Excluding artists you really like (enough to have an entire album by, say) what songs in your collections were released before you were born? In other words, artists whose music predates you that you have a casual interest in.
While it’s fun to see what people really like from “way back when” when those threads arise, it might be interesting to see what else caught your attention, too. Your personal one hit wonders from days gone by.
Born in 1977:
Andy Pratt “Avenging Annie”
Aretha Franklin “Chain of Fools”
Blue Oyster Cult “Don’t Fear The Reaper”
Bob Dylan “Hurricane”
Bobby Vee “Run To Him”
Bread “Everything I Own”
Brian Eno “Baby’s On Fire”
Cat Stevens “Wild World”
Cher “Dark Lady”
Creedence Clearwater Revival “Who’ll Stop The Rain”
David Essex “Rock On”
Deep Purple “Smoke on the Water”, “Hush”
Don Mclean “Vincent”
Doobie Brothers “Black Water”
Dusty Springfield “Son Of A Preacher Man”
Heart “Magic Man”, “Crazy On You”
Helen Reddy “Angie Baby”
Jefferson Airplane “Someone To Love”, “White Rabit”
Joan Baez “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”
Lemon Pipers “Rice Is Nice”
Lynyrd Skynyrd “Simple Man”
Neil Young “Heart of Gold”
Question Mark [?] & the Mysterians “96 Tears”
Sam the Sham & the Pharoahs “Lil’ Red Riding Hood”
Simon and Garfunkel “The Boxer”, “The Sounds of Silence”
Steely Dan “Reelin’ In The Years”
The Bryds “Jesus Is Just Alright” , “It Won’t Be Wrong”
The Grass Roots “Temptation Eyes”, “Let’s Live For Today”
The Velvet Underground “Pale Blue Eyes”
Tommy James “Hanky Panky”
Van Morrison “Moon Dance”
Willie Nelson “I Never Cared For You”
I’m 26. I’d say 75% of my collection dates from before I was born.
The oldest music I listen to regularly is by John McCormack, some of which was recorded in the 1910s.
I’ve got that one, too – plus several other old Carter Family tunes. My favorite is “I’m Thinking Tonight of my Blue Eyes.” I have some other old country stuff, older than me, too. “The Ballad of Floyd Collins (which I like becasue I remember my grandmother singing it),” “Long Black Veil,” bunch of Marty Robbins, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Patsy Cline. I’m not a huge George Jones fan, but I do have “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” which is older than I am.
I have some fold music, too – Peter, Paul & Mary, and Judy Collins among others. The songs will be older than I am, even if the recording isn’t.
And I like musicals, so I have several soundtracks with songs that are older than I am – “Guys & Dolls,” “Man of la Mancha,” “Mame,” “SHowboat.”
Dick Haymes - Little White Lies
The Elegants - Little Star
Domenico Modungo - Volare
The Kalin Twins - When
The Rock-a-teens - Woohoo
The Strawberry Alarm Clock - Incense & Peppermint (or whatever that was called)
Thunderclap Newman - Something In The Air
Zagers & Evans - In the Year 2525
Brian and Michael - Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs
I’m a classical and jazz fan, so there’s more of the collection than I can list where the composition dates way back before any of us were born, and there’s a lot where even the recording dates before I was born.
The oldest classical composition I’ve got is ‘Chants de l’église Milanaise’, which dates from the 5th century. The oldest jazz recording I have is the Louis Armstrong ‘Complete Hot Fives and Sevens’, the earliest of which is from Nov. 12, 1925
I have entire albums of MP3s older than I am in my collection, and I’m 55.
[ul]
[li]Seven selections by John Philip Sousa’s band. [/li][li]Lullabye of Broadway: The Complete Busby Berekley at Warner Brothers (due to my love of Harry Warren)[/li][li]Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin. (The Millennium Anthology)[/li][li]Original Broadway cast of Kiss Me Kate. [/li][li]Oscar Levant plays Gershwin (I have four versions of “Rhapsody in Blue” alone). [/li][li]Various public domain blues numbers.[/li][li]Songs by Tome Lehrer. [/li][li]The Best of Spike Jones.[/li][/ul]
I like the old music.
Hmm, singles only, excluding “artists I like enough to have the whole album”, that pre-date my birth? Quite a lot, far too many to list; mostly Rock and Roll and R&B from the 50s and 60s (I was born in 1970). Motown standards, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Everly Brothers, Dion, and lots of “one hit wonder” songs from the 50s like Wipeout by the Surfaris, and doo-wop songs.
Just like The Penguins, The Orioles, The Moonglows and The Four Satins – The easy stream of laughter flowing through the air: René and Georgette Magritte, with their dog après la guerre… (-Paul Simon)
I have quite a few recordings from Jazz vocalists too, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Mel Tormé and the like.
If you INCLUDE the “whole album” artists it’s not even close: Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, The Who, The Doors, etc. If you include Classical and Jazz albums, the music pre-dating my birth year in my MP3 collection (all 15 GBs of it so far) probably form a majority, maybe 55%.
I was born in 1984. I’m a huge fan of early punk music. So, a lot.
I also like a lot of early rock 'n roll (I’m quite fond of early Elvis, for example), so there’s music in my collection that was recorded before my dad was born.
Oh, tons. I have hundreds of recordings made before 1958, in fact back to the dawn of recorded sound - the 1870s:
Transcriptions of wax cylinders, Edison Diamond Discs and Berliner Graphophone discs
WWI records by Harry Lauder, up through the start of electrical recording (1927)
pre-war blues
country music’s beginnings
big bands
blues records from the labels that predated Chess (Aristocrat)
Muddy Waters’ first recordings by Alan Lomax from when he worked on the Stovall Plantation
Imperial and Specialty label R&B from New Orleans
Arguably the first rock & roll record: “Good Rockin’ Tonight” by Wynonie Harris (he beat Ike Turner with “Rocket 88” by five years)
All of Little Richard
All of Elvis on Sun, and RCA, including outtakes and unreleased material, box sets and such
Obscure, hard to find R&B, doo-wop and early rock and pop sides
I’m 49
*Excluding * classical standards (Mozart, Bach, etc) there isn’t much. I was never a big Elvis or DooWop fan.
I do have a lot of Big Band stuff, though, so I guess that qualifies.
Wow, guess I’m going to be in the minority in this thread. I’m 42, born in '66. The only song I know of for sure is The Stones - Satisfaction. I guess I prefer newer stuff/ alternative along with some '70s and 80’s classic rock.
Well yes, but we’re not talking about albums which is why I excluded from my list Elvis, Tom Petty’s first album and the Zombies. I think you might call these MP3 things “singles” or perhaps “45s.”
There’s hardly anything newer than me in my mp3 collection. Most of that isn’t even music, but comedy routines and such. My daily listening fare is pretty much pop and jazz from 1925-40.
Byrds- Turn Turn Turn
Buffalo Springfield - For what it’s worth
Dell Vikings - Come and Go with me
Donovan - Catch the Wind
Earth Wind and Fire - Reasons
Genesis - Follow you, follow me
Modern English - Melt with you (I didn’t realize this one was so old. Just barely made the list, though.)
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
Ray Charles - (Night time) Is the Right Time
Roy Orbison - Crying
The Who - Baba O’ Riley
