Think long and hard, back to your childhood and tell us how you got into music!

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Zoots

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What was the very first song you listened to?

Okay... if that is impossible, how about the first few songs... or album or artist, anything you can recall.

This could be (a.) Music that came out at the time you listened to it or (b.) Music that came out way before but you only listened to it then.

Either way, let's share some good memories!
 
I don't remember first songs I heard, or first songs I liked, but from a very early age, I always wanted to listen to the rock station on my parents' bedroom clock radio, or sitting in my bedroom with a tinny little AM radio listening to a station that played some "lite rock" hits, or going through my parents albums over and over again.

I remember the first rock album I got was K-Tel's "Rock 80," which my youngest aunt bought for me when I was 7. I LOVED it. The first album I bought with my own money was either Men At Work's "Business As Usual" or Huey Lewis and the News' "Sports."

A lot of my allowance money went towards buying 45s ($1.75 including tax at the local Shopko!).

My mom listened to the AM oldies station a lot when I was growing up, so I learned to like the oldies pretty young, and that stayed with me. My parents really didn't have anything rock and roll in their collections - the closest thing to rock was probably my dad's "Jesus Chris Superstar" album!

And I was taking piano lessons since second grade, pretty much as soon as they realized I was musically inclined.

So yeah. It's been a musical life. :)
 
We used to have this old school stereo - it doubled as a peice of furniture - and it had this green glowing light when it was powered up. I used to stare into that light while listening to Sgt. Peppers - it was my dad's - and South Pacific - my moms. I used to think I could see all the events in Mr. Kite's happening while I listened -it was like watching through a Viewfinder. That's my earliest memory of music. I also remember liking Just the Two of Us (Castles in the Sky) an awful lot, but that may have been later. Firs album I ever bought was either Thriller or Kilroy was Here. I'm hoping it was Thriller...
 
I probably listened to some BS music intended for little kids in my very earliest years. However, I was exposed to a lot of jazz at the time, as well as Motown, British Invasion, and other miscellaneous oldies. My parents were in their late 30's/early 40's when I was born, so they still love that kind of music.
 
My mom had the South Pacific soundtrack, too!

For mother's day we got her tickets to the broadway version. She loved it.



Zoots - not sure if this counts, but I also had a record that came in National Geographic. It was this real flimsy material - it literally came in the magazine and you could bend it and shit. Then you'd throw it on the record players and listen to whale song. True story. Whale song fucking sucks, but if that's what I had to sit through to get to play with a bendable record in 1978, then I'll listen to it. We didn't have much money back then. I'm pretty sure to this day I can pick out a humpback whale's song from a beluga's.
 
Nice! Do you still play the piano? Did you ever think of becoming a professional musician?

I took lessons all the way through college - I was actually a music major, although since I didn't want to have an emphasis in performance or education, I was just this kind of nebulous music major without an emphasis. ;) I did give a recital my senior year, though, and that's one of my proudest accomplishments.

I thought I wanted to go into the music industry, but realized I didn't pretty quickly. After college, I taught piano for a while, and continued to sing in choirs, but after moving to Seattle, I didn't play for a long time.

I only recently got a digital keyboard ( :drool: ) and am looking forward to getting my chops back. I can still play fine, thanks to good sight-reading skills, and if I have the music, I can stumble through some of the pieces I used to play, but I'd just fallen out of practice.

In the meantime, singing became my primary thing. If I wasn't doing one or the other, I'd go crazy. But I'm thrilled to have a keyboard again. :)
 
Well, I don't really remember this but apparently, my mom used to repeatedly play Achtung Baby in the car when it came out. I was three years old at the time so I would always be in the car with her.

Looks like I know where my love of U2 came from. Subliminal messaging anyone? :lol:
 
My parents went to Bruce Springsteen and Mahavishnu Orchestra concerts when I was still in the womb! So I've basically been listening to music since conception!

