Early musical memories

[John]

I thought it would be quite interesting to share our earl(y)iest musical memories. What got your attention when you were a child. It might of course have been Elvis, or it might have been pre Elvis, or after.

Growing up in Africa, we had a big old radiogram and some 78s. I remember my mum's brother was a big Gene Autry fan. I wasn't allowed to touch the records in case I broke them.

The first songs I remember are Sugar Bush by Doris Day and Frankie Laine, Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes by Perry Como, and How Much Is That Doggie In The Window by Lita Roza and one I loved, Bimbo by Jim Reeves. So I was around 3 to 4 years old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEXem1yUHzs

What are your early memories?

[Yin Yang]

When I was a kid whenever I visited my grandparents, one of my uncles still living at home being some 10 years my senior, had a wire recorder and played Les Paul & Mary Ford over and over.
The last year at school, when i was 11, I cycled home with 2 classmates, twin brothers, and sometimes played at their house. They played a record called Buena sera.
As a teenager at the youthclub they played Telephone baby by Johnny Otis & Marci Lee and A big hunk o' love by someone called Elvis Presley.
That last one caught my attention, especially since late september 1959 Dutch radio had one hour of "teenage" music on fridays from 17.00 to 18.00 o' clock where you could hear an Elvis song almost every week. Sometimes they even played both sides of a new Elvis single.

[HillbillyCat]

Apart from Elvis, as a child of the 80s I must have been aware of English-language music for the first time in the form of video clips. The starting point would be around 1984/85: the nightmarish "The Wild Boys" by Duran Duran, the stunning animated "Take On Me" by a-ha and the feel-good-song "Walking On Sunshine" by Katrina and The Waves. "I Just Call To Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder and "Born In The USA" / "Dancing In The Dark" by Bruce Springsteen were also favorites back then (and still are today).

But the earliest musical memory (even if only instrumental) is probably one of the many versions of the chicken dance, like "The Birdie Song" by The Tweets:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESViOhqRdlE

[John]

Apart from Elvis, as a child of the 80s I must have been aware of English-language music for the first time in the form of video clips. The starting point would be around 1984/85: the nightmarish "The Wild Boys" by Duran Duran, the stunning animated "Take On Me" by a-ha and the feel-good-song "Walking On Sunshine" by Katrina and The Waves. "I Just Call To Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder and "Born In The USA" / "Dancing In The Dark" by Bruce Springsteen were also favorites back then (and still are today).

But the earliest musical memory (even if only instrumental) is probably one of the many versions of the chicken dance, like "The Birdie Song" by The Tweets:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESViOhqRdlE

Thanks HillbillyCat. Congratulations on surviving some of that.