The first single you purchased

[Mary Ann]

I was at a training meeting at work a few days ago and, as we were introducing ourselves, we were asked to state the first music single we'd ever purchased (nothing to do with the training; it was an ice-breaker). I started buying singles around 1980 so my answer was the positively embarrassing Xanadu by Olivia Newton-John. Truth be told I'm not sure if this really was my first purchased single but it was certainly one of the first, and the only one I could think of at the spur of the moment. I hasten to add that my taste in music has improved since then.

So, good people, what was the first single you purchased? Is it as embarrassing as mine, or were you a preteen with better taste?

 

[Capn Flukie]

Y'know, I guess I'm supposed to be embarrassed by this, but I'm not, I still like this song, and it's incorporation into 'A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Underworld' by the Orb.

Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You". 45 RPMs baby!

 

[Amaris]

"Where do you go?" by No Mercy, on cassette.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I don't remember, I've always been more likely to buy albums rather than singles. Might have been Chocolate Salty Balls (PS I Love You) by Chef.

 

[Mallory]

Dizzy by Tommy Roe sometime in the late 1960s.

 

[Mary Ann]

Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You". 45 RPMs baby!

Heh, I had that song on one of my K-Tel albums.

And now I'm admitting that I had K-Tel albums. Must be the wine...

 

[Canadave]

I don't think I've ever purchased a single, actually.

 

[Goliath]

I'm not sure, but I think it was "Chainsaw" by Skinny Puppy:

 

[Shaw]

I don't recall the song, but it was a 45 by the Go-Go's (wasn't willing to buy the whole album because I had never heard of them before). Before that my collection was made up of LPs and 8 Tracks.

As for Xanadu, I got the full LP back then, and have both the CD and DVD today.

My first LP was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and the first 45 I owned was Eleanor Rigby (my mother gave it to me). But the Go-Go's 45 was the first I ever purchased for myself.

 

[scotpens]

I don't know if it was the first I ever bought, but one of the earliest 45-rpm singles I remember having was Bobby Darin's “Sorrow Tomorrow” with a rock arrangement of “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby” on the flipside. And Elvis Presley's “Return to Sender.” I wasn't a big Elvis fan at the time, though.

I started buying singles around 1980 so my answer was the positively embarrassing Xanadu by Olivia Newton-John.

“Xanadu” is a good song. It's the movie that was an embarrassment.

Minnie Riperton's “Lovin' You”. 45 RPMs baby!

That's not a song; it's a voice exercise. It's practice scales with lyrics.

 

[Chaos Descending]

I've never purchased a "single" before.

 

[mari]

That's a stumper... I own a few 45s that I purchased 25-40 years after they were first released (all Beatles or Wings), but the first NEW single I purchased was probably the Beatles "Free As A Bird", on cassette. And then didn't buy one again until a couple years ago when I started downloading embarrassing teen pop songs. They keep my heart rate up on walks. Really.

 

[Joeman]

"Joy to the World" (or "Jeremiah was a Bullfrog", as I always called it) by Three Dog Night, in 1971. I was 7 years old.

 

[Gertch]

The 45 "Down by the River" - Albert Hammond.

 

[Geckothan]

Never bought any singles, but my first album was The Beatles' White Album on CD (too young for vinyls, though I was given quite a few of them at one point).

 

[Capn Flukie]

^ the White Album was my first 8-track.

 

[Amaris]

^ the White Album was my first 8-track.

Flukie, I nearly clicked your avatar to check my mail.

 

[Capn Flukie]

 

[Ethros]

Will Smith - Men In Black

 

[Chaos Descending]

Well the first album I ever bought with my own money was (on cassette no less) Licensed to Ill by the Beastie Boys.