When I was 12 years old I got my first album. I still have it. And I’m really glad I do.
I thought about sharing this information when Robin Williams died but didn’t. I’m not sure why.
The album had a big sticker on it stating you had to be 18 years old to buy it. I was not. And even putting on mascara and my best pair of Road Runners couldn’t convince anyone otherwise.
So Norm, my father, went to the store and bought it for me.
I take a strange sort of pride in the fact that my first album was a comedy album. It make sense for me really. You know. Because I’m funny. I mean, I’m not being particularly funny at this moment but …
I probably haven’t listened to this album since I was 16. I thought about listening to it when I, along with the rest of you, heard that Robin Williams had committed suicide. I will be listening to it this weekend. I have no idea if I’ll think it’s funny or sad or dated or timely. But I’m looking forward to finding out.
Now onto the first music album I bought.
I guess I’ve always had a thing for men that are sort of rough around the edges, and music that’s more small town than big city. I have no idea how we got there and definitely no idea why our parents let us, but I got my first music album on a trip to Buffalo with some highschool friends. You may notice I’ve spelled highschool as one word instead of the more socially acceptable two worded “high school”. That’s because it should be one word and I am rebelling against the two worded highschool spelling.
Anyhow, I had a certain amount of money to spend while I was in Buffalo and I’m sure if Betty had anything to do with it I was supposed to buy clothing, shoes or makeup. But I didn’t.
I bought this.
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John Cougar, as he was known then, is now John Mellencamp. I was lucky enough to interview him when I was an entertainment reporter. And he was just like I thought he would be. Relaxed, rough, with a smoker’s cough and a lot of swearing coming out of his mouth. Loved him.
You know what’s coming now. No. Not funny. Still no funny in this post. I don’t know what the hell. Meh. Sometimes it happens. No, what’s coming now is me asking you what YOUR first album was.
I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am to hear the answers.
Have a good weekend. And listen to something old.
First cassette I bought would have been New Kids on the Block (I’m probably a bit younger than most on here), first proper vinyl album would have been Bruce Springsteen Born in the USA. My tastes have changed a fair bit.
On an unrelated note – I’d like to put in a request for a cat featuring post – its been a while since you’ve done one :)
The first album (cassette) that I remember buying with my own money was Faster Than The Speed of Night by Bonnie Tyler in 1983. Loved that album.
Bob Dylan The Times They Are A Changin. A friend lend me his guitar and I practiced those chords forever. Then It was Peter Paul and Mary, album 1700. I would spend all my babysitting money on albums. Those days I was paid 35 cents an hour to babysit 4 kids all under 5 . When it was past a half hour the lady was trying to divide 35 cents in two …Can you spot my halo?
Suzanne – ha 35 cents an hour was also what I got paid for babysitting. Seems ridiculous now, doesn’t it?
Roger Voisin on trumpet and E. Power Biggs at the organ, an album of baroque organ and trumpet.. I can sing all the trumpet parts. Used to lie on the floor with my head under my parents stereo to get the full effect. I was a nerd child, still a nerd sixty years later, and proud of it!
1964…Meet the Beatles. Purchased with saved allowance(.50¢) a week. Twelve years old. I still have it.
The Go-Go’s – Beauty & the Beat!
The Band – Mardi Gras, my first album purchase at 12 years old.
Reading the comments was a fun trip down memory lane! When I was young, we used to buy the singles that would release on 45’s. Donny Osmond had some, and there were a couple one hit wonders – I can hear the voices but can’t remember the names anymore. My first actual album may have been Neil Diamond. The album with ‘Coming to America’ and ‘Forever in Bluejeans’ on it. I recall playing it when my baby sister was cranky, and we’d dance and get her un-cranky. Or, my first album might have been Barry Manilow. Yep, I was pretty hardcore.
Andrea – while I never had any Donny Osmond (I did watch him and Marie on TV) I also loved Neil Diamond and (am proud) that I had many Barry Manilow albums. Hardcore here too …
I bought Ultravox ‘The Collection’ on tape. Still love Midge Ure…
My husband’s and my song is on the American Fool album :)
I’ve always been a day late and a few bucks short. Well more like 5 years late. My first album was Bob Dylan’s Freewheelin’, released in 1963. I figured if I was going to part with my hard-earned cash, I wanted an artist with some staying power. Guess I figured right. Still have it, still play it.
