The first single you bought

[Essex_boy]

For me it was Stranglers - Golden Brown, must have been about 11. My parents were against me buying it but I did - Now know that it was about heroin addiction sooooo Maybe my parents reaction was that odd....

[pshea]

Wipe Out by the Surfaris. 45RPM. Surfer Joe on the B-side. 29-cents in the Record Department of Macy's in the Bronx, New York around 1966. I still know every word to the B-side. The A-side words were easy.

[lawman]

A Beatles song - I Wanna Hold Your Hand or something. Actually it was a 45 so I got a two fer.

[LifeinAsia]

Alas, I came of age (an money) in that period between 45s and iTunes...

[Leosghost]

First ever record..was a 78 ( yes it was a single )
Three little fishes Frankie Howerd..
I was very young..bought it because I liked it..handed the record shop man the money myself..yes I'm old..

2nd record..
Paperback writer..bought as a present for my mother..

3rd record..Purple Haze..

Frankie Howerd's record may have been more "surreal" than the Hendrix one..

1st LP.."split" the groundhogs..

[engine]

I really cannot remember which it was, but I do remember buying a few. They were second hand, and I was about seven or eight-years old.

I was lucky to have an older sister that bought the latest records and I used to play them until she came home from school, and later years home from work, and then confiscated them from me. :(

[lucy24]

Gosh. I don't think I've ever bought a single. If I rack my brains I might remember the first LP I bought. I know it wasn't Concert for Bangladesh, which was the most common First LP Purchase among my contemporaries. She said, dating herself.

If you're over 50, the question may yield significantly different results depending on whether you grew up in the US or somewhere else, because of entirely different record-making and -marketing practices. I think the difference went away before vinyl did.

[engine]

LOL

True. I was also greatly influenced in the early days by pirate radio which played the records that others wouldn't.

[Leosghost]

Concert for Bangladesh

I still have my original pristine boxed vynil copy :)

Beware of Maya..

[tbear]

The first singles we had at home (older brother bought them), that I played all the time, were Rock Around The Clock (Bill Haley), Bee Bop A Lula (Gene Vincent).....
My first bought was possibly Stay With Me/Hold On (Sharon Tandy). Heard on Radio Luxembourg, just before the pirate stations started up, in UK.

[Leosghost]

Good lord..he's older than me..( and maybe even pre-dates tangor ) ..I remember all your aforementioned singles playing on the radio when I was young, along with Doris Day, Frank Ifield ( SIC ? ) etc..BFPO network, and AFN ..( Luxy and Caroline were later ), the days of valve radio eh :))

[piatkow]

I had some Beatles singles, forget which, that I had got my mother to buy when I was about 13 but when I had money to buy my own it was definitely uncool to buy singles in my circles. My first LP was The Rock Machine Turns You On.

Now I like classic rock'n'roll that was definitely old hat when I was a teen.

[lucy24]

Now I like classic rock'n'roll that was definitely old hat when I was a teen.

For a while the local oldies station shifted to playing music from the '70's and '80's, presumably thinking that their demographic was made of people wanting to hear music from their youth. Fortunately someone must have taken them aside and explained that that we have absolutely no interest in music from our youth;* what we want is oldies-radio music. So things are now back where they belong.


* Especially if you came of age in the cultural wasteland of the mid-70s. But then, an "oldies" station that played the actual hits of any given year-- 1962, say, or 1957-- would probably not last very long.

[tbear]

I doubt I could be that old, Leosghost..... :)

[Planet13]

It was definitely either used or a re-release, but I think it was Rolling Stones Let's spend the night together.

I didn't come of age until long after that song had been out for a LONG time.

I think the first LP I bought was again RS, and it was Get Yer Ya Ya's out (I think...)

[diddlydazz]

First 45 (which i purchased myself) was John Farnham - you're the voice (yes i know!)

Then it was iron maiden - debbie gibson (yes i know) - megadeth

Had very mixed taste, still do

All played on my first hifi which was a Philips - with a graphic equalizer and 50W RMS per channel

My older cousin gave me some bang and olufsen speakers - neighbours loved it ;o)

[johnhh]

My first record was some LP of cover versions, embarrasing ! which I no longer have !

My first, and I only have ever bought two, single was Hold Your Head Up by Argent, who I had a pleasure of seeing live ( with a lovely young lady !)

The oldest record on a radio I can remember was "Swinging on a Star", original version. My father was based in Germany BFOR, so it was an old valve radio tuned to BFPO and had weird German and Dutch stations marked on it. We had quite a few Glenn Miller records !

Oh the delights of Family Favourites on a Sunday !

[Leosghost]

My father was based in Germany BFOR, so it was an old valve radio tuned to BFPO and had weird German and Dutch stations marked on it. We had quite a few Glenn Miller records !

Oh the delights of Family Favourites on a Sunday !

Ditto..also remember swinging on a star..

Schaub-Lorenz radio with a record player in the top..and a magic eye tuner..

[tangor]

( and maybe even pre-dates tangor )

I was born old! My "first" records were Edisons (1/4" thick wax) and hand wound victrolas (I'm not kidding. Both wax cylinders and discs) listening to Ada Jones (1909), Edward Issler (1889-1893_ etc (those are release dates!).

Mother was a musician, I started violin at age 4, now play 15 instruments (and can reliably fake on a half-dozen more). Everyone in the family sang (I'm a performer of songs, not a singer). As a family we all aced "radio" either at home or in the car... Gifts of music for birthdays and other occasions makes it dang difficult for me to accurately remember "my first single" that's like asking what was your first bite of solid food?

With all that music, and the trading that kids do, by the time I was 10 I had 30 edison cylinders and over 100 edison discs. At the same time grandmother (a church organist, hands and feet) had given the family more than 50 78rpm collections of the classical (Schubert, Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, that whole Russian Nutcracker thing played until it wore out in the 1960s). Age 10 is when I started to through the family collection of recorded music and in the years following came Montovani, Sinatra, Kamphert, Gerswhin, Porter, Dorsey, Miller, Andrews Sisters... coming in a head ready to hear it all... I really didn't buy 45s... IIRC, the first things that I bought were Beatles, Stones, Presley, Lewis (Jerry Lee, not Huey!), Autry, Rogers (Roy and that other fellow who did show tunes) Haggard, and all where used 78s or new LP albums., but most of the time I got everything from the radio. I play classically (read grand staff) and by ear... the latter making a good living for over 50 years,

An interesting question. I wish I really had an answer of that first (and there had to have been one!) single that I bought.

[mack]

Chris De Burgh - Lady In Red bit of a random choice for an 8 year old but hey lol

Still have it on vinyl, although nothing to play it on, it's just a little bit to big for a cd player, and certainly wont fit in an iPod.

Mack.