I was brought up with music. My parents had catholic tastes and a wide selection of music when I was a young child. It was, of course 78 rpm records played on a wind-up gramophone which was a wedding present from my Mother's place of work. I still have lots of old 78 rpm records even though I got rid of my hundreds of LPs. Except, that is, for the first one that I bought. I was 16. I bought it at Rushworth and Draper in Liverpool on the corner of Whitechapel and Richmond Street. How is it that I can remember all that but not how old I am?
The record was, rather predictably I suppose at the time, some Tchaikovsky pieces played by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra C Sir Malcolm Sargent. It was an orchestra I listened to at the "Liverpool Phil" almost every week during the season.
As time goes by our tastes tend to alter, some would say mature, and that probably wouldn't be my first CD now. On the other hand in 'classical music' terms my tastes are still late Classical (Mozart and Haydn for example), Romantic and post-romantic.
I wonder how many of you recall what your first record/CD was. It's interesting that in another 10 years people may well not be buying CDs in any number and music will generally be streamed.
Started out buying 45s (all I could afford) back in 1962, but first LP album I bought--and still a favorite--was The Beatle's Rubber Soul - 1964. Moved to US from UK that year. Still have it--played so frequently it should look like a piece of lace.
ReplyDeleteMy parents also had a huge selection of 78s and other LPs. Everything from jazz, classical, Cuban (Prez Prado), Sinatra(and the rest of the Rat Pack) to Mario Lanza. 78s are very heavy compared to LPs. Remember taping a dime (10 cents US--about size/weight of sixpence back then) on the arm of the record player--over top of the needle--to keep the record from skipping.
Mary, oddly, as a Liverpudlian, I didn't buy many Beatles LPs partly because their music was all around me all the time. However, that was a myth because when I gave all my LPs to Oxfam a couple of years ago there were quite a few Beatles ones amongst them. I didn't have Rubber Soul which, despite being one of their best albums, didn't really etch itself into my mind. Our respective parents obviously both had very catholic tastes in music.
DeleteMy first albums were kids' stuff - Mighty Mouse, Rudyard Kipling reading "The Elephant's Child", etc. When I was approaching teen years, it was Shaun Cassidy, The Monkees, and Donny Osmond. Early 20's, it was heavy metal - Poison, Man O'War, Van Halen, Ronnie James Dio, etc.
ReplyDeleteNow? I've got my mom's Columbia Viva-Tonal cabinet gramophone, so it's 78rpm records of Al Bowlly and Charlie Kunz... and for my regular turntable, it's Billie Holiday, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, and some vintage Monkees albums I found!
Marcheline, I'm not sure that there was 'kids stuff' around on records when I was that young but perhaps my parents just didn't have any. I think the nearest to a children's programme was 'Listen With Mother' on the BBC Light Programme for 15 minutes every weekday afternoon. The Monkees didn't exist until I was in my 20s so nothing of theirs can be 'vintage'....really. No it can't.
DeleteYou brought some memories back to me here. My father loved his radiogram and had a huge collection of 78s, 45s and then LPs. He had quite an eclectic taste in music and also used to tune into the shortwave on the gramophone/radio.
ReplyDeleteMy first 45 was Sandy Shaw's 'Puppet on a String' and first LP was the musical 'Hair.' Those were the days! :)
Margaret, I'm happy to have brought back some memories which, from the yaw you speak, were obviously good memories. I, too, liked Sandie Shore but my first musical (which I saw when I was in London for a visit when I was about 21) was Lionel Bart's Blitz.
DeleteMy first record was "Return to Sender" by Elvis Presley and my first album - shared with my brothers - was "With The Beatles". Your mother had a lovely first name - Flora but an odd surname - "Body". Your father might have said, "I am going to marry a Body!" before meeting her at the altar.
ReplyDeleteYP, your Elvis song was a great choice in my book. I always though that "With The Beatles" was better known for its sleeve than its name. It was one of their less catchy album titles although the songs were, of course, good. Growing up used to the name 'Body' I've not thought of it in that context before. I'm rather glad that it wasn't my surname though.
