When I was very young, my parents gave my brother and me a copy of Bozo at the Circus. It was in an album with pictures, and I think the records were 78s. I still remember bits and pieces of it: a hyena singing “Hee hee ha ha ho ho, why I laugh so much I don’t know,” and a hippopotamus saying, “If you had my weight to carry around, you’d be tired, too.”
The first record I can remember buying for myself was a 45 of Mason Williams’ Classical Gas. I was 11. I must have driven my parents crazy playing it over and over.
Yup. I have the Stan Freberg boxed set, which came with a VHS tape (it’s old) with that ad and some starring Ray Bradbury also. The ad was so good that Johnny Carson played it, not as an ad, but just as something funny.
BTW the Spike William Tell Overture was recorded October 7, 1947 and released as a single in April 1948. The sequel, Dance of the Hours, was recorded May 24, 1949 and released in July.
My first CD was the album Rising Force by Yngwie Malmsteen. Early 1990s, I think. I still have it, and it still works.
I took good care of my albums yet I know the first CD’s were Steely Dan’'s Gaucho and Fagan’s Nightfly - what they used to label DDD - recorded, mastered and I guess since the ‘D’ in CD meant digital (Edit: duh, means ‘disc’ but all digital ruled)l, that too. Then upgrade the whole Stereo to Carver with separate components and now the speakers I build sounded cruddy, so I definitely bought some Joni Mitchelll and she (always bring a woman singing) and Fagan were my try-outs towards the Infinity speakers I got that was sometimes knocking my mom’s Waterford Crystal off the shelf two stories above.
I miss the almost ceremonial pulling of an LP from the shelf, taking it out of the sleeve, perhaps cleaning it and if not playing the entire side placing the needle right at the start (of the track/song). I had two turntables and man, I haven’t even thought of that word in a long time.
The first 45 I bought was the Astro Boy theme song. I think I was seven. The single was sold out of the Helms Bakery truck.
My wife is still close with a handful of her high school friends and one of them, I’ll call him Bill, was talking to his therapist and mentioned how he misses just sitting and listening to albums like he did in college. The therapist recommended that he invite friends over to listen to records so Bill started hosting album parties. People will bring in favorite albums and we’d all listen to a side and even talk about what the album means to them. We’ve done a few more parties where songs are chosen off Apple Music but that’s not quite the same. There’s a certain tactile component to playing records that you just don’t get from streaming music.