I used money I received for my 10th birthday to buy Meet The Beatles! the week it was released in January 1964.
The first album I ever OWNED was Simon and Garfunkel’s Sounds of Silence. My 2nd grade teacher was a young, hippie, folkie nun who played that album in class a lot. I liked it, so I asked my parents to get it for me on my 8th birthday, in 1969.
But the first album I ever bought with my own money? Probably the debut album by Boston, in 1976.
The Monkees Greatest Hits, on the Colgems label, but I can’t find a picture of the cover online anywhere. It is blue with the band’s name in red letters, and also featured a stylized golden LP on the front. On the back it had a b&w picture of Jones, Nesmith and Dolenz.
I’m pretty sure I still have it packed away in my boxes of LPs, but I’m positive it’s no longer in a condition to even be played.
Pink Floyd’s The Wall, followed by Led Zeppelin IV.
Cream - Disraeli Gears followed by Led Zeppelin
The Ventures Play Telstar, The Lonely Bull - early 1963.
Like a million other 7th-graders, I sat in my room listening to that album playing along with it on the Silvertone guitar my parents had given me!
Appetite for Destruction. I was 10.
The Doors.
Still have it.
Queen - A night at the Opera
It was one of those old K-Tel collections. I don’t remember its title but some of the songs on it were “Frankenstein” by the Edgar Winters Group, “Lola” by the Kinks, and “Mississippi Queen” by Mountain.
All my LP’s were children’s records played on a little kiddy record player so I’ll have to contribute my first cassette tapes:
First tape I ever owned, parents bought it for my first tape player: The Thompson Twins “Into The Gap”.
First tape purchased with my own money: Cyndi Lauper’s “She’s So Unusual”
Second tape purchased with my own money: Gowan’s “Strange Animal” (my mom refused to buy it for me because it has a song called “A Criminal Mind” on it, lol.)
First album bought with my own money was a “as seen on TV” type album called “Certified Gold.” It had songs by .38 Special, Pat Benatar, and The Police. Pretty much all staples of what is now Classic Rock. I think it was about 1980.
My first “I bought it myself!” album was Sgt. Pepper. I had grown up listening to my mom’s Beatle albums but for some reason she didn’t have Pepper or Magical Mystery Tour. She got me MMT for Christmas. That would have been in 1982 or 1983.
The next one was Eddie Murphy’s “Delirious.” I have eclectic tastes.
I bought the 2 albums together.
Or “Hawn-uh”
ETA: (“In a gadda-da-vida, hawn-uh”)
First album I ever bought was “Introducing The Beatles”, Vee-Jay mono. Got it at J.C. Penney. January or February '64, at the ripe old age of 13.
Second album IEB was “Meet The Beatles” Capitol mono, about a month later.
Third: “Beatles Second Album” Capitol mono, when it was released.
I’m pretty sure this was my first album too. But my memory on this is vague. It could have been AC/DC’s Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. I just can’t remember which one I bought first.
Blondie, Autoamerican
“Fab 5 Freddy told my everyone’s fly…”
Are you me? Same album, same year, and there was a nun involved in my choice–my aunt, who had songs from the album recorded on a little reel-to-reel tape recorder.
It was one of these three, which I bought all around the same time:
- Motels - All Four One
- Def Leppard - Pyromania
- Berlin - Pleasure Victim
All were cassette tapes.