Blimey Jerry, that brings back memories.
45 rpm records were out when we as a family started buying them.
My dad bought a record player and we all agreed to pay so much a week into a fund. Once a week we would take it in turns to choose the single. As there were 5 of us, that made it very exciting.
We would all gather round the record player every week and listen to the latest single. It was always a magical moment.
From my memory the first 2 singles I bought were Lonnie Donegan with Jack of Diamonds with the B side I think was Ham n Eggs and Marty Wild with Endless Sleep.
To this day they are still firm favourites of mine.
However the old man almost threw the Lonnie single out, becuase he thought it was crap and wasn't prepared to have such a single in the house. We managed to talk him out of it.
You are right Jerry, it was special.
I remember going to my local record shop every week and listening to the top ten in the record booths.
In those days we used to have a radio program (UK) on every Saturday morning called "Uncle Mac - Childrens favourites", which we all listened to.
That sort of magic doesn't seem to be there anymore.
Les