The first LP record I bought with my own money was Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, back in 1978 when I was 11 years old. IIRC, record albums were somewhere in the price range of $8.99 at the time, so that took about a month's worth of saving up my $2 per week allowance. It was well worth it and it is still one of my favourite albums to this day. Although I did eventually by a CD copy of the album, I still have the vinyl record. It's not something I want to part with.


PJ

McCartney - RAM. As a 9 year old I liked the lyrics to Uncle Albert... But I ended up more Stones than Beatles (actually more Grateful Dead, Dylan, Doors, etc) . I still have almost all my vinyl, but only one is Beatles (white album).

With my own money?
I am pretty sure it was a Beatles album, but I can't remember which one.
I seem to remember it was "Help."
That was one of my favourite movies too.

 

First single I bought was "Easier Said Than Done" by the Essex.
First album Was Beatlemania.

Like a few of you, I also used to buy singles, get the hit, skip the fillers! My first album though was “The Magician’s Birthday” by Uriah Heep. My sister was a fan and they rubbed off on me, plus it had a cool Roger Dean cover!

I too bought 45s as a youngster, mainly because they were the hits I heard on the radio, and because my parents were not music lovers, so all they had was one of those old portable phonographs. When I was 17 I was able to scrounge up enough to buy a secondhand Viking stereo with a turntable and built in radio tuner. It was just slightly better than the old phonograph, but good enough to finally invest in albums.

My first was Universal Juveniles by Max Webster, followed quickly by The River from Bruce Springsteen, and I was on my way ...

Growing up, my grandmother from the UK would visit every summer, and she would bring with her the entire Top 20 45s from the UK charts as a gift each time. That was instrumental (ha!) in forming my love of music

The Trogg's Greatest Hits (1966)

First single was Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys (also 1966). Actually. my mom bought it for me at Sam's. Not sure if I paid her back.

Last edited by Dale Patterson (February 14, 2025 11:05 am)

Jody Thornton wrote:

I remember my first singles.  I was five in 1975, and my mom noticed I never really took to GI Joe, but loved records, and my parents' VM Record Changer (branded as Viking from Eaton's).  The singles were "Black Superman" from Johnny Wakelin, "Jackie Blue" from the Ozark's and "Magic" from Pilot.  They were purchased at Sam's at Eastgate Square in Hamilton.

As for LPs though, I know I bought a couple compilations soon after from K-Tel, including Disco Party and The Platters.  Terrible pressings, but I was too young to know better.

 

I was 12 at the time and those are three great singles. I consider Jackie Blue to be one of the best songs of the 1970s, and Magic was very good, lives on to this day as a pharmaceutical commercial jingle and I know for a fact that it was a pop rock song that was liked back in the day by a co-founder of a Canadian heavy metal band that is a household name to this day. The hidden gem is Black Superman, completely lost to time now, but an ear worm that rings through my head 50 years later, thanks to CKOC back in the day. My wacky conspiracy theory: if everyone had given the Black Superman song a chance when they were little kids, there would be no need for DEI.

I bought Glen Campbell's "I'll Paint You A Song" from the corner grocery store (yes, corner stores used to sell LPs). 8 or 9 year old me liked "Rhinestone Cowboy" but didn't realize that musicians could produce more than one album and that "Rhinestone Cowboy" wasn't on this one. In retrospect this may have turned me off country music for life. The album came out in 1975 so it must have been a remainder being sold at discount by the time it ended up at the grocery store because I doubt I could have saved up enough quarters at that age to buy a new release.

The second LP I ever bought was the Star Wars soundtrack.

Last edited by Hansa (February 14, 2025 5:34 pm)

Jody Thornton wrote:

@Hansa, was that the one with "Southern Nights"?
 

Sadly not

Side 1:

"I'll Paint You A Song" (Mac Davis) - 4:08[2]
"Marie" (M. Torok, R. Redd) - 2:34
"Ol' Norwood's Comin' Home" (M. Torok, R. Redd) - 1:48
"Everything A Man Could Ever Need" (Mac Davis) - 2:29

Side 2:

"True Grit" (Don Black, Elmer Bernstein) - 2:29
"The Repo Man" (Mac Davis) - 1:54
"Norwood (Me And My Guitar)" (Mac Davis) - 2:37
"Private John Q" (Roger Miller) - 1:53
"Down Home" (Mac Davis) - 2:05

Last edited by Hansa (February 14, 2025 7:17 pm)

I mentioned having an Eaton's Viking Record Player System.  The plinth/chassis had an amplifier built in, with a Voice of Music record changer built in.  It came with either two-way or ported single-driver speakers and a metal grille over top the drivers.

I went to lookup the changer a couple of days ago on the VM site, and this appears to be the changer mechanism pictured here.  It came with a ceramic cartridge on it and a red flip stylus:

https://www.thevoiceofmusic.com/popup_pics.asp?FOLDER=modelfinderpics/r&FILE=A1272.jpg&TITLE=A1272

We also had a console from Westinghouse, where my grandfather worked.  It had a BSR Monarch changer in it:

https://www.radiomuseum.org/images/radio/bsr_great_britain/plattenwechsler_ua15_1316661.jpg
 

mace wrote:

And all record players had the capability of playing 16/33/45/78 rpm records.

As did the VM Changer I mentioned
 

Boy, do I ever feel old
”Gunfighter Ballads” by Marty Robbins  1960