Forgot to mention that I bought it in 1968, but if you did the 5 years late math, then you already know that.
The B-52’s (self titled album, 1979). Still have it. Still love it. Listened to it just the other night, at an upstairs neighbours apartment as my turntable is in storage right now. We all laughed about dancing to Rock Lobster at school sock hops! And how long the song 606-0842 would get stuck in your head for. Sorry!
Tapestry by Carole King. I think I can still sing every verse to every song. xo Robin Williams xo
Cheap Trick- In Color when I was 10. The big hit “I want you to want me” was played many times over.
The monkees
Soundtrack to the Neil Diamond movie, The Jazz Singer. I actually bought it on cassette tape as I didn’t have a record player. Played that tape until it wore out! And, yes, I still listen to him, though now on my iPhone!
Album. Not 78 or 45, but album. An album is Big Time stuff. A real commitment. I’m pretty sure mine was Oklahoma. I’ve always had a thing for musicals.
Synchronicity by The Police.
The first album that I bought for myself was also by Donnie Osmond and his brothers – The Osmonds, and I never stopped. I do still have them all, too.
Now, the first album I owned was by The Turtles – Happy Together which I somehow finagled out of my cousin when we visited him when I was around 10.
Thanks for the trip sown Memory Lane!
I don’t remember my first album because I don’t remember a lot of my childhood. It was probably a Beatles album. I loved the 60’s music and I only wished I had been a bit older in the 60’s, rather than grade school age so I could have more fully enjoyed that time. Your first albums are the coolest ever!!!!
The first album I bought was Minute by Minute by the Doobie Brothers. (1978)
Roxette! Oh yeah, you fool, I love you… :-)
OK, dating myself here, but WTH. Donny Osmond. Yep, I said it outloud (another two word combo that should be one) while I typed. I’ll say it again, just to remind myself and everyone in the world reading this blog that I was a dork who was crazy in puppy love for Donny Osmond. I saved all of my babysitting money and one fine Saturday, bought my very first album at the Rhein Main Air Force Base commissary in Fankfurt, Germany and it was a Donny Osmond album. I loved it (and him) so much, that I even had my best friend take a picture of me with my Kodak Instamatic camera. In the photo, I’m holding that album like I really thought I was holding Donny Osmond and trying to look glamorous and sexy. As sexy as a tomboy 10-year-old can be, anyway. Unlike you, Karen, I didn’t save my first album… It probably got sold in a yard sale in one of our many family moves, or maybe traded for a Heart or Eagles album in high school to make sure no one found out I was a big dork. But I do still have that photo and it makes me smile. Thanks for the trip down (dorky) memory lane.
I also interviewed Donny Osmond. He was fantastically nice and gracious. One of the best interviews I’ve ever done and I’ve done a lot. Many, many. ~ karen!
OMG you interviewed Donny Osmond!!!
At first I didn’t want to admit that was my first album but reading though the comments I’ not the only one that was in love wit Donny.Yup my first album Donny Osmond or maybe it was the Osmond Brothers. Vague memory of buying it at Sam the Record Man on Yonge Street and couldn’t wait to get home to close my bedroom door and play it. LOUD.
PS. I really like these Friday questions. Sort of like a period at the end of a sentence.
Looks like I’m the young ‘un here. Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette.
I wish I could remember! Highschool (I agree on the spelling) is a blur. Whitney Houston’s first? I remember the cassette had a photo of her with very short hair. I also remember rockin out to the Grease soundtrack and Debbie Gibson. I do clearly remember my very first concert. It was Huey Louis and The News. As for actual records, as a kid it was Michael Jackson, Culture Club, The Beatles, and Neil Diamond. OH! And I remember my parents had a record jacket that was pants that unzipped……crap….big lips….MICK JAGGER!!!!! Oh, the memories just hit me. Wow, I hadn’t thought of that in, well, never. Crazy.
My first concert was Huey too!
I remember it was Shawn Cassidy, but I can’t remember the album title :op
HA! I just looked it up….it was Born Late, in 1977 . My parents must have bought it for me ‘cuz I was only 8 years old! lmao
Me too!
