1st time I heard this song...I was like...

[MidiMagic]

I have had a lot of times when a song just struck me so much I had to have it:

Somebody Goofed - Freddy Martin
The Three Bells - The Browns
The Happy Organ - Dave "baby" Cortez
Bugler's Holiday - Leroy Anderson
Little Boxes - Pete Seeger
Alley Cat - Bent Fabric
A Lover's Concerto - The Toys
New Math - Tom Lehrer
The One on the Left was on the Right - Johnny Cash
I was Kaiser Bill's Batman - Whistling Jack Smith
They're Here - Boots Walker
Hey, Mr Spaceman - The Byrds
Time is Tight - Booker T and the MGs
I Think We're Alone Now - Tommy James and the Shondells
The Smallest Astronaut - The Royal Guardsmen
Thank You Very Much - The Scaffold
Daydream Believer - The Monkees
Good Vibrations - Beach Boys
Ob-la-di Ob-la-da - The Beatles
On the Rebound - Floyd Cramer
Music Box Dancer - Frank Mills
Caribbean Air Control - Chrome (instrumental version)
Stars On (all tracks)
Topsy - Meco
Hooked on Instrumentals - Meco
Celebration - Kool and the Gang

 

[Tres Discrete]

I have a few:

1) My cousin & I were in the same grade, same town, and liked a lot of the same music. My Aunt and Uncle subscribed to the Columbia House mail order program (remember that?!) and were mainly into easy listening & Country music. They had forgotten to return a certain album, so my cousin got to keep it. Little did my Aunt & Uncle realize what was lurking inside that month’s selection…Ted Nugent’s “Double Live Gonzo”. Not only was his guitar playing MASSIVE, but when you are 14 years old, the song “Wang Dang Sweet Poon****” will leave an indelible mark

2) Had another friend in town whose parents were Swedish. His mother would go into Manhattan occasionally to contribute to a Swedish language radio program, and she would bring home promotional albums that the radio station did not want for her teenage boys.
One day my friend calls me up and says “Get over here now - you are not going to believe this record!”
I pedaled over to his house as fast as I could.
He dropped the needle on a track that literally blew my mind: “Eruption” from the first VH album - which was not in stores yet.
I still remember picking my jaw off the floor and thinking that the the limits of guitar playing had just been shattered.

3) Junior year at UNC Chapel Hill. Walking through campus early on a Sunday morning with virtually no one out & about.
Everything is quiet until I walk by one dorm and I hear music coming from someone’s window.
It was R.E.M.’s “South Central Rain (I’m Sorry).
Something about the moment & the music jelled into an unforgettable memory - and R.E.M. quickly became my favorite band in college.

4) Fast forward a few years & I am working in the WEA NYC office as the Warner Bros Promotion & Marketing Rep.
A friend at Elektra who also worked in that office had just returned from a trip to London & burst into my office & said “stop everything you are doing and listen to this!” He popped Radiohead “Creep” into my CD player.
Mind blown - goalposts moved!

Kinda fun to take this trip down memory lane…

 

[tezzalavell]

She Loves you . 1963 . Six years old in Barmouth North Wales, late summer holiday with the folks.
It was on a jukebox in a pub. I spent the evening feeding my holiday money into it . Pure screaming joy !

 

[cbmmm3]

Still...You Turn Me On. And it still turns me on hearing that acoustic intro and then that Wah Wah guitar, the Harpsichord....first heard it as a 13 year old listening to a new radio station - an FM rock radio station !!! Egads !

 

[Beistovin]

My dad used to listen to an oldies station in the car. I remember being maybe 11 years old and “You Really Got Me” by the Kinks came on and that just stuck in my head, and still remember the moment vividly today. I also remember laughing when the DJ said “That was the Kinks” and I thought wow, what a funny name for a band.

I’m a big Kinks fan! However my journey started in 79 with Low Budget! Love all periods !

 

[newslane]

"Rosemary's Sister" by Huw Williams, sung by Simon Nicol of Fairport Convention. Heartbreaking.

 

[AYanguas]

I remember buying my first King Crimson album simply because I like the cover (ItWoP) and not
having a clue what the band sounded like. You would do that back then, in fact, the covers were
pitched for that.

I was already into rock and the SF scene and such, but not quite prepared for "Pictures of a City"!
Puzzled at first, I can remember saying to myself, "Hey, I might could like this!" and really enjoying
the rest of the album (although the "Devil's Triangle" bit was a tough sell).

Only later did I realize that it was the jazz elements that made it different to me. Once I got a few
Sun Ra records, I could honestly say that a rock band got me into jazz!

What a coincidence. Exactly, KC-ItWoP was the first vinyl I bought, with my parents' pay.

