What's the earliest record you recall your parents playing?

[Mike Schwartz]

I'm absolutely sure this one isn't the first; however it's about the only thing I have that my parents bought that I still have and I appreciate owning it....have played numerous things from this on the radio over the years.

It's a box set of LPs from Reader's Digest [ the recordings done by Columbia]

[BFrank]

Not sure which was first, but probably one of these.
[I guess me 'n' thelil are about the same age]

[moldyfigg]

After getting hundreds of 78s, I started my horde of LPs with the Benny Goodman Carnegie Hall Concert.

[Mike Schwartz]

Not sure which was first, but probably one of these.
[I guess me 'n' thelil are about the same age]

Stirred a memory....West Side Story...an early one for sure.

[Ron Thorne]

I don't recall my parents playing records. I remember listening to the radio a lot, with sounds of pop and big band, mostly. Among my earliest recollections are hits from Teresa Brewer, Patti Page, Gisele MacKenzie, Dean Martin & Frank Sinatra, plus big bands such as Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Count Basie.

My parents bought me a little portable record player on which I nearly wore out favorite children's songs, plus storybook records such as Little Toot, Peter & The Wolf, Snow White, Dumbo, The Little Engine That Could, etc.

So, overall, radio was a major contributor to music in our home, and I don't recall the earliest song/tune.

[BFrank]

A family friend has this album that I remember hearing early on

[jaka]

Pretty sure this is the first one I recall and can remember asking them to play.




And then was this one:

[steve(thelil)]

A family friend has this album that I remember hearing early on

Wow. Brings back memories. My grandparents had a record player before my parents did, and this was the record they played.

[erwbol]

My uncle used to play his collection of Ben Webster LPs whenever we came over. I fell in love with Webster's tenor. My parents on the other hand did not play or even own any LPs that were subsequently important to me.

[walto]

My parents bought me a little portable record player on which I nearly wore out favorite children's songs, plus storybook records such as Little Toot, Peter & The Wolf, Snow White, Dumbo, The Little Engine That Could, etc.

You reminded me that the first recording that I owned myself was (I think) Danny Kaye's "Tubby the Tuba". I also had a version of "Sleeping Beauty" that scared me because of the Disney Maleficent.

[Douglas]

Can't remember the albums, but in the memorable mix was borodin's polovtsian dances, lots of nat king cole and allan sherman

[steve(thelil)]

The talk of kids' records reminded me that i had a kiddie record player and some kids' records before my parents had a record player. I too remember owning Peter and the Wolf. Also the theme song to the movie Tom Thumb.

[BFrank]

I remember having a "Tubby the Tuba" album, too.
Can't say I remember anything about it, though.

[Coda]

My parents NEVER bought records. I think back over my youth and there were a handful of comedy records, that's it.

Except one, this one:


Dad brought it home and brought us all in the living room to listen to it together. His mom was with us too, and she was very religious. Needless to say I remember more about her reaction, calling this blasphemous and a sin.

I was hooked and played it many many times but never told Grandma.

[Gentle Giant]

I wonder what my daughters would say?

[steve(thelil)]

I wonder what my daughters would say?

At least one of the two would NOT be at a loss for words, methinks.

[Gentle Giant]

I'll ask, but first I'll have to define the term "record" and then "album".

[Tom Storer]

My father was a casual jazz fan and I remember he would put on records by Stan Kenton, Sarah Vaughan, the Four Freshmen, and Dave Brubeck. Not sure which was the first, but I remember that Kenton and Vaughan were over my head. I couldn't hear it. I loved the Four Freshmen (especially "Poinciana"), and "Time Out" was the first jazz record I sat and intentionally focused on. The liner notes helped a lot. My father explained what a measure was and counted some out, and then I was able to follow the meters from the liner notes.

He was from Lawrence, Kansas, and listened to Kansas City Jazz in his youth. The boogie-woogie craze was his adolescence, and he taught himself to play boogie piano in the style of Pete Johnson. I recall being awoken by his playing late one night when I was a tot and leaving my bed to investigate. There was Dad, a gray-suited professor by day, with his shirt sleeves rolled up, a cigarette dangling from his lips, a glass of amber liquid next to him, beating out "Cherry Red" on our out-of-tune upright piano. I was thrilled and mesmerized. I believe that is why I'm a jazz fan today.

He lives in a retirement home in San Diego now and hasn't played the piano in years. But he listens to a jazz radio station that plays the full gamut of modern jazz. He doesn't particularly follow the music or retain the names of the musicians, but he digs the sounds.

[sozamora]

A little OT, but I'm pretty certain my own first record was the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack and/or a Topo Gigio album. Both on 8-track.

[Gentle Giant]

I wonder what my daughters would say?

As sort of expected, Hannah (almost 17) has no concept of what albums I play because kids don't think in those terms, but she said it was definitely the Beach Boys. As I was probably beginning my indoctrination of her, it was likely a heavy dose of Endless Summer.

[Brian Olewnick]

A family friend has this album that I remember hearing early on

Recently found out that my aunt dated Belafonte for over a year in the late 40s...

West Side Story, for me. That or one of several Rafael Mendez albums, someone for whom my Dad had an unfathomable appreciation.

[walto]

Brian!

[Brian Olewnick]

walto!!