The first album you remember buying

My first paycheck I received from Baskin-Robbins at the Four Seasons Mall went to purchase three albums:
Kiss- Destroyer
Kiss - Live!
ELO - ELO

But I always had a constant supply of free 45s as a child throughout the 60s and 70s because my dad owned a bar and I always got the Jukebox castoffs when they fell from adequate playing. So any popular hit of country, rock, and pop, I got 2-3 months after it fell from the charts.
 
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First record was Culture Club Colour by Numbers. Should have known I was gay.

First cassette was Paul Simon Graceland

First CD was Paula Abdul Spellbound.... And Color Me Badd.
 
“The first album you remember buying”… or:
“How old are you?”
Similar to BillyL, my first “album” was a 45rpm record. You needed the little plastic insert in order to play it on parent’s console, stereo record player. I “bought it” with mom’s money:
The Monkees’ “I’m a Believer” 1966; #1 hit on Billboard top 100

First LP: Cosmo’s Factory, Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1970
My sister is 2 years older than I, and she had the cool little record player of the time in her room, so her collection of 45’s and albums got started long before I bought my first. She turned me on to all the hip stuff of the day. When I turned 11, I decided I needed my own records.
 
I had some cassettes and had recorded stuff off the radio. But the first CD I ever purchased on my own was……
Vanilla Ice - To The Extreme

No regrets. Fortunately, my dad had a great record and CD collection, so I found Hendrix, Cream, Miles, Coltrane soon after.
 
bassydude77 said:
I had some cassettes and had recorded stuff off the radio. But the first CD I ever purchased on my own was……
Vanilla Ice - To The Extreme

No regrets. Fortunately, my dad had a great record and CD collection, so I found Hendrix, Cream, Miles, Coltrane soon after.
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Cool dad
 
hereiam39 said:
My first paycheck I received from Baskin-Robbins at the Four Seasons Mall went to purchase three albums:
Kiss- Destroyer
Kiss - Live!
ELO - ELO

But I always had a constant supply of free 45s as a child throughout the 60s and 70s because my dad owned a bar and I always got the Jukebox castoffs when they fell from adequate playing. So any popular hit of country, rock, and pop, I got 2-3 months after it fell from the charts.
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I had a situation sort of like that growing up in having a brother 9 years older who was a DJ at a local AM station (beginning at the age of 15-my Momma had to drive him to work the first few months there) and he had so many 45s in a constant supply. It must have been very interesting growing up the son of a bar owner.

First album that I remember buying was probably

Machine Head -- Deep Purple
 
Duke Mu said:
With my $$...

My parents had a couple of Beatles albums.

lol It may have been an 8 track of Abbey Road. I won't count Christmas presents. These are the first few when I drove down to a record store...a few may remember those.



Album_Silk_Degrees.jpg81VCdBI5+bL._UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpgJim_Croce_-_Life_&_Times.jpg51PZfzWptmL._UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg
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I had all of those
 
I bought 45s as a kid….Monkees, Herman’s Hermits, Paul Revere and the Raiders, that kind of stuff that would appeal to a 12 year old. My parents didn’t own music, but I had older sisters that had pre-Beatles pop.

The first album I recall buying for myself with my own money was the Brooklyn Bridge, in 1968, purchased at The Music Mart in downtown Concord.

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First was Millennium by The Backstreet Boys. I was 10.

Second was This Desert Life by Counting Crows which is still pretty good.

Third was Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols! It was all downhill from there.
 
farce© said:
I bought 45s as a kid….Monkees, Herman’s Hermits, Paul Revere and the Raiders, that kind of stuff that would appeal to a 12 year old. My parents didn’t own music, but I had older sisters that had pre-Beatles pop.

The first album I recall buying for myself with my own money was the Brooklyn Bridge, in 1968, purchased at The Music Mart in downtown Concord.

IMG_0019.jpeg
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I saw them live at some club in Atlantic Beach in spring of 70. I had just turned 18 and it was the first bar I ever went to for a legal beer. I had fun and thought it was a good show.
 
Johnny Maestro would probably still be singing in some bar on the Carolina coast somewhere if he were still alive. He was kinda like a poor man’s Frankie Valli later in life.

I’ve always been a sucker for horns.
 
Speaking of 45’s and LPs…
Back in the day, bands and record producers would release “singles” (or 45s) slightly ahead of the album release - if there indeed was to be an album at all. These “singles” had an “A” side and a “B” side with the A side presumably the “hit song”. On rare occasions the B side might over shadow the A side and thus become more of a “hit”.

A lot of the time the singles were then found on the LP or album from the artist. Folks would have the “hit” song in two formats: a 45 single, and on the longer playing album (hence LP). This created opportunities for one to explore the differences between the two. This also brought about the phrase “I like the Album version better”.

One interesting note: Hey Jude was released only as a single… a 7” 45rpm record. Although it was written and recorded around the same time as the “White Album”, it never appeared on that album, or any LP until years later - on compilation albums.

Don’t get me started in 8 track tapes, cassettes, CD’s, streaming platforms, digital this and that…

I find it terribly interesting how vinyl and LP’s (the TRUE albums) are making a comeback.
 
We never had a source of music other than the radio until I was 16 and even then my stepfather wasn't too eager to let me play rock and roll (or anything else) in the parsonage, especially since it was right nest to the sanctuary.
 
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Chicago IX.jpg Doobie_Brothers_-_Best_of_The_Doobies_(1976_album_cover).jpg

The first single I remember was (Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay.
Girlfriend bought me Captain and Tennille.
Mom had Fleetwood Mac, Janis Joplin, Creedence, Gordon Lightfoot.
Stepmom had Diana Ross and the Supremes.
I don't remember if my first concert was Dad taking me to see Glen Campbell or Mom taking me to see John Denver with Starland Vocal Band. Far out!
I didn't get into Led Zeppelin and Rush until later in life.
 
donbosco said:
I had a situation sort of like that growing up in having a brother 9 years older who was a DJ at a local AM station (beginning at the age of 15-my Momma had to drive him to work the first few months there) and he had so many 45s in a constant supply. It must have been very interesting growing up the son of a bar owner.

First album that I remember buying was probably

Machine Head -- Deep Purple
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Oh, the stories I could tell. I was an only child and my parents didn't believe in babysitters, so I literally spent every busy weekend night there as a kid. Plus High Point was dry at the time and it was the first bar you hit when coming into Greensboro on High Point Road. Corner of High Point and Holden.
As to albums, my mother had the mother of all album collections. My father was also an auctioneer also and they kept every album that appealed to them. And my mother like all kinds of music, even though she was born in 28. She had 1000s of albums. Charter member of the Columbia Club for 8-tracks back in the day. One of my favorite memories of her was dancing to Lipps Inc Funky Town in her 50s. I had an interesting childhood, lol
 
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