I hardly knew any bands and my reference was a friend who already knew a lot about the Symphonic Rock, although he preferred jazz-rock, blues, Cream and things like that. I asked him what album I could buy. He recommended me, precisely KC – ItWoP and I bought it.

Those were the days of listening to vinyl in the record store, before buying it. I listened first minutes and bought it. After the introduction “Peace – a Beginning” which I found very bland, “Pictures of a City” seemed impressive although strange because of those Jazz-type sounds that I was not yet able to process.

My disappointment came when I listened to the entire album at home, especially with "Devil's Triangle" which bored me a lot and I didn't understand that that could be “Symphonic Rock”.


After several years, my knowledge and taste for electric/electronic instrumentation in general and Progressive Rock was consolidated. “Cadence and Cascade,” which I found boring at first, is one of KC's melodic songs that I like the most, if not the most, and Gordon Haskell's original version still gives me chills when listening to it.

 

[Quadkid]

"It Can't Happen Here" from the Freak Out album. I had a friend who would always bring over albums I had never heard. One day he brought over Freak Out and I thought "what is this gonna be"? When ICHH came on I couldn't stop laughing. That was the start of my love of Zappa.

Will never forget my “Zappa” moment! It was “The Air” from Uncle Meat I believe!

 

[Rhinojack]

Has anyone mentioned "Frankenstein" yet?

It was on the portable radio when we were outside and mother heard it and said, “you are going to ruin that radio listening to that”!

 

[andyp]

I grew up purchasing Beatles singles and albums and heard the Doors, Cream, and Hendrix debuts but when I first heard the "Court of the Crimson King" in 1969, I was blown away.

 

[jaybird100]

Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind". I was working part-time at a radio station when it came out, and I played it on the air. I was speechless by the time it ended, and that's not a good thing when you're on the air.

 

[gvl_guy]

Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind". I was working part-time at a radio station when it came out, and I played it on the air. I was speechless by the time it ended, and that's not a good thing when you're on the air.

I feel you there! I remember being in the air when "Separate Lives" with Phil Collins came out. I had just broken up with the love of my life (at the time... actually, they broke up with me) and could NOT open the microphone after that record. Despite 40 years since that song came out, I still don't care to listen to it.

 

[ar surround]

I have had a lot of times when a song just struck me so much I had to have it:

Somebody Goofed - Freddy Martin
The Three Bells - The Browns
The Happy Organ - Dave "baby" Cortez
Bugler's Holiday - Leroy Anderson
Little Boxes - Pete Seeger
Alley Cat - Bent Fabric
A Lover's Concerto - The Toys
New Math - Tom Lehrer
The One on the Left was on the Right - Johnny Cash
I was Kaiser Bill's Batman - Whistling Jack Smith
They're Here - Boots Walker
Hey, Mr Spaceman - The Byrds
Time is Tight - Booker T and the MGs
I Think We're Alone Now - Tommy James and the Shondells
The Smallest Astronaut - The Royal Guardsmen
Thank You Very Much - The Scaffold
Daydream Believer - The Monkees
Good Vibrations - Beach Boys
Ob-la-di Ob-la-da - The Beatles
On the Rebound - Floyd Cramer
Music Box Dancer - Frank Mills
Caribbean Air Control - Chrome (instrumental version)
Stars On (all tracks)
Topsy - Meco
Hooked on Instrumentals - Meco
Celebration - Kool and the Gang

Midi, either your list is way too long or you are just bloody old like many (most?) of us. Lol

 

[Marplot]

I am really enjoying all the entries to the thread and it helps demonstrate how the music we love is tied to important events or times in our lives; yet another reason we have less love for newer bands that have no place in our history.
I moved just about every other year growing up and when I hear a number of songs it immediately places me at a point in time while growing up; some great some not so but all that contributed to who I am today.

Stevie Wonder? Oh yeah, love Sir Duke and while it came out a months earlier, I first heard it the year spent living with my grandmother as a child so it always brings a smile to my face.

Cheap Trick's Dream Police? Great album and what?!?!? I like girls now as well? Big time in my life growing up.

Keep the stories coming.

 

[GOS]

Well, yeah. Some songs are etched in our memories for BIG moments in our lives. Back in 1978, I was a 15 year old, testing the waters of girlfriends. Dreams was the "theme" of our Prom at high school...and obviously it was due to the big hit by Fleetwood Mac from the same year.

So, that song reminds me of my first make out session with a girl who was taller than me, 1 year younger than me...and clearly more sexually advanced than me.
Now get that visual out of your head. I can't.

 

[JohnN]

One Fine Morning-Lighthouse (STEREO)​