DeleteYes, I remember the first LP I bought and I still have it. It's a Night in Vienna by 101 strings.
ReplyDeleteRed. That was a wonderful album and it must have been one of the most widely distributed light classical albums ever. I seem to recall that it had Tales From The Vienna Woods on it.
DeleteMy people were readers, not listeners to music. Eventually someone gave me an old wind-up player and a few records. The music was a very odd mix of 1930/40's American music. I do remember the Andrews Sisters being amongst them. I'm not sure that I particularly liked any of the music, but I played all the records constantly.
ReplyDeleteMy Mother was a reader and a musician. I don't know how she managed it all. We had a piano and a harmonium in the house and more books than you could shake a stick at. Anyway it certainly rubbed off on her children.
DeleteI really shouldn't tell you this as it tends to diminish my street credibility. I am still embarrassed to say this, it's very poofy.........Downtown by Petula Clark. My less discriminate friends took the piss mercilessly so I learn't and never bought any more singles but relied on my sisters collection.
ReplyDeleteThat comment, Adrian, shows that inside that macho, non-PC, irreverent, rebellious facade there is a kind and gentle soul who wouldn't hurt a wasp. That's why I respect you. Petula Clark.🤣. You ain't going to live that one down in a hurry.
DeleteI did think it brave to broadcast to the world.
DeleteMy sister's choice was worse but didn't attract the same derision. She used to buy records by a bloke in a flat hat that played the piano. I know one of his songs was 'Alone Again naturally'. Can't recall his name, thank god! I was never a Beetles fan partly because their music had sharps and flats in and they are hard to play on a flute. I then realised that folk nights were great. I could impress the totty by only joining in with the easy bits and adopting a wise expression during the hard bits which most other folkists made a dogs dinner of anyway. Great days, I still recall with lust an Irish lass called Dorkus. She was a superb penny whistler. Though her penchant for mini skirts and perfectly white knickers left more of an impression. I remember lending her a very posh whistle with an ivory blowy bit. She gave it a blow and said it was crap. I took her bike racing at Darley Moor and whilst I was out risking life and limb in the teeming rain she ran off with a mechanic, faithless hussy. I was a bit miffed but an eleventh place finish out of sixteen and stopping upright lessened the blow.
My first record was a cover version of 'High Hopes' bought from Woolworths and played on Mum & Dad's radiogram cabinet. Later I got my own Dansette player when at secondary school and for me The Shadows were all important. Lesley
ReplyDeleteLesley, The owner of a Dansette at secondary school must have been quite the thing. The Shadows were brilliant musicians and I totally go with that. I don't know High Hopes though. I must look that up.
DeleteWoolworths always had rip off music. I don't know why they were never sued.
DeleteOddly, Adrian, I never knew that.
DeleteThe first records my sister and I had were gifts from our parents and grandparents, fairytale plays that sometimes were rather scary (I remember how the voice of one of the witches spooked me out so much I always left the room shortly before I knew she was going to come on).
ReplyDeleteThe first music 7" I was given was "Daddy Cool" by Boney M, for my 10th birthday in 1978. The first 7" I bought from my own pocket money was "Fade to Grey" from Visage. The first album my sister and I bought together from our pocket money was Speak & Spell by Depeche Mode.
Meike, you are just so far past my early music days that you are making me almost feel my real age.
DeleteIt's a beautiful record player. I wouldn't sniff at Tchaikovsky. You can wave your arms around and 'conduct'. One of my first records was 'My Boy Lollypop' by Milly which I won at a Christmas bazaar.
ReplyDeleteLucy, that's nearer an era that I can relate to. And, yes, I sometimes used to 'conduct' my records when there was no one around. It was amazing how the orchestra responded 😂.
