# What was your first album/CD purchase? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 15, 2000, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774 "2000-12-15T17:51:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![porcupine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac91a4/32.png) [@porcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/porcupine)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774/21 "2000-12-15T19:11:33Z")
**First Vinyl** - Star Wars Soundtrack - I was 12 at the time and got it as a gift for Xmas, so cut me some slack. “Grease” and “Saturday Night Fever” followed shortly. I always used to listen to my older siblings’ Beatles records. **First Cassette** - don’t remember, might have been something by the Police **First CD** - Peter Gabriel - 16 Golden Greats. I bought this CD specifically to “test drive” speakers. I still listen to this CD a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Skelji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Skelji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skelji)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774/22 "2000-12-15T19:21:24Z")
First Vinyl - Grateful Dead, _Live Dead_ First CD - Grateful Dead, _American Beauty_ I’ve only bought one tape - Deadicated (yes, I see a pattern, but I actually do own lots of other types of music :)) ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774/23 "2000-12-15T19:35:15Z")
First album—The Mamas and The Papas’ “If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears,” in—I think—1967 or '68. I have yet to buy my first CD. ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774/24 "2000-12-15T20:38:09Z")
**First Cassette** : _Get the Knack,_, the Knack, 1979 (I was 10) **First Vinyl** : I think it was _Glass Houses_, Billy Joel, 1980. (I still buy vinyl–it’s the only way to get material for a lot of small bands.) **First CD** : _A Hard Day’s Night_, the Beatles. **Eve** , ya Luddite! There are some great classical and jazz recordings on CD, and you don’t have to change them every few minutes like you do with your moldy old 78s and Edison cylinders! Just last night, I downloaded from [emusic.com](http://emusic.com) a copy of _The Music of Ornette Coleman–Something Else!!!_ and _Gene Norman Presents Dizzy Gillespie and His Big Band_ to burn onto CDs. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774/25 "2000-12-15T20:48:07Z")
I can remember it clear as day. Discount Records on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, CA. “The Lady and the Unicorn” by John Renbourn “Folk Blues and Beyond” by Davy Graham I am eternally grateful for Napster so that I am able to obtain these treasured songs in clean condition now that I have worn the grooves from the disks. ---
**Author:** ![Running\_with\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774/26 "2000-12-15T20:49:43Z")
First vinyl was “Beatles 65”, I don’t remember when exactly, but it had to be some time before 1975 (when I would have been less than 10 YO). First CD: Genesis, A Trick of the Tail, in 1986 ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774/27 "2000-12-15T21:43:36Z")
I’ve probably bought less than 10 disks/LPs/CDs in my life (and most of those for other people) so it is surprising that I don’t remember. I do remember that it was a Madonna tape. My mom was allowing my sisters to join Columbia House or BMG or something like that and I (being a sibling) refused to be left out of the booty. So I claimed one of the 6 tapes for a penny. Madonna was the only person I had ever heard of so I picked her. When they were finally delivered my sister gave me my tape. I didn’t remember asking for it, and could not fathom why I would want it, so I gave it back to her. ---
**Author:** ![Welfy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e56c9b/32.png) [@Welfy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Welfy)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774/28 "2000-12-15T21:59:28Z")
**First cassette** : Probably either Amy Grant “House of Love” or the Lion King soundtrack. The first cassette I really liked was Ace of Base, but I stole it off my little brother. **First cds** : Ace of Base “The Bridge” and Alanis Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill.” I know, I’m a young’un…I listen to records but I never had the opportunity of buying one. ---
**Author:** ![Gazoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ce73a5/32.png) [@Gazoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gazoo)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774/29 "2000-12-15T22:07:54Z")
Vinyl: _Glass Houses_ by Billy Joel Tape: _Freeze Frame_ by J. Geils Band CD: _Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band_ by the Beatles ---
**Author:** ![MissDiagnosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e79b87/32.png) [@MissDiagnosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissDiagnosis)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774/30 "2000-12-15T22:10:14Z")
I am ashamed to admit it, but the first album (LP, BTW) that I ever bought was in 198(something)! It was Prince & the Revolution: “Around the world in a Day” was the title song, IIRC, but I know it had my favorite song, “Raspberry Beret” on it! (ugh!!!) Next embarrassing confession: I am in the middle of an 80’s Dance Music phase right now! (I don’t now how much more the dog will be able to stand scratchy renditions of Duran Duran and INXS’ ‘KICK’! Somebody HELP!!! Sassy ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774/31 "2000-12-15T23:35:48Z")
