First Musical Memory? (Page 1 of 2)

The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show. First time I heard them I said, "Whoa, wait a minute, what kind of music is that?" And then it all started.......

And you know what? I'm not that much of a fan of the Beatles' music.

Roy

My father was a Jazz fan. I used to request Dave Brubek be played before I was allowed to touch the home stereo.

The Beatles on Ed Sullivan though is more of a distinct memory of first connecting to popular music.

Certainly the Beatles were wrapped into my early musical memories, but the first song that comes to mind is "Glad All Over" by the Dave Clark Five.

In my young days Germany was a musical wasteland. It changed in the mid-fifties when rumours appeared about Rock´n´Roll, especially "Rock around the clock" by Bill Haley. We used to meet at a friend´s home, the only one with a with a record player. And we listened and listened to Bill Haley, A-side, B-side, A-side......
It was even played sometimes in German radio, connected with warnings about this new dangerous music. And indeed: when "Rock around the clock" was part of a movie´s soundtrack (" Blackboard Jungle", translated in German as "Seed of violence")it became fashion for young guys to destroy the cinemas. So it was banned from German radios. But in this time I discovered AFN and was saved.
Günter

Not really. But I was lucky to grow up in parts of Germany occupied by the Americans and French and not by the Russians.
Günter

What a great question!

My father had a (for the time) classy hi-fi set up when I was young, but he was, sadly, a classical bigot. If it wasn't classical, it was "junk". So, my earliest memories are of Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Schubert, Haydn and so on.

The first artists I remember noticing in any way were Fats Domino, Buddy Holly and Bill Haley.....followed by Elvis, of course.

Günter, I'm sure you can imagine how much more of a musical wasteland Austria was at that time! I was saved by Radio Luxemburg on my first transistor radio, but I could only pick them up at night (under the blanket!). I even remember their frequency - 208.

I remember Elvis on Ed Sullivan long before The Beatles, but the music that first moved me was the Motown stuff I picked up on my first transistor radio that I received when I was 7. Late at night I'd put the radio on my window sill and I could pick up the Motown station in Detroit all the way from Cleveland. Back in those days some AM stations would boost their signal after dark. Motown was it for me until that Sunday night in '63 when Ed Sullivan brought us the next big thing.

                                                                                    Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!!!!!

                                                                                    J Dawg

The first song I clearly remember was on a 78, I can't remember the name of the track, but the main line was "She wears red slippers and a hula, hula skirt..."

The first music to really 'touch' me was hearing Voodoo Child (Slight Return) by Jimi Hendrix in late 1969 when I was 12....that was that, I was hooked on great guitar music whether it be electric or acoustic and so here I am