DeleteWhen I was a child living in a third-floor apartment in a house in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, around 1946 or 1947, I listened to a 78rpm recording made by singer John Charles Thomas of Albert Hay Malotte's arrangement of The Lord's Prayer. . It was one of two 78rpm recordings that I played over and over on a wind-up, hand-cranked, old Victrola gramophone in a large wooden cabinet. The other recording I listened to over and over in those days was country/western/hillbilly song called “I'm Goin’ Back to Whur I Come From” that included the immortal line, “whur the mockin’ bird is singin’ in the lilac bush”.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember the first record I actually bought but I was a member of the Columbia Record Club during my late high-school and early collegiate years. Every month I would receive another 33-13 vinyl LP unless I specifically returned the card to tell the purveyors of the merchandise that I didn't want that particular month's selection that was chosen especially for me (and millions of others). One of my favorites to this day out of all the albums I bought (and which were purloined by my oldest son, the music major, for his collection) is/was Love Is The Thing by Nat "King" Cole. It is/was a Capitol record, though. I don't know how or why Columbia was sellling it.
45s were big in my yute (the 50s) and one I remember was Yakety-Yak, another was My Babby Loves The Western Movies, and who could ever forget Oh Yes, I'm The Great Pretender by The Drifters. How can I leave out Tears On My Pillow, Pain In My Heart Over You by Little Anthony and The Imperials? (I can't.)
33-1/3
Deletealso Baby, not Babby
DeleteBob, my parents had Mockin' Bird Hill which was very catchy indeed. Oh Yes, I'm The Great Pretender by The Drifters was a great choice. I had a few of Nat "King" Cole's albums too.
DeleteI'd completely forgotten about the 'send you each month unless you decline beforehand' sales technique. I wonder if it's used at all these days.
"Tra la la, twiddle de dee dee, it gives me a thrill to wake up in the mornin' on MOckin' Bird Hill" -- that is an entirely different song. Not the one I was referring to.
DeleteI also enjoy classical music a great deal but don't hear it as often as I'd like. Smetana. Faure. I used to be able to play a passable Rachmaninoff's C=Sharp Minor Prelude on the piano, and Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata, but these days my fingers probably wouldn't co-operate.
Sorry, Bob, I knew they were different songs it's just that you made me remember Mockin' Bird Hill.
DeleteI do so envy you your pianistic abilities. Mine were non-existent in that I'd never have been able to play well enough to satisfy myself. I think that my Mum was rather disappointed but even she realised that trying to make me play the piano would not be time well spent.
My first bought with my own money was a 45rpm recording by Elvis. Our first album bought after our marriage in 1957 was by Frank Sinatra. I still have both these.
ReplyDeleteJill, it's quite impressive that you still have them. Can you still play them?
DeleteNo, sadly the players have gone with the wind!
DeleteWhat a coincidence! This week I've been posting on my FB, every day, music that my brother bought when he purchased his first record player...the first in our household...back in 1959. The first record he bought was "Rockin' Robin" by Bobby Day! I've been doing this as a tribute to my brother who passed away 6th June, 1998....and the 6th is drawing ever so close once again...
ReplyDeleteOur taste in music was a catholic taste, too. I've written often on my blog about my love of music...and how it played a major role in my childhood, and in the childhood of my now late brother. We love classical music...we loved the great tenors...
The first record I bought when I left school...out of my first week's wages was a 45rpm of Gene Krupa! I loved Gene Krupa...from when I was a little girl. I was 15 years old when I bought that very first record of mine....July, 1960!!!
Lee, that is a few coincidences. Not only the fact that you've been similarly posting but also that my first LP was probably bought in July/August 1960 too.
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ReplyDeleteI'm not sure which was my very first record but I think it may have been one with Cliff Richard given to me together with my record player when I was in my pre-teens. My first LP I really loved was with a Swedish group called Hep Stars though. Super popular when I was like 11-12. One of the members was Benny Andersson, later ABBA... A few years later, my new favourites were Simon & Garfunkel. (Still a major favourite with me, I've continued to follow Paul Simon over the years.) I think my first classical LP may have been Holst The Planets. Not sure why, probably a rather random purchase. I never had a large collection of vinyls. My record player broke and then or many years I only had a cassette tape recorder/player. My brother helped transfer my vinyl LPs to tapes. Then with CDs I built up a new collection, also including most of those I had once had on vinyl.