I know that I possessed, and therefore probably purchased as I can’t see my parents having given them to me as gifts, a couple of Jerry Reed albums when I was eight or nine years old. I know that as a slightly older lad I bought several singles and at least one album by C.W. McCall in the aftermath of “Convoy”. (For most of this time, the nearest store that sold records was over thirty miles from where we lived). Shortly thereafter, we moved out of the bush and into one of the remoter outposts of civilization, where one of my earliest purchases was Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s _Blinded by the Light_. The stereo my parents gave me for Christmas in 1977 had an eight-track deck as well as a turntable, so (despite already being aware of the many drawbacks to them) I began to pick up stuff from cut-out bins (and eight-tracks were landing there by the truckload by that time). Even into my college years some of my coolest acquisitions (a bunch of Velvet Underground stuff, the first Modern Lovers album, Television’s _Marquee Moon_) were eight-tracks that I got for 50 cents up to two dollars. I honestly don’t recall what my first cassette was, but it may have been Quicksilver Messenger Service’s _Happy Trails_. Either that, or Steppenwolf’s _16 Greatest Hits_. First cassette I bought that I still have is the original Beserkley/GRT issue of Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers’ _Rock and Roll with the Modern Lovers_ (“Dodge Veg-o-matic”! “Ice Cream Man”! “Rockin’ Rockin’ Leprechaun”!) I resisted buying CDs until well into the 90s (1993 or 1994). I **think** what finally pushed me over the edge was the reissue of the two Rezillos albums together on one CD, but I don’t know that for certain. ---
**Author:** ![Nymysys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f6c823/32.png) [@Nymysys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nymysys)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774/32 "2000-12-15T23:42:18Z")
My first LP was a 45 of YMCA by the Village People. I’m not kidding, people. ---
**Author:** ![Rasa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rasa/32/3578_2.png) [@Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rasa)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774/33 "2000-12-15T23:53:46Z")
…and mine was The Eurythmics, the album with Sweet Dreams on it. Heh, _so_ new wave. ---
**Author:** ![Catrandom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@Catrandom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catrandom)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774/34 "2000-12-16T00:01:09Z")
First vinyl: Elton John’s _Caribou_. It’s a terrible album, not his best work at all, but I loved it dearly when I was 11. I can’t recall ever buying a cassette – made my own from LPs – but the first CD I bought was a used copy of Elvis Costello’s _The Juliet Letters_. A fine album, but a major bummer. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774/35 "2000-12-16T00:25:10Z")
First vinyl single: **Band Aid** - _Do they know it’s Christmas time?_ (1984) First CD: **Supertramp** - _Greatest Hits_ (1989, ca.) Also, this one is off to **IMHO**. ---
**Author:** ![DynoSaur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DynoSaur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DynoSaur)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774/36 "2000-12-16T00:27:33Z")
Vinyl: Never in my life have I purchased a vinyl album. Cassette: Er…umm…Live, Throwing Copper, I think. Possibly Rush, 2112, though. CD: Pink Floyd, The Wall Woo. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774/37 "2000-12-16T00:46:10Z")
Album: Music America Loves Best (classical music) at about age 10. In fact, for several years, all my musical purchases were classical. Pop Album: Sting, Dream of the Blue Turtles Tape: To my knowledge, I’ve never bought a tape. CD: Um. I don’t remember. ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774/38 "2000-12-16T01:02:39Z")
Hmm First Vinyl - Either the single Disco Duck or Greased lightnin’ Cassette - Huey Lewis and the News - Sports (I know…) CD - Fleetwood Mac - Tango in the Night ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774/39 "2000-12-16T02:32:27Z")
1st LP: Elton John’s Greatest Hits in 1975 (still have it) 1st CD: Three, actually, Police’s “Synchronicity”, Cindy Lauper’s “She’s So Unusual”, Hall & Oates’ “Rock & Soul Part One” in 1986 The H & O CD was also the first CD I bought that wasn’t a replacement for an existing LP. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774/40 "2000-12-16T04:11:41Z")
1st LP (with parent in hand) - _Twist and Shout - The Beatles_\* (1964) 1st 45rpm (alone at the record store, budding independence) - **You Were on my Mind - _We Five_** (1965) 1st LP (free thinking thirteen-year-old) - **Electric Ladyland - _Jimi Hendrix_** (1968) [sub]\*unique Canadian version[/sub] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-album-cd-purchase/45774.md?page=3)