What is your very earliest music memory?

I remember moving from Bismarck to Minneapolis when I was 3yrs old. On the car ride there, I heard Norman Greenbaum [Spirit in the Sky] and Donna Fargo [Funny Face]. My mom also sang some Elvis to pass time.

How 'bout you?

Going to a music arts thing with my Mom and Little Brother in Downtown San Jose and seeing a female fronted band called Banshee, The Robert Berry Band and one other band.

.......and there was always Hank Williams Sr., Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson and Roy Orbison bing played in the house. My Dad was a big time Country fan.

There was always music playing around me when I was a kid. I was shuffled back and forth between my Grandmother's house and my Mother during the first 4 years of my life but music was a constant in both locations.

My first musical memory was hearing "Hey Jude" and "Revolution" on a 45rpm record at my Grandmother's house when I was about 2 years old. By the time I turned 3 my Grandmother said it was nearly impossible to keep me away from the stereo system.

The first song (not counting children's music or nursery rhymes) that i can remember hearing was Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called To Say I Love You". Cheesy yeah, but thats as far back as i remember (though my mother claims she used to sing that "Witch Doctor" song from the Chipmunks to me when i was a baby).

My parents told me (and have a cassette as evidence) that I would try to sing along to Dinah Shore during her TV show (she must have had one in the 1970s). I don't really remember that, so maybe that's not the best answer. I guess watching reruns of The Monkees. I fell in love with them and my parents bought me records from thrift stores and used record stores (as well as the Dave Clark Five).

Also, and probably an even earlier memory, my folks had a cassette of kids' songs and I remember a song called "My Grandfather's Clock" that went kaput when the owner died: "It stopp'd short — never to go again —When the old man died." I did not like it when that song played, because it made me very sad. Funny the things one remembers.

My earliest music memory was watching the movie The Buddy Holly story with my dad on our first VCR many years ago. I have seen that movie a couple of dozen times since then and Buddy Holly is still one of my favorite artists.

Probably listening to my Walt Disney records when I was a little kid.

Thelemech wrote:

My earliest music memory was watching the movie The Buddy Holly story with my dad on our first VCR many years ago. I have seen that movie a couple of dozen times since then and Buddy Holly is still one of my favorite artists.

My Mother took me to see that movie in the theater when it first came out in 1978. I was really into 1950s rock at the time and just HAD to see that movie! She took me to the record store after the film and bought me a 2-LP Buddy Holly compilation album.

Mom and Dad always had records playing or the radio on when I was growing up. On any given day you could hear anything from Elvis or the Beatles to Dean Martin, John Denver, Jim Croce, the "Grease" soundtrack, ABBA...they had a varied record collection.

As a family, we also watched all the old '70s musical/variety TV shows like  Sonny & Cher, Bobby Vinton, Barbara Mandrell (and her younger, hotter sisters!), Donny and Marie (I had a mad preteen crush on Marie), and (of course!) Sha-Na-Na. I thought Bowzer was the coolest.

Some of my first experiences with "hard rock" music included seeing Alice Cooper on "The Muppet Show" and a segment about KISS on the old PBS kids' show "3-2-1 Contact!"

S.D. wrote:

Thelemech wrote:

My earliest music memory was watching the movie The Buddy Holly story with my dad on our first VCR many years ago. I have seen that movie a couple of dozen times since then and Buddy Holly is still one of my favorite artists.

My Mother took me to see that movie in the theater when it first came out in 1978.  I was really into 1950s rock at the time and just HAD to see that movie!  She took me to the record store after the film and bought me a 2-LP Buddy Holly compilation album.  

Buddy Holly was my very first Drive-in movie experience. I remember it was Buddy Holly, then Woody Allen's Bananas, and Jaberwocky [I was crashed by Jaberwocky]. I was running around the playground in my pjs and got slammed in the face with a swing. Nice shiner that night.

Big Band from the parents
Folk & Hippie music from the older siblings.

My parents were pretty big country fans and would listen to a lot of their records. I remember a lot of Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Hank Sr etc.Plus every Saturday night there was Hee Haw on tv. I also remember watching Sha-Na-Na like Freddy mentioned.

My older sister got me into the harder music with Van Halen, Kiss, and AC/DC.

My mum always had The Dubliners playing when she did housework.




I loved the TV show as a kid.

Thrasher73 wrote:

My parents were pretty big country fans and would listen to a lot of their records. I remember a lot of Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Hank Sr etc.Plus every Saturday night there was Hee Haw on tv. I also remember watching Sha-Na-Na like Freddy mentioned.

My older sister got me into the harder music with Van Halen, Kiss, and AC/DC.

HEE HAW!!!!! oh the memories.......

Yeah, my Grandfather watched both Hee Haw and Lawrence Welk. It was hell when I went to visit.

Monkees - Last Train To Clarksville 45 record. And Bad Company's debut. I was probably 4 or 5 when I heard both. Also have to add in Hendrix Crash Landing, I remember when my older brother bought it brand new.

