I remember buying a lot of 45 singles when I was a kid. No idea what my first one was.
First album is kind of a blur. My older brother and I were about a year and a half apart, and what belonged to who is kind of fuzzy. I’m going to say either Beatles red album or Jackson Five greatest hits.
First 8-track was Rush 2112.
I didn’t buy a lot of prerecorded cassettes, but I do remember owning a copy of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s live album at some point, so I’ll go with that.
The first two CDs I owned (bought at the same time) were Rush - A Farewell to Kings and Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick (which had a much abridged version of the newspaper).
Nor can I, but I’m pretty sure I bought singles before albums, considering my allowance in those days. And I don’t know what my first album was, but it’s in the cabinet next to me with all the other albums I bought over the years. There aren’t a lot of them, but they’re mine.
First 45 bought with my own money: “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” by B.J. Thomas.
First album: Kiss Dressed to Kill
First cassette: I have absolutely no idea, but probably some Led Zeppelin tape. I was crazy about them around the time cassettes became popular.
First CD: Predictably, Dark Side of the Moon
1st album: Gilbert O’Sullivan - Himself - because Alone Again Naturally was my favorite song at the time (now I know that was a stupid reason)
2nd album:was one of those compilation albums. I guess they are called “Now” now.
1st 45. Carole King. Believe in Humanity/You Light Up My Life (both songs were on the radio). All the other 45s had a song that I didn’t recognize. I’m not going to spend money on a song I don’t know (now I know that was a stupid reason).
“Rock a Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody” sung by Jerry Lewis (channeling Al Jolson and Judy Garland); Decca 45rpm, given to me in 1956 because I loved hearing it on the radio. It was the very first item in what became my huge lifelong vinyl, tape, CD, and Music DVD collection. And I still LOVE it. Jerry Lewis could SING. Find it on YouTube if you don’t believe me.
The first music I bought, on a vinyl single, was “Wild Boys” by Duran Duran.
Before that, the music I listened to wasn’t really mine, but held in common with my brother and sister. I assume my parents bought it or it was gifted.
I don’t think I bought, or even received enthusiastically, a vinyl record until the revival in the 2000s. The few that we had were our family’s in common.
I don’t even remember the first cassette I ever bought with my own money. It may have been Out of the Blue by Debbie Gibson or Led Zeppelin IV.
I do remember the first CD I got: Crazy Diamond, the Syd Barrett box set. I only bought it because I couldn’t find it in cassette. I didn’t even have a CD player at the time, so I had to buy a CD player to listen to it. It was worth it. Ironically, it may have been even better than buying it on cassette because some of the songs require the right mood to appreciate, increasing the utility of CD’s track-skip feature.
I do remember the last cassette I got: Purple by Stone Temple Pilots. After that, cassettes became harder to find and CDs became cheaper so I switched to CDs.
I remember my last cassette(s) as well. in 2000, I was going to be driving across the country from L.A. back to Ottawa, in a car that only had a tape player in it. I went to Tower Records on Sunset one last time and picked up a George Carlin cassette and Strange Fire by Indigo Girls.
I threw virtually all of my tapes out maybe ten years ago. I hung onto an autographed one or two.
The song was probably “The William Tell Overture” a horse race narrated by Doodles Weaver to that tune, won by “Beeblebaum.” Or it could have been his cameo in “Dance of the Hours,” a car race, also narrated by Doodles, won again by “Beeblebaum” after all the cars crash. The Willaim Tell Overture was first released in 1948, certainly on a 78.
Mine was “Waterloo” by Stonewall Jackson, a 45 my brother and I bought probably in 1960 though the song came out in 1959 according to Wilkipedia. Of no value whatsoever. Our second was “Battle of New Orleans” by Johnny Horton, much better. I don’t remember the first LP I bought, it might have been a Zacherle album of horror song parodies.
I’m pretty sure the first commercial cassette I bought was the Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion soundtrack. Long before that I had copied numerous albums from my dad, my friends, and of course random songs from the radio (Eugene’s 96.1 KZEL) onto cassette before I bought that one, so I had albums before that, just not commercial ones.
My first CD was Fleetwood Mac’s greatest hits album – the one with a white flower on a green background on the cover.
The Romy and Michelle cassette is long gone but I still have the Fleetwood Mac album in a box in my garage somewhere.
Not sure what the first 45rpm I bought was, but the oldest one in my collection is “You Two/Hushabye Mountain” sung by Dick Van Dyke from the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
First LP was probably the soundtrack from Mary Poppins or maybe an anthology of popular American folk songs.
First cassette was Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s”. Despite it being the early 80s, I was going through an oldies/classic rock thing.
First CD was probably 10,000 Maniacs, “Our Time in Eden”.
Vinyl was too old by the time I was initially buying any of my own music so my first album but my wife got the bug a year or so ago and my first album bought for my own benefit was Mazzy Star, “So Tonight That I Might See”