Seriously, my entire childhood growing up was non-stop music from the stereo. For me, rock music has just always been there. But of course, b/c of my Dad, Led Zeppelin, 70s Genesis, Neil Young and Pink Floyd are ones that really stick out in my mind. I almost feel like those bands are part of my genetic makeup. :lol:
 
I think the earliest I can remember is... sometime in the early to mid 80s when my cousin filled up a BASF audio cassette with Harry Belafonte and ABBA.. haha! Somehow that cassette (it was bright orange and pretty to look at! :drool: ) ended up with us.. with my parents, I don't know how. Either that or I'm getting things confused and it was my parents who recorded that stuff from my cousin. Anyway, there were some oooooooold ABBA songs on there... stuff from their very first album in 1973... Another Town Another Train, Me and Bobby and Bobby's Brother.. haha those songs were so bad! but in a cute and innocent way. And the other side was filled with Harry Belafonte at Carnegie Hall. When The Saints Go Marching In and Hava Nagila are 2 songs from that performance that immediately come to mind. Probably before this tape, what I heard was from the radio, whatever my parents played. And this was in India in the early 80s with very limited exposure to "western music" so I have no idea what else we listened to except for Indian music of course.

As for music that came out at the time, I clearly remember sometime in 1986 when my dad bought a cassette titled Grammy '86 with all the nominated songs on it. I loved that tape so much! :lol: I think I even remember the tracklisting. It started out with Phil Collins' Sussudio and then went on to Aretha Franklin Freeway Of Love, Aha Take On Me, Tina Turner One Of The Living, USA for Africa We are the World, Stevie Wonder's Part Time Lover, Sade's Sweetest Taboo, Whitney's Saving All My Love For You, Don Henley's Boys Of Summer, Jan Hammer's Miami Vice Theme, Commodores' Night Shift and a few other songs I don't remember right now. I think until around 1991, the Grammys were sadly my only exposure to most music! :lol: But it was good times! Great memories of those 80's adult contemporary songs that my parents loved... Bruce Hornsby.... haha!
 
As for music that came out at the time, I clearly remember sometime in 1986 when my dad bought a cassette titled Grammy '86 with all the nominated songs on it. I loved that tape so much! :lol: I think I even remember the tracklisting. It started out with Phil Collins' Sussudio and then went on to Aretha Franklin Freeway Of Love, Aha Take On Me, Tina Turner One Of The Living, USA for Africa We are the World, Stevie Wonder's Part Time Lover, Sade's Sweetest Taboo, Whitney's Saving All My Love For You, Don Henley's Boys Of Summer, Jan Hammer's Miami Vice Theme, Commodores' Night Shift and a few other songs I don't remember right now. I think until around 1991, the Grammys were sadly my only exposure to most music! :lol: But it was good times! Great memories of those 80's adult contemporary songs that my parents loved... Bruce Hornsby.... haha!

lol, that explains so much. That's awesome.
 
probably the first songs i can remember hearing are talking in your sleep by the romantics and radio ga ga by queen. my dad sang them to me when i was a baby :cute:

by first specific musical memory would be this mix tape my dad made in the early to mid 80s. it's still somewhere in the house, i saw it a few years ago. it's a pretty awesome tape, to me at least, with lots of great songs from the era. that queen song is on there, along with stuff off thriller, and new moon on monday by duran duran. i've mentioned this before i think, but when i was a kid i thought that song was by david bowie. :reject: it wasn't until 96 when i bought seven and the ragged tiger when i found out it was by them. oops!

music i listened to then but not now is kinda hard. anyone who knows me knows i'm stuck in the 80s musicwise so i can't think of anything from that era i don't listen to anymore. all the music i can remember listening to as a kid, steely dan, journey, david bowie, michael jackson, stuff like that.

the first album i ever bought? i don't remember! it could've been anything from debbie gibson's electric youth to inxs's kick. my first cd i remember...it's embarrassing. the first one i got was janet jackson's janet. the first one i bought though was just as bad...music box by mariah carey.
 
Ohh. Good Idea.

Ok, so my childhood really isn't that far back considering I'm a teenager.

But I've been surounded with My parents 80's records, my father likes country music, my mother loves rock music.

My Grandparents have a wide spread record collection, dating back to the 1950's. Every Saturday night spent at my grandparents house would be spent learning how to dance the "Real" way, dancing to music from the 50's 60's 70's and 80's.

Every Sunday morning my grandmother would put on the radio programe that only played scotish music.

I danced for about 8 years, doing Ballet, Tap and Jazz, so learning about different styles of music was included in that.

