# Did you raid your parents' record collection? What made an impression? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 18, 2011, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204 "2011-08-18T18:37:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/21 "2011-08-18T21:42:57Z")
My parents’ record collection was pretty much all pre-rock, but they did have a good selection of classical, folk, comedy, Broadway and movie soundtracks, Christmas, and other genres. What made the biggest impression on me was the Smothers Brothers albums. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/22 "2011-08-18T22:06:06Z")
> [@gazpacho](#): > > The parents also had Tom Lehrer records that I listened too. That’s something I forgot - and the only performer we all loved. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/23 "2011-08-18T22:09:30Z")
Pete Seeger, after I learned he didn’t just write kiddie tunes. I also liked Leadbelly enough that I went and got my own CD later on. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/24 "2011-08-19T00:20:11Z")
I have no idea what my parents musical tastes were, as they grew up pre-rock. You’d think big band, show tunes, classical music, or Frank Sinatra, nope nope nope nope…Though I remember the day the “hi-fi” was delivered and some Dixieland jazz album got a lot of play. My mom liked Al Martino, and polka music. Lots and lots of polka music. :rolleyes: Sheesh. My own daughter made off with my Led Zeppelin, several Greatest Hits of the 80’s, and all of my Duran Duran. :mad: She left behind a whole lot of Rammstein, Skinny Puppy, and Nine Inch Nails as a trade, if you want to call it that. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/25 "2011-08-19T00:21:39Z")
My mom had two albums that I listened to over and over and over again: The Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack album, and _Tug of War_ by Paul McCartney. I still have every song off both of these albums completely memorized. (And seriously, _Tug of War_ is a great album! If you like McCartney’s solo stuff, anyway.) ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/26 "2011-08-19T00:47:55Z")
My parents like old-style country music, so they gave us kids their Beatles, Monkees, Dave Clark Five, Mamas and the Papas, etc. albums. I like pop and rock and roll and hate country - maybe that’s why. ---
**Author:** ![Marconi\_N.Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Marconi\_N.Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marconi_N.Cheese)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/27 "2011-08-19T00:55:00Z")
Doris Day, Marty Robbins, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, lots more I can’t remember. As a young lad I was fascinated by this [album cover](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PpH8Lgy1QfA/S-GiQbQXCAI/AAAAAAAAC7w/eEcP5SxzUek/s1600/whipped+cream.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/28 "2011-08-19T00:58:18Z")
The Dubliners. Still like them to this day! ETA: Monty Python and Billy Connolly too. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/29 "2011-08-19T01:10:21Z")
> [@Marconi\_N.Cheese](#): > > Doris Day, Marty Robbins, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, lots more I can’t remember. As a young lad I was fascinated by this [album cover](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PpH8Lgy1QfA/S-GiQbQXCAI/AAAAAAAAC7w/eEcP5SxzUek/s1600/whipped+cream.jpg). Did you ever listen to the Tijuana Brass. I think that there is some law from 40 years ago requiring all dads to own that album. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/30 "2011-08-19T01:13:13Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > Oh yes! I also forgot Allan Sherman’s “My Son the…” records and [The First Family](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_Family_%28album%29). Mine too! Those two records were what I came in to mention! My folks’ record collection ended up being pretty sparse. Basically just one old wooden Cotton Club crate. However, they were tickled when we got our first car with a tape deck and went to Value City to buy some tapes of their favorite records. My mom turned us on heavy to The Beatles and Chicago. I’m still a huge fan of both bands. ---
**Author:** ![loshan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce73a5/32.png) [@loshan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/loshan)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/31 "2011-08-19T01:25:17Z")
From Mom: The New Christy Minstrels Peter Paul and Mary The Smothers Brothers The Kingston Trio - I still roam the house every once in awhile singing “They’re rioting in Africa…” The Ink Spots Bach Concerto in D-minor…recorded by ? Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass Chet Atkins Dad: Patsy Cline Brenda Lee Patsy Cline Patsy Cline Grandmother: Ella Fitzgerald - I could sit all day in front of her console stereo and listen to Ella scat back and forth across the speakers. ---
**Author:** ![loshan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce73a5/32.png) [@loshan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/loshan)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/32 "2011-08-19T01:27:24Z")
> [@gazpacho](#): > > Did you ever listen to the Tijuana Brass. I think that there is some law from 40 years ago requiring all dads to own that album. My Dad owned it for the cover art 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/33 "2011-08-19T01:40:59Z")
