Slightly OT: What's the first music you remember? ... EDIT

[Inigo]

As kind of friendly analysis of oneself's musical foundations.
In my case, the very first music I remember hearing at home was Mahalia Jackson's In The Upper Room , plus Myriam Makeba's Pata-pata

The attachment MIRIAM MAKEBA pata pata.mp3 is no longer available

which still has a powerful appeal on me.
I also remember listening to Ray Conniff's sounds on those late 1950s LPs, 'S Wonderful, 'S Marvelous, etc. with his versions of Lullaby of Birdland, Where Or When, I'm Always Chasing Rainbows, The Very Thought Of You, They Can't Take That Away From Me, all these old songs marvelously arranged with a very syncopated rhythm.

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Of course, a strong dish was always Geza Anda's version of Rachmaninoff 2nd concerto (hmv LALP-169, I believe).
Another music that fascinated me was a Mercury LP of Harpo Marx with his son Mikey Katz orchestra. That LP had Yesterdays, The Guardian Angel, My Funny Valentine, etc. I believe this, issued in Spain, was the very same edition as the original US lp. The Ray Conniff's lps were slightly different from the original US Columbias. They were reissued by Philips in Spain under different couplings or song combinations.
Also I remember the French songs of Franck Pourcel, Gilbert Bécaud, the Italians as Domenico Modugno, etc. and many EPs of Los Cinco Latinos with the incredibly meaty, vibrant and powerful voice of Estela Raval.

ray_conniff_lullaby_of_birdland.mp3

Ray Conniff orch & chorus: Lullaby of Birdland

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Those were my infancy musical souvenirs.

Then, when I was 14, my father brought home his parents' 78s with the aim of copying them onto reel tapes. He brought only six or seven dozen records, and I assisted him with the recordings on uncountable Sunday afternoons. I liked them all, but specially the many Bing Crosby songs were a revelation to me.

ray_conniff_i_m_always_chasing_rainbows.mp3

Ray Conniff: I'm always chasing rainbows

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Jack Hylton version of The Song Of The Dawn also impressed my young soul very intensely. Those records were later returned to its place, and when the heirloom was organized, they went far from me. But I still keep my father's tapes, and I slowly have rebuilt that collection of 78s one by one with other copies. Hylton song was one of the more reluctants to appear, but finally 20 years ago I managed to find two copies of that record, which I immediately acquired. One has never been played on an acoustic Gramophone, for the powerful orchestral bass sounds usually break the groove walls under the needle. That orchestra was not Hylton's, the German syndicate didn't allow the British musicians to play in Berlin, so Jack had to assemble a new orchestra there and let the musicians learn the arrangements. I suspect many of them came from Marek Weber's orchestras, for later Weber records show a clear Hylton influence. The sound this Hylton recording is also different from usual. It might have been recorded in a big theatre, for the acoustics are overwhelming. These were Electrola recordings made in Berlin, may 9th, 1930, in a venue named Beethovensaal.

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I want to thank my parents and grandparents, that had such an extended taste in music, which they transmitted to me faithfully and lovingly, and it's my only life treasure, the best present they could have given to me.

[Henry]

"South," by Thamon Hayes, with Bennie Moten's Kansas City orchestra, rec. 1928. As a youngster during WW2, I listened to this over and over on a small electric portable (unfortunately I don't have any details on the machine, and all of my older relatives are now gone), until I broke the record by closing the lid on it. My aunt was able to find another copy!

https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/ ... 2935-South

It wasn't until many years later that I rediscovered this tune, together with details about its composer and the Moten band. Listening to it again brings back all the joy of first musical love!

Sketchy details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_(composition), and here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thamon_Hayes

From the same period, another early memory: The Andrews Sisters, "One Meat Ball" and "Rum and Coca-Cola." I have this one on 78 somewhere; I'll have to dig it out of the pile.

[Wolfe]

Easy by the Commodores in one I clearly remember, from the radio. Song was released the year I turned three. It got stuck in my head at that age for some reason. Any time I hear the song playing somewhere I am transported back. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot too.

Also my parents music resonantes from then. Fairly predictable stuff for one with boomer parents, like Beatles, etc. My mom used to play Steely Dan's Aja all the time - I hear a song like Black Cow or Peg and it just reminds me of being around three or four.