ReplyDeleteHolst's The Planets would be a good choice in my book too. Quite adventurous really. I had at least one Simon and Garfunkel LP.
DeleteI must tell you that I saw the Disney film "Sleeping Beauty" with my little sister when I was 13 and she was 3. I didn't know how much I would love it just because I adored the music! I had no idea it was music by Tchaikovsky until a few years later. (No internet in those days to instantly look things up!) I also love the Nutcracker too.
ReplyDeleteMy love for classical music is from cartoons. I must have watched a lot of them! Now, my very first CD, I can remember that one...it was a CD of The Hits of Elvis Presley! And we only bought singles when I was a kid, couldn't afford albums until I was a teenager. Lucky for us, my Dad was good friends with a man who owned a record store and he used to give my Dads singles to bring home for the "kids'. Nice friend.
Kay, music comes at us from all sorts of interesting places and films like the one you mentioned and The Sorcerer's Apprentice brought 'classical' music to many who may not otherwise have become familiar with it. Your first CD (and not an LP) shows that you are a mere youngster compared to oldies like me.
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ReplyDeleteThe first record I ever bought was The Nolan Sisters Greatest Hits and i'd saved up for it with pocket money and birthday money, makes me laugh to think about it now but even more is the fact that I now as an adult listen to the same music my dad use to listen to when I was growing up, funny how our tastes change as we get older.
ReplyDeleteAmy, I well remember The Nolan Sisters (probably because they were Irish and I had a Liverpool background - or possibly because they were very attractive!) but the only song that springs to mind was one of their later ones "I'm in the Mood for Dancing."
DeleteThe first record I bought was one of Beethoven's Symphonies. It was a Christmas present for my parents. I was eleven/twelve years old and a friend of my parents helped me to get hold of it. I am not given to name dropping so won't mention who that friend was - lest you faint. I also won't mention that my mother told me that I should have chosen one of the other symphonies (the ninth and for the most ridiculous reason), rather than the one I did. I don't know why yet that comment stings to this day. It sort of set the tone (!), not at first but decades down the line, of what our relationship has become.
ReplyDeleteI am sure the second record I ever bought was for my best friend, my third for my boyfriend (later husband); he played the violin. I don't think I ever bought a record for myself. My life is jam packed (always has been) with people who are so into music spanning centuries I am being fed by osmosis. Which is, possibly, the reason why when I am on my own I rarely listen to anything. I find music hugely distracting and, largely, will only listen to it when that is what is expected of me. To listen. To music. Not that it needs a concert hall. My son will sit me down - on the sofa. "Mama, listen to this". And I do. My horizons have expanded no end. I never knew there was so much I didn't know. And, most likely, still don't.
Hope you are well, Graham,
U
Ursula, I'm not given to fainting! I know exactly why that comment stings to this day. I was fortunate to have wonderful parents but I know many who didn't.
DeleteI listen to music (almost always 'classical') most of the time particularly if I am out walking on my own. However when I need to concentrate properly on something I pause it or switch it off. In the morning I listen to one particular programme which provides me with endless surprises and new composers.
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ReplyDeleteMy parents favorite music was what's often classified as " Big Bands" and growing up, I listened to Glen Miller, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman and also watched popular TV shows where their music was performed by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore, Andy Williams and others. We also have many LPs with similar music, but, when it came time to purchase my own LPs, choices were the Beach Boys and the Beatles. Current preferences range from easy listening to jazz and some classical although I am not familiar with specific composers.
ReplyDeleteBeatrice, I had a couple of Glen Miller LPs. No collection would have been complete without them. My view is that the wider one's musical tastes the greater one's enjoyment can be.
DeleteAgnieszka, Thank you for your comment.
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