What was the first record you bought?

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 09 Mar 08 - 09:02 AM

My first was a 78rpm by Slim Whitman "Rose Marie" must have been 1955 or '56.

I remember playing it over and over on an old wind-up gramophone and the next door neighbour coming round (we lived in a little terraced house then) and shouting "is that the only bloody record you've got".

Little did he know how right he was at the time.

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 09 Mar 08 - 07:33 AM

Never Smile At A Crocodile was played for me on Children's Favourites one Saturday morning. Getting your name mentioned on the radio caused such a stir in North-East England in the 1950s that the head teacher remarked on it at school assemby the following Monday.

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 09 Mar 08 - 07:25 AM

Autolycus, you have had me wondering for days now. What was that bloody BBC childrens TV programme with Swedish Rhapsody as the theme?.
Please, somebody must know.

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: GUEST,nick12
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 01:42 PM

my first single was eddie fishers 'Fanny' backed by something i cant remember.. maybe 'Fanny' was the other side.. but my first album was Elvis Presleys 'Elvis' album.. what a cool album at the time!

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 07:21 AM

Never Smile At A Crocodile, sung by Jerry Lewis. But I cheated. I didn't buy it, my parents did. I was too little to have money. Tennessee Ernie Ford's version of Davy Crockett was another early fave. And I also had a much-cherished record of the Dragnet theme on - get this!!! - 78 rpm.

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: GUEST,Bill S from Perth
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 07:17 AM

Lonnie Donegan Golden Vanity (trad) though mainly for the B side My Old Man's a Dustman

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: Irish sergeant
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 03:52 PM

Album: Beautiful Bermuda by the Merrymen
45: It's Just Another Day Paul McCartney and Wings. Neil

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: GUEST,DWR
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 04:05 PM

Gosh, Bob, that's one I've got too! It's one of the first LPs that I converted to CD. And I certainly do remember Bob on WLS Barn Dance and the morning shows.

Be sure and ask Art about the time he met Bob Atcher. It's been a while since I heard the story.

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: jojofolkagogo
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 03:29 PM

My first record was "True Love Ways" (Buddy, of course) He was dead, and I had heard it on Radio Luxembourg, the next day I went out and bought it, but I did not know he was dead, at that time.

And my first LP was a birthday present from my (lovely darlin') Dad
and it was "Buddy Holly Story - No 1" (cos there was two of em)

and YES I still play all of them and still have all my records and LPs. With every house-move they are the only thing that gets packed up meticulously and travels with me in my car, for safety. I would DIE without my music !

Jo-Jo

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: MaineDog
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 05:02 PM

A 78 of Elvis singing "Blue Suede Shoes"
MD

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: autolycus
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 04:57 PM

Thrilled someone else like '26 miles' - Four Preps - the only pop track I liked for years.

Also Johnny Standley's It's in the Book, a funny analysis of Little Bo Peep. Got the 45, had no idea there was an LP.

First record, not my money (well I was ill in bed) Alfven's Swedish Rhapsody, arr. percy Faith. The BBC has been using it as the signature tune for a children's tv prog, c.'53. Blowed if I can remember the prog.

Ist LP, an Ace of Clubs of Grieg's Peer Gynt Suites - still got it - after I was bought my first record-player by an uncle.



    Ivor

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: bet
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 03:28 PM

Tom Doley on a 45

bet

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 12:07 PM

We didn't have a record player at home,but I bought one with practically my first salary cheque after leaving university: I bought 2 LPs (never bought singles) Jazz at the Philharmonic ( a concert recorded at the tour I'd seen in Birmingham) and a Sidney Bechet. I would have bought the Armsatrong Hot 5s and 7s but the shop didn't have it. Went on to buy far too many LPs, CDs, piano rolls and cassettes since (according to the current Mrs S.),new and second hand, from shops, by post and online. I CAN be cured, send conmtributions NOW!

RtS

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 09:05 AM

Got it right here. I went and pulled it out of the bookcase so I could be specific about it, because it was so good and still is. Bit of an oddity but great:

Bob Atcher, Early American Folk Songs, Columbia 10" HL 9006, one of the first LPs, issued c. 1950.