And my first album that I ever bought was Aqua. (Yes the band that sung that Barbie Girl song.)

:heart:
 
The first songs I really remember were on mixtapes my parents made from 45s for family vacations driving from Washington State to my mom's parents' place in Nebraska or my dad's parents' place in Michigan, or to Disneyland.

"Dizzy" by Tommy Roe
"The Rain The Park and Other Things" (..."I love the flower girl...") by The Cowsills
"Windy" and "Cherish" by The Association
"See You In September" by The Happenings
"They're Coming To Take Me Away, Hahaa!" by Napoleon XIV
"I Want To Hold Your Hand," "Twist and Shout," and "She Loves You" by The Beatles
"The Boxer," "The Sound of Silence," and "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon & Garfunkel
various Beach Boys and Jan and Dean songs
"Walk Like A Man," "Sherry Baby," "Candy Girl," and others I can't remember at the moment by The Four Seasons.
"Spooky" by Classics IV
"I Want You Back" by The Jackson Five
"Pinball Wizard" by The Who
"Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison
"Blue Moon" and "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" and "Classical Gas" and "Dueling Banjos" and "Hit The Road Jack" and "Runaround Sue" and the songs about Snoopy and the Red Baron and "Yakity Yak" and that Christmas song by The Chipmunks.
"My Girl" and "Get Ready" by The Temptations
"Stop In The Name Of Love," "Love Child," and "Baby Love" by the Supremes

There are a lot I can't remember. We had 6 90 minute tapes we'd listen to over and over and over.
 
I mainly remember getting into music as a kid because I was in the car a lot, for long vacations and such. Dad has always loved Bowie (actually, maybe he just likes the Changes compilation), and probably the earliest song I can remember listening to is Bowie's Sorrow. I liked a lot of mid-nineties dance and rap as a kid, would listen to my sister's Hit Machine tapes and stuff. In the late nineties I hated a lot of mainstream music. However, my brother was in a band, and their main influences were Husker Du, Pixies and a lot of crap bands, but obviously the Husker Du and to a lesser extent Pixies element has been very important to me. I remember pretty distinctly my brother giving me an earphone to listen to New Day Rising when I was about nine. But I didn't start getting into music individually until I was 12, and it was all that sort of Linkin Park rubbish. Poor move. Although I think the first album I bought was the Gorillaz debut, which is a choice that could have been worse. When I was about 14 I rediscovered a lot of the music my brother listened to when he was younger, and then I just sort of went on from there.

GOOD TIMES.
 
The first songs I really remember were on mixtapes my parents made from 45s for family vacations driving from Washington State to my mom's parents' place in Nebraska or my dad's parents' place in Michigan, or to Disneyland.

"Dizzy" by Tommy Roe
"The Rain The Park and Other Things" (..."I love the flower girl...") by The Cowsills
"Windy" and "Cherish" by The Association
"See You In September" by The Happenings
"They're Coming To Take Me Away, Hahaa!" by Napoleon XIV
"I Want To Hold Your Hand," "Twist and Shout," and "She Loves You" by The Beatles
"The Boxer," "The Sound of Silence," and "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon & Garfunkel
various Beach Boys and Jan and Dean songs
"Walk Like A Man," "Sherry Baby," "Candy Girl," and others I can't remember at the moment by The Four Seasons.
"Spooky" by Classics IV
"I Want You Back" by The Jackson Five
"Pinball Wizard" by The Who
"Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison
"Blue Moon" and "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" and "Classical Gas" and "Dueling Banjos" and "Hit The Road Jack" and "Runaround Sue" and the songs about Snoopy and the Red Baron and "Yakity Yak" and that Christmas song by The Chipmunks.
"My Girl" and "Get Ready" by The Temptations
"Stop In The Name Of Love," "Love Child," and "Baby Love" by the Supremes

There are a lot I can't remember. We had 6 90 minute tapes we'd listen to over and over and over.

Awesome. There are a ton of fantastic songs on that list. The Association is particularly underrated. :love: Never My Love :heart:

I remember hearing A Hard Day's Night, Eight Days A Week, and other, earlier, Beatles tracks on a regular basis when I was little. As I said earlier in the thread, there were oldies aplenty.
 