First LP album that I really wanted was Billy Joel's 52nd Street, because I loved the song Big Shot. I received the album for Christmas, 1978. Funny, because I kind of can't stand Billy Joel now. Sorry, Billy Joel fans.

[Inigo]

Ha! Henry (and all): When I was twelve or so I started following a Spanish national radio network (RNE, Radio Nacional de España) program named Mirando hacia atrás con música (Looking back with music) duly copying each program on cassette tape. That program used to run each time from early 1900s to our days (1975) with songs, sometimes aleatory, sometimes devoted to one subject or artist. The very first song I recorded was that version of 'South' by Moten, that also got strongly my mind. I bought that record only 30 years later! I still have the tapes. That very first program also aired 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' by the Boswell Ss, also very catchy, and also one of the latest years acquisitions on 78. I learned those tapes by heart. God! How impressed we got with the music we heard early in our lives!
Among my grandpa's 78s also were a Spanish Columbia pressing of that Andrews Sisters record, the same coupling. But 'One Meat Ball' was only known by me many years later, for my father didn't like it and he didn't copy that side. I knew of it because of the credits copied on the tapes' registry notebook, then crossed out with a straight line. I always wondered how that song might be...

[wjw]

My mom played a lot of music (on my dad's Heathkit-amped phono). She would bring home an l.p. album per week of The World's Greatest Music from the local A&P. I must have listened to Bizet's March of the Toreadors dozens of times and I can't think of an earlier musical memory.
-bill

[gramophone-georg]

Hmmmm. Peter, Paul, and Mary "500 Miles" and "If I Had A Hammer", Nino Tempo & April Stevens "Deep Purple", Dave Brubeck "Take 5", and Bobby Darin's "Mack The Knife" all come to mind. Then there was Van Cliburn and Kyril Kondrashin playing Rach 3... but both sets of grandparents had intriguing music on bigger heavier records that spun really fast too.

Can't forget Vladimir Horowitz "Moonlight Sonata" and Rubinstein/ Ormandy with Grieg's Concerto in A Minor either. I inherited both sets when my grandfather passed in 1975 and still have them. I remember them from forever.

[Menophanes]

Either Ron Grainer's Elizabethan Serenade or Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, the latter in a very early (10") LP version conducted by Igor Markevitch with Wilfred Pickles, a popular B.B.C. radio personality of the 1950s, as narrator. I do not know which came first.

Oliver Mundy.

[Inigo]

Very nice music.
Rachmaninov has always impressed me. I only knew the third piano concerto a few years ago. At first I didn't like it. But this music is so powerful that it kept me listening to it every few days. Then I 'learned' it, and started loving this music. After several dozen listenings, I need it from time to time. Its power is so strong on me that, after one listening, it keeps haunting on me for several days after. It's like a drug for me.
One strong point of this concerto warning to all Rachmaninov 3rd lovers is the filmed masterclass by George Bolet on this concerto. It's a must for Rach lovers, for in these classes, filmed in the 80s, Bolet teaches several young pianists (some of them are now celebrities) dissassembling the entire concert in its different parts, analysing them deeply. It's on YT,
https://youtu.be/DEjUVaeVo7M
This is a link to the continuous 2 hours+ program. Originally it was divided into ten minutes parts, but here you'll find them all together.
Astonishing. Daunting. If you see this, you'll get engaged for the rest of your life to this marvelous concerto, and also to these enormous and valuable lessons and analyses by Bolet.
I keep watching them from time to time since I found them.

[AmberolaAndy]

Probably My parents country music on the radio? Granted, this was at a time when country music was really good. Not as good as 1920s-early 60s country but still good.

The first CD I fell in love with as a little kid in the mid 1990s was probably this compilation CD. So I had an appreciation for older music at quite a young age. growing up I also loved the commercials for other compilation albums that Time Life, Heartland Music, Rhino And TVMusic4u put out. ( ex: Malt Shop Memories, Singers & Songwriters, Goin’ South, Rockin’ Instrumentals, ect.) Those commercials introduced to a lot of music as a kid. And is probably the reason why I collect so many records today.