Hi,
This is a great thread, and what follows is going to date me, but what the heck. . .
The first record I purchased was "Heartbreak Hotel" by Elvis Presley, on a 78 rpm single, in 1956. There was a cultural lag in southern Ontario small towns, and record stores were still selling 78 rpm shellac records as they transitioned to 45 rpm and LPs.
The next singles I bought were all 45 rpm: "Bye, Bye Love," by the Everly Brothers, and "Blueberry Hill (I found my thrill on. .) by Fats Domino, then "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue" by Buddy Holly and the Crickets.
The first LPs my older brother (by 6 years) Tom brought home were Louis Armstrong and the All-Stars, "Ambassador Satch," and Andre Previn doing a jazz treatment of songs from My Fair Lady. I credit Tom for instilling a love of traditional jazz in me when I was in my early teens that began with these LPs.
The first LP I bought was Bobby Darin's great record, "That's All," in 1959, which had the first really hip big band arrangements of standards like "Mack the Knife" and "Beyond the Sea". Those band arrangements still stand up today.
My parents gave me records when I was really little, but they were classically oriented, "Tubby the Tuba", a narrated story about all the instruments in the orchestra, and "Peter and the Wolf", with the great Prokofiev score. There was a lot of classical music in our home, so I tuned into that as well.
By the time I was 16, I had a driver's license and was going to see touring rock 'n' roll shows that came through Kitchener and London, Ontario. They all featured lots of American black doo-wop groups (The Silhouettes, The Del-Vikings, Frankie Lyman and the Teen-agers, The Platters) so I loved the tight harmonies, call and response arrangements and great black voices. That triggered a love of black, gospel-based music and performers that continues today.
Regards,
Alan