Awesome. There are a ton of fantastic songs on that list. The Association is particularly underrated. :love: Never My Love :heart:

I remember hearing A Hard Day's Night, Eight Days A Week, and other, earlier, Beatles tracks on a regular basis when I was little. As I said earlier in the thread, there were oldies aplenty.

I wish there was an easy way of getting my hands on digital copies of all those singles. :sad: I need to have my parents get out their 45s so I can make an inventory of everything I need to find.
 
:applaud: awesome thread :up:

Time for the purpleness to bore you all . . . :wink:
Dad always had a massive musical interest . . . everything and anything was always playing . . .anything from the stones to ella fitzgerald, some classical stuff, willie nelson . . . you name it, it was on

my first, and fondest, musical memory is of waking up before the rest of the house and creeping into the lounge room to listen to Rod Stewarts 'A Night On The Town' and Linda Ronstadts 'Back In The USSR' with my ears pressed tight to the speakers so my moment of glory would last for as long as possible. . . think i must have been about 9 or 10 and I wanted to marry Rod and beeeeeeee Linda!!! The Killing Of Georgie is a song that has never left me . . . Atlantic Crossing was the first cassette that was ever given to me and Bryan Ferrys "Avalon" was the first cassette I ever bought for myself!

happy happy days :love:
 
This topic has prompted me to hunt down oldies classics. :love: I'm listening to The Supremes now. :hyper:
 
My parents were and are huge music fans and I grew up with the music they listened to: English-speaking pop/rock bands from 60s and 70s, Russian folk and traditional ballads, Russian and European pop music, a bit of jazz, a bit of classical, etc. My earliest memories connected with music are making up the words to ABBA's "Dancing Queen" and Beatles songs when I was four or five years old, so that I could sing along, :D

I didn't start making my own choices in music until I was 14 which was when I fell madly in love with Queen, who strangely enough were never really played in our house before. Their Greatest Hits I & II were the first pieces of music I've ever bought by myself.
 
Care to explain? :shifty:

Meaning you have an appreciation for Top 40 music that most people on this site - and in general - don't. It's not often you find someone that appreciates classic, niche and Top 40 the way you do. Most people write off the Top 40 as being cheap, cheesy and kitschy - which is really unfair, because much of it really is good - but you seem to keep it on an equal plain as the other types of music. Seeing that your "roots" go back to that CD explains that.
 
I can't remember specifically what were the first songs I've listened to but It's very likely that It was something from Erasure. My dad was big fan o them at the time of my early childhood and he told me that he used to play their songs to me and I reputedly really liked it and always got very happy when I listened to them.So those were my first contacts with music, 2-3 years old baby "dancing" to Erasure....

Around the age of 5 or 6 was my first encounter with U2 music. I always watched music videos on TV and I remember clearly watching Numb and Lemon videos unable to understand what the hell were doing those people. I didn't like it and was afraid of that man with beanie on his head. Ace of Base, Janet Jackson, Coolio, that was my favourite stuff,lol... yeah, another one to say, good times.
 
The first music I got into on my own was, unfortunately, the bubblegum teen pop craze that came back with a vengeance around the time I was in 5th and 6th grade. The Spice Girls were my first big musical love, and I still have their greatest hits on my iPod, because I think they were great pop. I loved early Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera (her later 2 albums are great), N*SYNC, (love Justin's solo work), the Backstreet Boys, etc. There's also certain stand-out songs that take me back to those years of my life, getting ready to go into middle school and thinking that it couldn't get much better than that.:lol: "Closing Time" by Semisonic, "Graduation (Friends Forever)" by Vitamin C, "Magic's In The Make-up" by No Doubt, "Name" by the Goo Goo Dolls, "She's So High" by Tal Bachman, and "Wherever You Will Go" by The Calling for example. Because of my parents I got into Chicago's 70s output along with Elton John, and 80s Madonna and Michael Jackson along with some of the finest pop music the 70s have to offer and a huge chuck of Motown.
 
My parents had no interest in music at all, had no record player, no records, nuthin. I got into music all by myself, through the radio then buying my own record player and records. In fact, it still puzzles my mother why music is all that interesting....

First song I truly remember hearing on the radio as a young un was "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" by Middle of the Road - google that suckers!
 
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