Carol King Tapestry, oh how I wanted to look like her and knew every song by heart on that album
Also my first album! I still love Carole King! I also knew/know every song by heart and knew the order they were played. She’s incredible and looks amazzzzzzing!
Well, this will date me, but Carole King – Tapestry. The definition of “literature” is that it is writing that lasts through the years. Carole King is the “literature” of the music industry!
Lynn
One of the best! I play that album in my shop and it stops visitors of all ages, in their tracks. Timeless…
I had that one very early on too! Still love her music as well!
My first album was Elton John’s Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only the Piano Player. Wore that thing out.
Oh, you are going to laugh when you read this. Very first album was Donny Osmond – Puppy Love! My sister and I played it so much we had to tape pennies to the arm of the record player to stop it from skipping. But my favourite album of all time was Meatloaf – Bat Out of Hell!! Had the 8 track too. And now own the CD. Still know all the words to every song. Oh, the memories!!
Haha that was my first album too!
Rick Springfield’s ‘Success hasn’t spoiled me yet’ album. Love that man! ..sigh!
He’s still pretty damn good looking!!! Can you tell I was a big fan in my teens?!? Totally obsessed with him. Was, that is. Mostly. ;-)
Adam and the Ants – Dirk Wears White Sox. From Sam The Record Man of course!
The Beatles
I listened to the radio, a clock radio, in my bedroom, and didn’t have my own record player. I bought the album and put it on my parents hi fi in the living room before they got home from work. My little sister snitched on me. I got a record player for Christmas that year.
Elvis ‘Blue Hawaii’
The Barbra Streisand Album which was released on February 25, 1963. I bought it sometime in August 1969 finding it in a markdown bin. It will last forever I thought! Unfortunately our turntable didn’t and my first album was Freecycled with my entire Barbra collection!
Mine was ‘With the Beatles’ back in 1963. I was just getting into music and fell in love with The Beatles like most of the teenage girls back then. I was 14. Paul was my favorite Beatle. ;)
The Beach Boys – Surfer Girl (1962)
Probably something by Manovani or Johnny Mathis. And it’s probably still downstairs in the basement.
Another Elton John here… a twofer..”Tumbleweed Connection” and “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” were purchased on the same day
The first album I bought – with a $10 gift certificate to Records on Wheels in Newmarket Plaza – was Supertramp Breakfast in America. And I only discovered a couple of years ago that the cover art represents the Statue of Liberty! I hadn’t learned about symbolism yet in 1979, apparently.
Goodbye, Stranger!
Janis Joplin, Pearl, bitches.
Alice Cooper-Billion Dollar Babies- 1973
Hmmm, I have an early childhood memory of The RineStone Cowboy by Glen Campbell, however I don’t think I bought that. In fact I was raised on Gordon Lightfoot and Janis Ian so not sure how that fits in.
It was probably a tie between The Stray Cats, and Abba. So long ago in fact that I cant remember which was the first i bought, although I do remember my brother ran over my Stray Cats album with the vacuum cleaner. ON PURPOSE!
My first album, which was actually a tape, was Poison “Unskinny Bop.” Followed closely by the Cocktail soundtrack. But the first album I remember listening to (which was owned by my parents) was the Miami Vice soundtrack. Lol.
rickie lee jones chuckie’s in love album……love every song on it both sides, shecoulda been a contender xx
First wd have to be the Monkees…but I’m an old broad….best was when I turned 14…was given Moondance by
Van Morrison…still my favorite 44 years later.
me too! love Van Morrison….. it’s what I listen to on spotify at work :)
I’m not *such* an old broad (40 something) but the Monkees was the first official purchase too. They were on TV after school and I thought I was the biggest fan. Never occurred to me then that I was watching reruns!
Alice Cooper – Welcome to my Nightmare.
And I made a point to also make that the first CD I bought as well!
The footloose soundtrack. My best friend and I skipped school and went to see the movie! We flipped for it and drove straight to the mall and bought the album. Neither one of us had enough money to buy it on our own, so we split the cost and shared the album. A week at her house, a week at my house and so on. Have no idea where that album ended up but we adored it.
…and now I am singing…at work…
My first album was Heart – Dreamboat Annie. Still in rotation!
Elton John “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy”
Have and love, love, love it and all things Elton John!