My dad liked Classical, my mom only had really old 70’s crap. After making fun of it for quite some time my friends and I did develop a taste for the Bee Gees [Tradegy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HwfumP9eJI) ---
**Author:** ![Snake\_Plissken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@Snake\_Plissken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snake_Plissken)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/34 "2011-08-19T02:12:03Z")
My parents were born in the late 30s. As a child I wasnt interested in much of what I heard coming out of the console hi fi. Oddly enough, they were actually influenced by alot of what I listened to and expanded their collection to include some sixties and seventies blues, rock and folk. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/35 "2011-08-19T02:53:53Z")
I would very occasionally play the original cast albums they had – I remember “Man of La Mancha” – but outside of that, their music was far different from what I like. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/36 "2011-08-19T03:08:08Z")
All of it. My folks were born in the early 50s, and I was born in 1980. We had a huge record collection in the house while I was growing up. I would pull things with interesting covers, or that I had heard and liked. It was a pretty massive and broad collection of 1960s-70s folk and rock, with some jazz thrown in. Mainstream and obscure, through many sub-genres. I remember being really intimidated by the _Court of the Crimson King_ cover, and so I never listened to it. We got a CD player pretty early on, and the folks got rid of just about all the records. Replaced many with CDs, but a lot of music just left the house. About 5 years before I was old enough to really care. ☹ But they still bought new CDs, and that’s pretty much where I got my music from. I remember mom putting on Actung Baby, or Brothers in Arms, or Graceland, or 10 Summoners Tales on the weekend while she was doing chores around the house. I didn’t buy my own CD (ie, really seek out my own music) until I was in high school. ---
**Author:** ![Chicagojeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@Chicagojeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicagojeff)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/37 "2011-08-19T03:40:14Z")
> [@gazpacho](#): > > Did you ever listen to the Tijuana Brass. I think that there is some law from 40 years ago requiring all dads to own that album. Yeah my old man had that same album.. damn those covers were cool. My parents were born in the 30’s.. The most impressed to me was the Sinatra.. “Only for Lovers” ..“Strangers in the Night”.. I hated the Johnny Mathis.. to this day i never got him.. What was strange for a black man living in the southside of Chicago was his collection of Chad Mitchell Trio and Phil Ochs records.. that and the Trini Lopez turned me on to folk music.. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/38 "2011-08-19T06:19:12Z")
I loved records as a child, still do actually. I think I tried out most of them when I was old enough to be allowed to play them. My parents had a lot of folk music, stuff like Burl Ives and Tommy Makem, songs of the old west and the civil war, etc. My father had some albums of military music as well. My older brother used to drive everyone mad by playing bagpipe recordings over and over ad nauseam. We also had quite a bit of classical stuff including Otto Klemperer. And some Gilbert and Sullivan. Oh, and there was Tom Lehrer too, of course. I also used to love to play my Great Aunt’s 78s. She had some nice music; I particularly liked the Vaughn Monroe records and the jazzy stuff like Nagasaki. She also had Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue by Oscar Levant. I eventually ended up with most of these in my collection and have added more of the same as well as branching out into other areas of interest. I just really like music. ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/39 "2011-08-19T06:33:07Z")
My mom was a carhop at the local Dairy Palace in the early 60s. Whenever they changed out the records in the jukebox, she and the other carhops had a chance to buy the old ones at a penny or a nickel apiece or some ridiculous price like that. She ended up with a massive collection of 45’s that my sister and I enjoyed greatly. We freaking wore out “Papa Oom Mow Mow” when we were small. I think she left them at Dad’s house after they split, and his bitch 2nd wife got rid of them. Damn shame. She trashed all my Rainbow Brite dolls, too. :mad: Anyway, I’m still a fan of 50s and 60s music. Didn’t stop me from becoming a big-haired headbanger in high school, though. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/40 "2011-08-19T06:36:46Z")
I found out that, between my parents, they have all of the Beatles albums on those weird record things. I’ve already called them, they’re mine. MINE! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204.md?page=3)