My home cleanout and organizing continues. I am staring down boxes of a lot of obsolete formats like VHS, CDs, cassettes and albums. What do I keep? What do I get rid of? When do you need the hard copy of a memory?
When I was 12 years old I got my first album. I still have it.
The album had a big sticker on it stating you had to be 18 years old to buy it. I was not. Putting on mascara and my best pair of Road Runners wouldn’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 can be hilarious if I try very hard and you're just coming out of dental surgery in.
I probably haven’t listened to this album since I was 16. I thought about listening to it a decade ago when Robin Williams died and then didn't. I'm hesitant because I have no idea if I’ll think it’s funny or sad or dated or timely.
I don't think I want to lose the memory I have of it. What if I think it's awful, I hate it, and question every thought I've ever had about everything while I was 12? What then?
Now onto the first music album I bought.
I have no idea how we got there or 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 I strongly believe it should be one word and I am rebelling against the two worded highschool spelling.
I realize I achieve nothing with this protest.
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.
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 without pretence.
I don't know what the second or the last album I bought was but I feel attached to them. Plus I have a turntable. So even though I rarely play them and when I do I feel like I've just sat down to listen before I have to get up and flip the album over, I am going to dedicate several linear feet of storage to vinyl.
My cassettes will all be given away or chucked. There are a couple rarer ones that I might have transferred to digital. The CDs ... omg the CDs. I worked as a music reporter for a few years in the 90's and I have almost every CD made in those years.
I also have all the CDs I bought myself in the years before and after my time at MuchMoreMusic.
But I don't own a CD player.
And a CD just doesn't have the patina of an album.
So I'm going to go through all of the CDs and just make note of any I remember loving - a Steve Poltz record comes to mind - and then I'll buy it in digital form.
I have Tupperware BINS of VHS tapes of almost every SINGLE time I was on television. There are hours and hours and hours of my life on television starting from when I first volunteered on local cable to the next 10 years of hosting shows, most of them daily.
I'd love to just hand the boxes to someone and say please convert everything and deliver them back with a bag of chips please. Maybe I will. Years ago I did a sponsored post for Legacybox and they really did do a great job of converting stuff for me, but there must be a local place I can try as well. I'll have to look into it.
You know what’s coming now. Now I'm going to ask you what YOUR first album was.
I'm excited to hear the answers.
Hettie
Frampton Comes Alive
Ellen Janik
My first album was Tapestry by Carole King, which I played constantly. I still have the album and still love to this day.
Karen
That's a classic. Excellent choice. ` karen!
John Moore
Older than you. Older than dirt.
It was not an album. It was a 45. That's what we bought in the record store . . . after we were allowed to listen to it in the listening booth. But I didn't have to listen. I knew I liked it. It was a Roy Orbison song. But I can't remember which one.
You (and I) will have to continue living without the full completion of this story. Le sigh.
Karen
If you were older than dirt your first album would have been a 78 so you're good. ;) ~ karen!
John Moore
Fair enough, Those were my Dad's records . . . which I grew up listening to . . . swing, horn, piano, crooners. You?
Jan in Waterdown
Pretty Woman?? That’s one of my all time faves that I love to sing along with and do the harmony.
John Moore
"Pretty Woman" would have been a classy choice. But, that's not me. It was probably: "Running Scared", https://www.goldradiouk.com/artists/roy-orbison/greatest-best-top-ranked/
Jane
Not an album, we bought 45s. My friends brought me The Beatles “I Want To Hold Your Hand” from England. I had a Beatles record before any of my friends.
Diana
Elton John Greatest Hits - Bought it when I was 8 or 9.
Arli
My first album was really 2 double-albums which I received as a gift: the Beatles “Red” Album and The Beatles “Blue” Album.
Marcia Milanoski
I remember how excited I was when I bought my first album! It was the Byrds…Mr Tamborine Man
Karen
I bet you felt like a real grown up when you bought it. ~ karen!
Linda J Howes
The first album I received was a gift for my thirteenth birthday. I had just seen this amazing animated movie about a kid who was born without a point in a land where everybody had one. The point of the story is still very pointed, you don't have to have a point to have a point. The soundtrack was incredible and one day came home to hear all the songs being played by my brother in his basement bedroom of awesomeness. I was so excited to realize you could actually buy it that he bought it for me for my birthday. Harry Nilsson, The Point. Still one of my all time favourites to this day.
First album I bought was James Taylor, Sweet Baby James. Again, a favourite.
I still have both these albums.
Cassabdra E
I had that album! I have it on DVD now. I remember introducing it to my husband. We had a cat named Errol (Flynn) at the time, and my husband would sing "me and my Errol" to him. It was close to arrow.
One of the best albums ever.
Brenda
Not sure if it was Beach Boys “Endless Summer” or Supertramp “Crime of the Century”. Still have them both. I can’t get rid of my albums and turntable either. I retire in 2 months and can’t wait to have the time to play them more, then. Also - love Steve Poltz!
Karen
I interviewed him (that's where I got his CD originally) and seem to remember him having a foot fetish. Yup. ~ karen!
Linda Row
I can't remember the first album I bought and haven't had a record player for a long time.
I did want to say, Karen, that you should listen to Robin. I doubt very much that you would be disappointed. He was always brilliant. 💔
Emie
First album: The Carpenters
First 8 track: Bobby Sherman
but the album I remember most is Meatloaf. A roommate in college played it NON-Stop. Over and over again, and again.
Lynne
Meet The Beatles. I was 11. I still have it!
Kim Mittelsteadt
My very first album I bought at age 12 or 13 was Elton John's "Your Song". I played it constantly on my little portable record player. I remember I had to save my babysitting money because it was $3.95, which was a lot when babysitting was .50 an hour.
Cindy McCammon
First 45 was Something is Happening by Herman's Hermits (Little Miss Sorrow Child of Tomorrow was the B side).
First album was Greatest Hits by the Fifth Dimension. I can still belt out Wedding Bell Blues.
Karen Nelson
The Best of Helen Reddy. I would live to say that my favorite song was I Am Woman, but I was 12. It was I Don't Know Hiw to Love Him.
Darla
Bobby Sherman...around 1970.
Pat
1969 - Jimi Hendrix Experience Album
Khalen Meredith
Great question!
America - America’s Greatest Hits
Genesis - Selling England by the Pound
Kim
I'm this old...The Partridge Family.
Marie Anne
I think it's so fitting that Robin Williams was your first album 😊 My first grown-up album was the Stampeders. "Knock three times on the ceiling if you want meeee....."
All my albums, cassettes and CDs are long gone. Just didn't have the space and my mom sold her house and I couldn't keep them there.
Eileen
I bought two on that fateful day: the soundtrack to Hair ans Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water. I'm sure this (a) dates me, and (b) says something profound about me psychologically. Or not.
Jan in Waterdown
Never bought Hair but I saw the theatre production at the Royal Alex in Toronto in 1970 and was shocked by the nudity 🤷🏼♀️ “Bridge” is a great singalong tune! Got that one too.
Eileen
Strangely, I finally saw the movie this past year or so! But the songs were all over the radio at the time.