I don’t think I’ve ever bought a single.
In 1989, I was given the Beach Boys’ Still Cruisin’ because “Kokomo” was my favorite song. (I was 6 or 7).
A couple of years later I bought the soundtrack to Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey because I hadn’t quite figured out that just because I liked the movie didn’t mean I would like the soundtrack.
Those were CDs. I had had a record player since I was really little, but the only records I played were kids songs and read-along companions to kids books.
The first single I was given was Alison Huttley’s Rabbit Tales on green vinyl, at about the age of 9.
The first I bought myself was Walking In Rhythm by The Blackbyrds.
My first album was Bowie’s Young Americans.
My first album was Andy Gibb’s Shadow Dancing.
Why yes, I was a young lad during the disco rage, why do you ask?
Pump, Aerosmith, 1989 (I was 9). I liked “Janie’s Got a Gun.”
Never bought a single.
No singles.
First album I was given was the soudtrack to Disney’s animated Robin Hood as a wee tyke ;).
The first I purchased for myself was Santana’s Moonflower around age 13 or 14 ( 15? ).
I never bought singles (which we called 45’s)–I had 3 older sisters and an older brother who did. We had a box that held them: Partridge Family, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Jackson Brown, Beatles, Gladys Knight and the 3 Pips, I can’t remember anymore except for Shimmy Shimmy Coco Pop. Good tunes, man.
The first album I bought with my own money (I never received albums as presents–my parents considered rock to be children’s music/noise) was Steve Miller’s Book of Dreams. The second was Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.
45: either The Israelites, by ?, or Build Me Up Buttercup, by The Foundations.
LP: One of these three: Deja Vu, Tommy, or Led Zeppelin II
Desmond Dekker.
“Ooh, me ears are alight!”
45 : Come Together - Aerosmith
Album : Alice Cooper - Schools Out
Technically my first album was “At Home With Ernie and Bert” but I am sure this thread is deeper than that.
Given:**
Jackson 5- Greatest Hits** (On Cassette No less!)
Bought:**
No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom**.
There are a LOT of classics listed here. The posters could be the appropriate age to have purchased them in their youths, or they could have purchased them knowing that they were already “classics.”
My selections, on the other hand, are embarassing:
1st 45 (that’s a **single **to you youngsters): “I Think I Love You” by The Partridge Family. (or, more importantly, by David Cassidy…{swoon})
1st album (that’s a big, round disc of vinyl to you young’uns): “Meet the Bradys” featuring Greg, Marcia, Peter, Jan, Bobby, and Cindy.
I broke the single by throwing it at my older brother in a fit. I still have the album.
When I was in 2nd grade, back in the Sixties, my teacher was a hippie-folkie young nun who played a lot of Simon & Garfunkel in class. I loved the music, so for my 8th birthday in 1969, I asked my parents for Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence” album. I got it.
The first .45 I ever bought was years later… I’m pretty sure it was Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die,” around 1973.
Oh God, this is embarrassing.
The first album I ever bought?
Def Leppard
Adrenalize
I remember thinking it rocked pretty hard. In my defense, I was 11.
My first single came earlier and was a lot more fun - my mom bought me the Los Lobos cover of La Bamba, which was popular at the time. I was six. This was the first and last vinyl I ever owned. I remember trying really hard to get the Spanish lyrics so I could sing along. I butchered them pretty bad, I’m sure, but I had fun. I also remember putting this record on and dancing like a madman with my friend in his parent’s basement. Things were a lot more innocent and fun when you could just bust out like a fool with your best bud. 
Single: Waterloo/Abba
Album #1: Dreamboat Annie/Heart
Album #2: Chicago IX (Greatest)
Album #3: Eagles Greatest 1971-1975
I’m sorry. 
First Album given to me: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
First Album bought by me: Rumours
First Single bought by me: Good Times (wasn’t much into singles)
Hell, I forgot. Before Rumours, I got my 8 year-old hands on a Columbia house ordering form - 8 LP’s for $.01! WTF? This is awesome!!!
I’m quite positive that once the albums arrived, I had perhaps the finest collection of Elton John albums owned by any eight year-old in the Atlanta area, possibly the country. 
Every single album was a EJ album - his live album, Madman Across the Water, Don’t Shoot Me (I’m only the Piano player), all eight.
First single–I think it was some disco tune…“Fly Robin Fly,” I believe;
First album–KISS “Alive” ;
First CD–Def Leppard-“Pyromania”
Not counting the children’s records my mother bought for us.
First single: My older cousin Linda, at the height of Beatlemania, kindly gave me her 45 of “And I Love Her” / “If I Fell” because I had no Beatles record of my own.
First album: A collection of pop hits, on an album put out by the Milwaukee AM radio station WOKY circa 1968. I paid three-something dollars for it. Probably still have it somewhere.
Single - I Want To Hold Your Hand The Beatles my parents bought it for me when I was 10.
LP - Best of the Easybeats + Pretty Woman The Easybeats when I was 13 and started working after school.
As kath94 has said, two things stand out from this thread: what good taste most Dopers have, and how many of the choices are either recognised as classics or are well known.
I suppose the more obscure artists don’t appear on a young person’s radar.