Included: Barbary Allen, De Ladies' Man, Methodist Pie, Devilish Mary, Young Rogers the Miller, Old Smoky, The Hunters of Kentucky

Atcher, son of a fiddle champion father, began as a working cowboy in North Dakota. He became a successful country singer on radio and records during the 1930s and 40s, particularly in his duets with Bonnie Blue Eyes. He was staff vocalist at WBBM in Chicago in the early 40s. But he put away all the fancy studio backing and professionalized singing for this record (and for one other, a 10" of cowboy songs, also on Columbia).

On this LP he goes all the way back to his roots with bone-simple authentic singing, fine fetching traditional style fingerpicking guitar, and some terrific songs. I have to say this record gave me a really good start.

Bob

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: Melani
Date: 26 Feb 08 - 11:39 PM

It was a 78 of "The Battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton. I was 8, and it was 50 cents. I still know all the words. I heard Johnny Cash turned that one down because he didn't think it would be a hit.

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 12:44 PM

I think the first "single" I ever bought for myself was "Marianne," by Terry Gilkyson and the Easy Riders, around 1955-6. I really didn't start buying albums (LP's) until 1957 or so. We didn't have a record player at home, so I had to go to friends' homes to listen.

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: mandotim
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 06:55 AM

First album was The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem; I didn't buy it, it was bought for me by Father O'Hanlon the parish priest, who probably thought there wasn't enough Irish influence in our house at the time. First one I bought myself was either the eponymous 'Joan Baez', or Bookends by Simon and Garfunkel. First proper folk album was probably Oldham's Burning Sands by the Oldham Tinkers. I bought this off Gerry Kearns, who's Dad was a friend of my Dad.
Tim

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 06:13 AM

The first LP I bought is The Carter Family's compilation album 'Mid The Green Fields of Virginia (RCA Victor). I still have it.

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: goatfell
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 04:29 AM

the Corries a live a live o

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 02:25 AM

"John Fitzgerald Kennedy: A Memorial Album. Highlights Of Speeches Made By Our Beloved President." The album was produced in New York by a company called "Premiere Albums, Inc." and was made from a radio broadcast on WMCA, Friday, November 22, 1963. I bought it new, when it was released on LP in 1964. I was eleven. It cost $1.00. I still have it.

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 01:46 AM

Rock Island Line----- Lonnie Donegn.......

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: Rowan
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 09:05 PM

there were no recordings around the house.

Lots of MUSIC around the house, but no recordings.

I suspect that might be true for lots of us, Linn. I was for me. We had a piano that none of us could play (Wertheim upright with 3 pedals; I never did work out the function of the third pedal) but the bloke next door would often visit and he could accompany almost anything we cared to sing, so there were a lot of songs sung; G&S, popular from the 1890s through to the 1950s would cover the most of them, although there were quite a few "scout songs' that were originally English folk songs.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: GUEST,Bizibod
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 08:23 PM

Glad all over
Dave Clark Five

Still like it actually -

" And I'm feelin' DUM DUM glad all over,
Yes I'm a DUM DUM glad all over, Baby I'm a DUM DUM glad all over,
So glad you're mi-i-i-i-i-ne"

Ooh, that's better !

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: Dave Roberts
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 05:54 PM

I've checked. It's 'Owdham'

(tha knows)

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: Dave Roberts
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 05:50 PM

Of course if this thread was about buying one's first folk record (which it isn't) my answer would be 'Oldham Edge' (or was it spelled 'Owdham'? I'll have to check) by The Oldham Tinkers, from Free Reed Records in Derbyshire, during a snowstorm.

This was in t'owd days, when I were a lad an' yer 'ad ter travel out inter the hills ter buy records. None of yer downloads in them days.

These kids nowadays don't know they're born.

Why, in my day...(etc)

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: Tim Leaning
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 02:47 PM

Golden Years
By Mr David Bowie.

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: Bee
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 02:20 PM

My first album, purchased the same day my parents bought the family a record player (of the cardboard suitcase variety) was John Allan Cameron's first record. I was thirteen and had seen him perform (in full kilt and kit) that summer at the Cape Breton County Exhibition, resulting in an overwhelming young teen crush.