Growing up where there was always music on (Simon & Garfunkel to deep purple); it's hard to say what my earliest memory is......but I distinctly remember singing "mr. ego" by Jerusalem (Swedish) at the top of my lungs in our car.

I'm not sure what my earliest moments were, but I was captivated by my father's love of music. On many Saturday mornings, I would just lay beside him on the living room floor as he spun his favorite albums. He was mainly a Doo-Wop fan, so he did collect a ton of 45's, but I do remember full length albums, because I would remember flipping through them. I sort of felt like William Miller (as a young kid looking through the collection his sister left him) in Almost Famous as I took them all in. They didn't necessarily come alive, like those albums from that movie, but they left an indelible image. I also loved to hear how my father associated music with times in his life, and that's why I do the same thing. Music and nostalgia go hand in hand with me.

Now whether I remember this or it's because my parents would always remind me of this point in my childhood, I'm not sure (I was around 3). But, when "Saturday In the Park" by Chicago would come on, instead of singing the title correctly, I would sing "Saturday Key in the Car". They thought it was funny, so instead of correcting me, they continued to let me sing the misheard lyrics. How cruel...

Fat Freddy wrote:

Mom and Dad always had records playing or the radio on when I was growing up. On any given day you could hear anything from Elvis or the Beatles to Dean Martin, John Denver, Jim Croce, the "Grease" soundtrack, ABBA...they had a varied record collection.

As a family, we also watched all the old '70s musical/variety TV shows like  Sonny & Cher, Bobby Vinton, Barbara Mandrell (and her younger, hotter sisters!), Donny and Marie (I had a mad preteen crush on Marie), and (of course!) Sha-Na-Na. I thought Bowzer was the coolest.

Some of my first experiences with "hard rock" music included seeing Alice Cooper on "The Muppet Show" and a segment about KISS on the old PBS kids' show "3-2-1 Contact!"

We had very similar upbringings. That sounds pretty darn close to my childhood memories. As I got a little older, I found my dad's old record collection, mostly 45's and some albums and I'd make mix tapes.

I think the first rock group that I got into that wasn't my parents rock n roll was Huey Lewis and the News in the early/mid 80's. The heavier stuff didn't come around till high school. Visiting my grandparents, it was a steady diet of Elvis, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams.

Nursery rhymes, I suppose.

My earliest memory of music was, for whatever reason, gravitating towards my parents' copies of Dan Fogelberg's "Home Free" and "Netherlands." There's a song on the latter that's escaping me right now where there's a particularly tense bit of music where I guess a solo might otherwise go where I asked my Mom if he was "having trouble with the music." Hey, I was probably 3 at the time, so it would probably register that way to my rather unformed mind.

A little later, I found my Dad's Kiss and Oingo Boingo albums. I still have those Boingo albums in my collection, but the Kiss stuff probably ended up in a landfill or thrift store back in the 90s, sadly. I was also deathly afraid of the cover of "In the Court of the Crimson King" by King Crimson. No idea why, but it scared the %$#@ out of me! Funny enough, I became a Crimson fan in my teens and forgot about Kiss by and large until my 20s.

Beyond that, my big memories of music involved the inevitable spurts here and there in the late 80s and early 90s where one of us kids would be flipping through the channels looking for cartoons of some stripe or other and stop on MTV (which was channel 27 at the time, if memory serves) because a particularly wild music video was on. There were more than a few times I recall the tv landing on that channel for one video and staying LOCKED on it for a week or two afterwards just because we were transfixed by the visuals. And, having parents who were pretty cool with what was coming out at the time (Dad bought me my first Faith No More CDs), there was no, "This is inappropriate, change the channel" b.s. to contend with.

Mine - I remember listening to Purple Haze has a young kid and loved it. Can't remember if it was my Dad or one my uncle's records, but I wanted to hear it over and over.

I remember getting my first album when I was 7 - KISS Destroyer as a new release. Played that to death!

I also remember hearing Puff The Magic Dragon in music in elementary school and hated it.

thejokeriv wrote:

I also remember hearing Puff The Magic Dragon in music in elementary school and hated it.

Elementary school music class... Looking back, I think it was an institutional attempt to remove ANY fun to music.

Runicen wrote:

thejokeriv wrote:

I also remember hearing Puff The Magic Dragon in music in elementary school and hated it.

Elementary school music class...  Looking back, I think it was an institutional attempt to remove ANY fun to music.  

Oh my god! How could I forget that I used to sing in the choir in elementary school for 2-3 years? I thought that my parents would be embarrassed by me being in it, so I didn't tell them about the big choir event that went down my first year in choir (it was held at my future high school gym) . They were actually proud of me, so I made sure to let them know the next time I was in any plays, musicals or any choir event.

Yea, this place:

Nothing specific, but the earliest things that stood out to me, was the theme song from Flash Gordon by Queen, Grease Lighting, Summer Lovin by Olivia Newton John and John Travolta. And somehow the Beach Boys snuck in there. I do remember in 3rd grade I loved this Peter and the Wolf reading on Vinyl, turns out it was done by David Bowie