I’d bet that most people’s earliest memories of music would come in the form of a lullaby, something hummed or sung around the house by a parent or older sibling, maybe even something heard in church or school.
But what is your earliest memory of something in the way of music you heard on the radio or TV or on record?
In my case it would have to be radio. It may have been either Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller, George Shearing, or some unidentifiable country, big band or maybe even “light classics” thing. We’re talking WWII era here.
If I had to grab a title it might be “I Hear A Rhapsody” by Sinatra.
Born in 1974…the two songs that evoke the strongest memories of my earliest childhood are Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty and Grease by Frankie Valli.
I have no real memory of hearing those songs at the time, but whenever I hear them now, memories of being about 3 or so come rushing to the foreground in my mind…
petula clark’s “downtown”. i remember hearing it while riding a train down to norfolk , virginia with my mom and sibs during the cuban missle crisis. i was 4 or 5 and listened to the song dozing next to a nice lady who let me use her arm as a headrest
My father played The Who’s Tommy incessantly for the first three years of my life. Then, when I was five, my parents took me to see the Ken Russell film, reinforcing the songs in my head.
And they named me Tommy.
So, in answer to your question, I suppose that John Entwistle’s french horn at the beginning of the “Overture” is the sound most likely to induce flashbacks for me.
Eve, you rule! That’s the best story–better than ANYTHING I could come up with.
Dad always listened to classical on the radio, but I don’t remember any of it. The first one I’m sure I remember is on the crystal set I built myself (with bakalite headphones)–I fell asleep with the 'phones on and dreamed that I was singing White Rabbit on stage with Grace. It was a bummer to wake up.
Probably some country song from the mid 70s since that’s most of what my family listened to; perhaps even the theme songto Hee Haw or the “Where o’ where” song.
But I do have a clear memory of listening to “Lucky Man” by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer on the car radio while my mom was taking me to day care one cold morning. But it was once the song was no longer new, since that song is a little before my time to have heard it when first released.
And that post makes it official, add me to the list of people wanting Eve to publish her memoirs.
I remember hearing “The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane” by the Ames Brothers on the radio when I was about three years old. Just checked and saw that it was #3 on the billboard charts in 1954.
Y’all already knew I’m old, didn’t you?
My earliest radio memory is “Joy To the World” by Three Dog Night. I loved that song because it conjured images of cute little froggies drinking wine. That was 1971, so I was 3.
I also loved my parents’ copy of Carole King’s Tapestry, also 1971.
I can’t place one specific song. Here are the earliest ones.
My older brother had made a tape that I listened to repeatedly. On it was a popular version of “Tammy” sung by a male trio or quartet (might have been the Ames Brothers that Labdad mentioned). (Also on the tape: some popular quasi-middle east number, the Saint-Saens aria “My heart at thy sweet voice”, Rossini’s “Il Signor Bruschino” overture, “Mr. Magoo and the Hi-fi”, a couple of episodes of “X Minus 1”, and an episode of “Sleep No More”. I memorized most of that tape.)
Others:
“How Much Is That Doggy In the Window”
“Close the Door” ("…they’re hanging from the ceiling,
those beep-beep-beep-beep beep-beep are everywhere.")
I don’t really remember listening to Handel’s Messiah in that same period, but I must have listened to it many times because I do distinctly remember trying to sing one of the alto arias to myself from memory and coming pretty close.
(I also had plenty of kid’s records with stories set to music, like Raymond Scott’s “By Rocket to the Moon” and Disney stuff. But I’m getting off-topic.)
Besides the lullabyes my Bedstemor (Danish grandmother) would sing me?
The first recorded music I remember was from playing a 45 single with Frankie Laine’s recording of “Moonlight Gambler” on the A side and Rudy Valle singing “My Time is Your Time” on the flipside with this little suitcase record player we had. We also had a LP story of “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp” with a B side of “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” that I would listen to.
The biggest joy was when I discovered how, if you moved the select lever to a position in between 33 1/3 and 45 RPM, the platter would de-clutch and you could spin the record backwards. Now, that’s entertainment! At least for a four year old.
“Dark Side of the Moon.” The entire album. I heard it when I was about 12 years old and was sent into absolute paroxysms of deja vu. The sensation was almost frightening, as if I were hearing on record the music I’d been hearing in the back of my mind forever without knowing it. I mentioned it to my mom, and she said, “Oh, sure, you probably heard it a thousand times when you were little.”
Dexy’s Midnight Runners. My earliest memory of “Come on Eileen” is from Friday Night Videos.
As far as the radio goes, for some reason Thomas Dolby with “She Blinded Me with Science” sticks in my head. Was in the back of my fathers 1980 Chevette.
First radio memory: A recording of a song called Birds in the Forest.. You could hear the sound of birds chirping. I found old sheet music by that name, but I don’t know if it is the came one. It just sits there and doesn’t chirp.
First record memory: When I was 2 or 3 I disappeared at a resort where my parents were staying. My father found me at the dancehall dancing by myself to “Sentimental Journey.” I remember that.
The first recorded music I remember hearing is my father’s LP of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue” and its flip side, Joseph Kuhn’s “Symphony For Blues.” This goes back to 1959. I remember being at my grandmother’s house and hearing 78s of The Diamonds’ “Ka Ding Dong” and The Dell Vikings’ “Come Go With Me” and Eddie Dean’s “I Dreamed Of A Hillbilly Heaven” b/w “Stealin’”, the latter of which is just a stellar song. One day I took it to school for Show And Tell, and I fell off my bike and the record cracked. It would take me 38 years to find another copy!
As for lullabyes, I had always thought I wasn’t “ethnic” until I realized the first songs/words I remember hearing were in German. Guess I am, after all.