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 01:43 PM

I'm surpised Tom (Curmudgeon) hasn't posted. His father bought him a couple LPs -- Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd. The die was cast.

I was talking to Jeri yesterday about the thread. She talked about the recordings her mother had and it got me thinking. Until they started buying ME records (45s -- including story records like "Bambi" -- couldn't listen to the second side where Bambi's mother dies), there were no recordings around the house.

Lots of MUSIC around the house, but no recordings. My father had played clarinet and sax in a dance band in north-central Wisconsin in the '40s and still played a lot at home in Milwaukee (though a second shift job kept him from playing professionally). My mother played piano and we didn't have one, so she'd hijack my accordion when I was taking lessons (at age 5). We later (in the '60s) got a piano. My brother played trumpet, my sister played piano. I took those accordion lessons, then clarinet lessons and played with the school band.

We all sang -- at home, at church, in the car, together or alone. (Lutherans, fer-pete's-sake.) I learned harmony by osmosis and didn't realize it til about 25 years ago.

Polkas were the folk music of my youth -- Wisconsin, doncha know.

But no records around the house until I started buying them or they were purchased for me.

Strange, now that I think about it.

Linn

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's unlugged Apprentice
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 11:40 AM

oops that "Guest" was me *LOL*

Charlotte (first coffee on Ma and Pa's piano stool)

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 11:39 AM

"They Call Me Hawkeye and I can not, for the life of me, remember who did it."

written by Boudleaux Bryant
recorded by Frankie Laine.
released in 1955
The Lyrics

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 11:29 AM

Keep-a-knockin' by Little Richard. It was a 78.

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: Andrez
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 06:54 AM

Since its time for true confessions, the first record I bought were EP's: Del Shannon's "Swiss Maid", and also (Oz Artist- Johnny Devlins "Stomp the Tumbarumba". First LP was either The Animals or Ike & Tina Turner "River Deep Mountain High" whichever was released earlier.

Cheers

Andrez

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: GUEST,woodsie
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 03:57 AM

Alone Again Or - Love, Classical Gas - Mason Williams, Fire - The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown. These were all early singles. Albums Piper At The Gates Of Dawn - Pink Floyd, Bluebird Blues - Sonny Boy Williamson, Safe As Milk - Captain Beefheart.

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: Janie
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 02:16 AM

1st albums bought for me (and my younger sister) were Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas album, and a Huckleberry Hound dog album. The first album I remember buying (probably we three sisters combined our resources) was Chubby Chekkers, but it could have been something else. I don't really remember having any money of my own to buy anything other than 45's before I went to college - and even then, funds were very scarce.

Mom and Dad liked music and bought the first stereo in our neck of the woods -the speakers were major pieces of furniture in those days.    Mom had a great, eclectic collection of 78's (that my neatnick Dad trashed at some point) and 45's before then that we listened to on a humble mono turntable- .don't remember most of them, but they included the Andrews sisters, Patsy Cline, Elvis Presley, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Andy Griffin, early Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis. Johnny Horton, etc. There may have been some early Buddy Holly. For no particular reason, I remember a 45 my Mom had of a rock & roll song "They Call Me Hawkeye" and I can not, for the life of me, remember who did it.

I am the keeper of the family albums that have survived. (Survival and playability are not synonyms.) In terms of albums, I am never clear about what Mom bought "for us girls" (her excuse - she loved rock 'n roll and loved to dance. She'd set up the ironing board in the living room Saturday mornings so she could watch American Bandstand while she ironed - taking frequent breaks to dance and to teach us, especially my older sister, how to lindy, jitterbug, etc.), and the early purchases we made for ourselves.

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: iancarterb
Date: 23 Feb 08 - 01:29 AM

I actually think mine was Carl Perkins' Blue Suede Shoes. If I still had it I wouldn't need a Lotto ticket!

