worked in the old school record shops were monsters! It took real courage to take your choices up to them to pay - they'd just laugh in your face at your pathetic lack of cool. The staff of Championship Vinyl were pussies in comparison.

[Richard Dale]

Yes, indeed. Us superior beings just instantly blossomed into music buyers with fully formed mature and sophisticated musical taste But I'm sure that if you keep trying, young Jedi, you too will learn the true path. When you buy your first Neil Young (and like it!) you'll know deep down that you've made the step.

 

In the 60s and 70s LPs were relatively more expensive you couldn't afford to buy records until you got your first part time job, like washing up in a restaurant in my case at about the age of 14. My father had a rubbish record deck in a Grundig radiogram with a ceramic cartridge. If he had have had a good music system and a decent record collection I might have been influenced by that. As my father had neither, and I couldn't afford to buy LPs until I was 14-15 it meant that I skipped buying anything until a relatively hip Velvet Underground LP when I was 15.

 

The first album I owned was 'Please, Please Me' by the Beatles because someone in the playground told me it was the latest thing at the age of 6 or 7, and I asked for it for Christmas (Christmas 1963 I suppose that would have been). I think it cost 19/11 in 1963, which is 1 pound. By the 70s I think LPs cost about 30/- or 1.50 pounds and that took about 3 or 4 hours of washing up to pay for. People who were young in the late 80s would have had parents who had better music collections, and LPs were relatively cheaper and so I assume you would start owning your records at an earlier age.

[souptin]

Good point.

 

Even in the late 70s / early 80s an album was a big investment on a schoolkid's wages. I taped a lot of my music off Peel's show (holding the tape deck up to the radio for best sound) and borrowed albums from friends. My dad had an okay turntable, but playing my music on it wasn't exactly fun since it involved a constant barrage of parental questioning about the lyrics, the (lack of) tunes, and the degenerate state of modern youth. Etc, etc, etc.

[firedog]

Her first Album came out in 1988. Actually I may have bought some "Now" albums prior to that ... I really feel in awe of these people who remember exactly what they bought as their first album - either their memories are infinitely superior to mine or they bought their first album much later.

 

I can tell you it probably came from Castle Records, sadly now departed as (it appears) all music sellers in the UK are; destroyed by the joint evils of Amazon, Tesco and Apple

 

Eloise

 

The real destroyer was Napster...the others just commercialized the already existing downloading. But the record companies have only themselves to blame: they tried to force the public to remain with an outmoded medium (CDs) that didn't fit what the public wanted....College students who wanted to buy single cuts of music at a reasonable price, and not spend $10-15 on a complete CD when they only wanted one or two tracks. If the corporate peddlers of music had been able to understand their market, "free" downloading might never have become as entrenched as it has.

[89reksal]

I clearly remember my first album (posted above) because of the circumstances. I was 10 or 11 years old and my "cool" older cousin came to visit. He wanted to go into town to check out the local record store and he took me with him. Somehow I had some money and ended up buying the first Doors album. I'm sure it was his influence, I honestly don't remember why I ended up buying that album. I will say though, I do remember playing it to death, even at that age. I still have it.

 

I don't have a clue what my second album was.

[REShaman]

I'll go first. Sgt. Pepper. That was back on the day when most of us in college owned maybe 25 albums and all of them were first rate with no filler.

 

Esau

 

Yikes! Essau. You unwittingly dated me. If I may repeat my initial reaction: YIKES! I am old! Except in my mind I am somewhere in my 20s. In body, whoa, I am old.

 

To get back to your premise: The first album I ever bought was Time Out, Dave Brubeck's album which I purchased with my own money at Sam Goody's on 48th and Lexington Avenue in New York City after a classmate invited me to listen to jazz on his parents gorgeous system (circa 1955) and he played Dave Brubeck Quartet's Time Out. It knocked me over. I was only 12 but it knocked me over. When I asked him how to get that album, he told me that the Sam Goody store was a block up the street from his apartment. We went to Sam Goody's at my behest; and I bought the album with the money I had on me. Consequently, I spent everything I had in my pocket and had to walk home. If one is familiar with New York City, 48 and Lexington is not in the neighborhood of 83rd Street and Broadway. I couldn't care less. When I returned home, I played the album with as much appreciation for the art of what I was listening to as I had when my class mate played it for me (random selection) at his apartment. Yikes! Same word, different reference. I was home.

Best,

Richard

[coleb13]

"A Hard Day's Night" by The Beatles, the US version (which is still not available on CD) because that's what was available at the local record store.

[IronHide75]

Was she (Kylie Minogue) even around in the eighties?

 

She was... she had a big hit with "I Should Be So Lucky" and Little Eva's "The Locomotion." Her songs had the Stock Aitken Waterman sound (Rick Astley, Bananarama, Dead or Alive).

[IronHide75]

My first album was either the K-tel compilation album "Hit Explosion" (had to buy it for "Eye of the Tiger;" the other songs were bonuses) or Michael Jackson's "Thriller." Almost every one of the my friends had Thriller.

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Motley Crue - Shout At The Devil

 

[Jay192]

The Cars! - Heartbeat City

 

[chumlie]

The Doors - The Doors

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3453[/ATTACH]

 

My first album too.

[squarebab]

Boston's "Don't Look Back" and Ted Nugent's "Weekend Warriors" were the first two I purchased with my own money. I was thirteen and I didn't know anything about the music or the bands, but I thought the covers were cool. When I brought them home I waited nervously as my mother looked over the song titles, fearing she would reject them and make me take them back. Reluctantly she let me keep them. After that I made sure not to let her see the music I bought. I still greatly enjoy listening to both albums.

 

[med_designer]

 

I would be about 11 years old and MTV had just gotten launched. I was watching all these videos and learning about the bands I liked. Anyway, the video for Genesis - Abacab came on and I was totally transfixed. I just thought it was the coolest thing ever. The guy playing keyboards even had the same shirt mom bought me at the mall. Plus I just loved the sounds - drums, keys, synths, and guitars. I even bought my first keyboard because of Tony Banks. My friends did to and soon we had all kinds including that very same Arp Quadra in the Abacab video.

 

Have been a life long fan ever since of all the eras of the band and have seen every tour since the Mama tour in 83' including the final tour in 2007. In fact the Mama tour is what made me want to be a live sound our lighting guy. I learned all I could about ShowCo and Vari-Lite. Eventually I did some live sound over the years but ended up in mastering of all things for many years in the 90s here in Nashville.

 

It makes me sad that I know it is all over now. Phil has injured his hand and really can not play any more the last I have heard. All the guys are really old guys now and I myself have just crossed the 44/45 threshold this year. I have been collecting the Audio Fidelity remasters of Phil's solo albums which have all been very nice. Take me back to a better time.

 

Here is a link to one of my favorite performances. I originally saw this on the MTV Saturday Night concert.

 

[firedog]

"A Hard Day's Night" by The Beatles, the US version (which is still not available on CD) because that's what was available at the local record store.

 

It's never going to be, either. It was a creation for United Artists - a "soundtrack" album, not a "Beatles" album. That's why you got only 7 Beatles songs and some fairly sappy George Martin Soundtrack music. Apple and the Beatles view all the "odd" American releases as something that doesn't belong in the Beatles' catalog.

 

UA, by the way, originally contracted for the movie rights only to get the rights for the LP release. They figured the movie would be crap and all the money would be in the record release. As usual, corporate America didn't have a clue about the "youth market" in the 60's.

[Dave H]

From 1971,

 

 

and the second,

 

 

both vinyl, of course.

[Jsmith]

First Tape / Album of any kind

 

 

First CD