Oops! Forgot one:
First CD: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
Steely Dan’s Can’t Buy a Thrill. I bought it at 13, when it first came out. But hey, I still listen to it (on CD, now).
Well, a few albums mentioned already were ones I frequently listened to at a very young age (Devo, Thriller, An Alvin and the Chipmunks christmas song as a single) but all these were either owned by my dad or bought for me or given to me. (I actually had the “I am the walrus” single which scared the shit out of me but I loved it soooo much. Hello Goodbye on the B side).
But, the first album I bought with my own money and owned all to myself (in cassette tape form) was G’nR “Appetite for Destruction”
And BTW, on the best Def Leppard tune debate, let me just put my $.02 in by saying that Armaggeddon it was clearly my favorite, Photogragh probably 2nd, Rock of ages slipping in at 3rd.
The first album I bought with my own money?
I got Wang Chung’s Mosaic when I was eight, mostly because I thought ‘Everybody Have Fun Tonight’ was the best song ever.
Wow, Padeye ELO’s New World Record was my first album purchase, too. I bought it with some Xmas money in 1976.
The first single (45) I bought was on a trip to the UK in 1978, where I saw my first punks. The single was “If the Kids are United,” by Sham 69.
All the mention of “Def Leppard” causes hideous flashbacks to working in an independent record store thru the mid-to-late 80s, flogging “Saxon” keychains, “Iron Maiden” backpatches for jean jackets, and of course lots of “Kajagoogoo” posters.
Has the “Haysi Fantaysi” revival started yet?
Iron Maiden - Number Of The Beast (age 10)
It was the coolest, scariest thing I had ever heard.
Bruce Springsteen: Darkness on the Edge of Town I’ve been a Bruce fan ever since.
I hate to admit this since I can’t stand the song anymore, but the first single I bought was “Seasons in the Sun” by Terry Jacks. I think my taste has improved since then. I HOPE my taste has improved.
Keith
I think my first album was co-bought by me and my brother (we figured out early on that if we put our differences aside and pooled our money, we’d accumulate big ticket items twice as fast ;)) It was called “Funny Bone Favorites” and was a cheezy K-tel type compilation of songs like “Guitarzan” “The Name Game” and “Disco Duck.” There was also one I wish I could hear again called “Life is a Rock, but the Radio ROlled Me.” Very strange and amusing! First single was probably some dreck by Shaun Cassidy, and I can’t for the life of me think of what my first CD would’ve been!
Please don’t laugh, Captain & Tennille “Song of Joy” featuring the unforgettable Butterscotch Castle. I still have the album and sometimes play it and wonder Why? Why?
First album: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Bought it in 1974.
First CD: Sticky Fingers. Bought it last month. (BTW, the opening intro on “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking,” played REAL loud, effectively drowns out other people’s obnoxiously loud car stereos. Most effective thing I’ve found.)
REM- Automatic for the People
I guess I was eleven or so, and I had just seen them on the MTV Video Awards when they played Everybody Hurts and Drive. I also just got my first CD player for my birthday, and I made my dad buy me Automatic for the People.
I feel so…young.
The first album I ever bought with my own money was Run-D.M.C. Raising Hell. (10th grade)
The first commercially pressed album I ever owned was either Quiet Riot Metal Health or ZZ Top Eliminator. (8th grade)
Pyromania from Def Leppard was the first album I ever copied. (6th grade)
Wow, rather like a star trek movie, my musical growth was best on the even numbers.
It also led to the best question ever in Craig Kilborn’s “Five Questions” on The Daily Show. He asked Maury Povich (who is Connie Chung’s husband), “What should everybody do tonight?” Maury replied, “The same thing I’m going to do–Everybody Wang Chung Tonight.”
Dr. J
I have vague memories of buying a Cyndi Lauper tape when I was eight or nine, but the first CD I really remember buying was Never Mind the Bullocks by the Sex Pistols. I was 12 years old and thought I was such a hardass. I still have a mad crush on Johnny Rotten.
It was using babysitting money when I was about twelve or thirteen ‘Gary Puckett and the Union Gap’. The price of forty fives was more in my usual range of money!
This has been neat reading everyone’s different answers. I was a slow to CD person, since I switched from vinyl to cassettes first. The first CD was ‘Rubber Soul’
Working Class Dog by Rick Springfield. And I was 11.
If no one’s figured it out yet, we all started paying attention to pop music when we hit puberty. Yes, I was hot for Rick Springfield. I also liked J. Geils. And what I didn’t know was that by listening to the Sugar Hill Gang, I was in on the ground floor as a rap fan. 
Elton John’s Caribou. A justifiably forgotten album – it’s one of his worst – but I loved it desperately when I was 10. I soon moved on from Elton to Roxy Music and David Bowie, but he was my first real musical passion.
Catrandom, feeling nostalgic
mine was Bon Jovi’s New Jersey
i dont listen to bon jovi much anymore but i like them
Everybody else waited for the singers. I liked the comics.
First LP: Inside Shelly Berman (on the Verve label).
One of my uncles was a pilot for American Airlines. Berman’s airline routine was great!
First album(alright it was a cassette) I ever bought was oh hell it was “thriller”.
The First Album (alright ALSO a cassette) that changed my musical (and my teenage life) in general was Metallica’s “Ride the Lightening” I believe 1984.