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: John E
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 11:37 PM

Diz and Bird, In the Beginning

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: Darowyn
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 07:17 PM

My granny gave me her wind up gramophone. There were a few records with it, and some that a neighbour gave me. I remember some Charlie Kunz piano tracks, and a version of "Buttons and Bows". She had bought me Uncle Mac's (Derek McCullogh) Nursery Rhymes, but the first record I bought for myself was "Cumberland Gap" C/W "Bring a Little Water Sylvie" by Lonnie Donnegan.
All those were 78s. I've had a Kingston Trio EP with "Tom Dooley" on it for a long long time, so that was probably my first 45. My First album was "The Buddy Holly Story", in common with a few others on here.
By that time I had an electric record player, and I made the clockwork gramophone into a centrifuge for doing chemistry experiments, mostly to do with devising rocket fuels.
Cheers
Dave

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 06:01 PM

1st 78 Peggy Sue by Buddy Holly
1st 45 Whole Lotta Woman by Marvin Rainwater

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 04:24 PM

I think one of the earliest had to be AMERICAN DRINKING SONGS by Oscar Brand. There were probably some Kingston Trio records as well. Then I discovered Folkways LP's and it was all over.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 02:52 PM

Does anybody remember the red embassy records from woolworths. They were half a crown when a proper record was about six bob. Ans d some of them were pretty good. I had the Ballad of Davy Crockett with Sixteen Tons on the flipside.

Anyway I was a kid - it sounded all right to me.

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 09:38 AM

First 45 - Johnny Remember Me by John Leyton - I had the biggest crush possible on him at the time.

First LP - Hard Day's Night - The Beatles. They were THE revelation as far as I was concerned. I had all their albums at one time then husband #1 sold them and my record player when we were short of cash!

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: GUEST,Essex Girl
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 09:03 AM

ise 78 Robin Hood/Davy Crockett (we'd just got a tv!) ist Album Adam Faith. Then I got into Dylan

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: John Hardly
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 08:47 AM

kinks

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: Nick
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 08:24 AM

First LP that I had a part share in was Beatles "A Hard Days Night" with my sister

First LP that I bought totally myself was John Mayall "Crusade" from the Pop Inn record shop in South Woodford.

Bought some singles before that including Telstar and She Loves You but I'm unsure what was the first and whether they were by myself or not.

We used to also have a record club at school that we all put a small amount in and then voted for an album to buy. Heavily influenced by the older schoolboys in the sixth form but there was a wonderful collection if I remember in the first year and I can remember some of the following being bought:

Notorious Byrd Brothers
Blues Anytime Vol 2
Velvet Underground and Nico
Roy Harper - Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith
Bob Dylan - John Welsey Harding
Rolling Stones - Satanic Majesties
Judy Collins - Who Knows Where the Time Goes
Spirit
Mothers of Invention - We're Only in it For the Money

And the various strands of a love of West Coast American music, singer/songwriter/folkish stuff, blues and rock remain and influence me to this day

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 08:06 AM

Ken Dodd and the Diddymen. 1966,

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: GUEST,Edthefolkie
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 07:13 AM

I made up for Jeepers Creepers later. My first album purchase was The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse by the Bonzos.

I was still living at home then, and my dad became apoplectic on seeing the "tasteful" portraits of the band etc. on the insert booklet. Thank God he never met Vivian Stanshall.

Could have been worse, I might have waltzed in with a Frank Zappa album.

Now of course, my son turns up with heavy metal CDs. I really upset him the other day when he left a copy of "Motley Crue - Loud as F*$k" around. I pointed out that this should have read "Folk" and got a very dusty reply.

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: GUEST,col
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 02:44 AM

I bought Jeepers Creepers too!...yes I had a crush too!

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: KT
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 01:47 AM

Little Red Caboose?   I loved that song!! Of course, it wasn't an album but my WAAAAAY older brother's single record.

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 12:58 AM

Three Little Kittens and Little Red Caboose.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: What was the first record you bought?
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 12:18 AM

The first record I bought was Ray Charles: A Man and His Soul, monophonic double LP.   I thought it was a wonderful thing to own, although it was an odd thing to buy because I didn't have a record player. It stayed carefully packed away except to go to parties with me - if the host owned a record player.

About 5 years later I bought a second record, Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water LP on the first day it was released. I spent the grocery money on it, and lived on beans and rice for weeks after that. It was another odd thing to buy since I still didn't have a record player, but Simon and Garfunkel started going to parties with me and Ray Charles and that was fun.

Another 5 or 6 years passed before I got a real job and bought a record player. That, of course, was another odd thing to buy since I only had 2 records.
- Phil