10 albums: Part 1, the early years

So there's this social media thing going on about posting 10 albums that made an impact and are in still your rotation.  (For those of you not old enough, albums were compilations of songs either on a vinyl lp [long playing record], cassette  or compact disc...all of these were modes of listening to/getting music way long ago and these thing had to be bought...unless you had a cassette player that recorded and you "captured" music by taping it off the radio by holding your recorder next to the radio or you had a dual cassette tape player where you could play one tape and record off of it while it played.  Long ago...so long ago...)  Coming up with 10 albums is next to impossible for me, so I decided to to this blog post and give you 10 albums with an some explanation that covered the early/pre-teen years of my life.  If it goes well, who knows maybe I'll get into the teen years and beyond, but for now I give you:

My first exposure to music comes from my mother.  As much as I can recall, most of the music in the house when I was young would fall today under "elevator" or "beautiful" music.  (For those of you who have Sirius XM radio, Escape comes close.)  My mom had plenty of albums that were compilations by Percy Faith or Ray Coniff.  (How do I remember all this stuff?)  But the albums that really made an impact on me and that I made sure I kept when my mother no longer had a record player are these two.  To this day I regret that there is no full original Broadway cast recording of JCS.  (The album was really only a "greatest hits" and it wasn't until years later that I found out that there was MORE music.)  I wanted to play Judas AND Jesus.  (I wasn't so keen on Mary Magdalene.  She just had a bit part in my book.)  I thought then (and still do now) that this was an amazing work.

My mother was also a Burt Bacharach fan and so I became one too.  (I had the pleasure of meeting him when he and Elvis Costello were on tour with their album "Painted From Memory.")  This album was my favorite though.  The syncopations get me to this day.  I love the movie and the music SHOULDN'T work with a "western" (although it's not really a western, it's a buddy picture/comedy), but it does.  I don't know why it does, but it DOES!  

When I was "older" (still under 6 though), I got my own record player.  Actually it was a Show N Tell , but that's a whole other story and it played records and I used it before I was old enough to use my mother's stereo.  These are  probably the first albums that I played on it.  Are all the songs still in my rotation?

Well not EVERY one, but "Rubber Ducky" and "Bare Necessities" will ALWAYS be favorites of mine.  These are classic albums in my book.  Look at the bad artwork on the Disney one.  (Particularly Snow White...is Walt turning over in his grave?).  And proof that I am NOT crazy, Oscar the Grouch WAS once orange. 

So it wasn't the first Partridge Family album, but it was the first one I owned.  I adored David Cassidy (who didn't) and I would listen to it OVER and OVER again on my mother's stereo.  More albums would follow for me, but this was the first one.  I STILL adore the piano intro to Summer Days, but would any one understand "Echo Valley 26809" these days?  I think not!

I think that when I turned 7 I received a cassette player.  This was a BIG deal for me.  (And I would have it and use it for YEARS to come.)  This movie soundtrack was one of the first cassettes I got.  And I loved it so much that I got the album too!  Still one of my all time favorites, though I always wondered WHY Maria had a pink dress on the cover, when she never wore anything like it (in that color) in the movie!

I may have been too young for the original series, but when The Monkees went into reruns, I was hooked.  The above album (Have you ever seen WORSE likenesses?  What WERE "they" thinking?)  was a mail order item and I begged for it.  I had to watch like a hawk to find the address to order the album.  (I can remember getting upset when a friend changed the channel.  I NEEDED the address.)  The album came damaged; there was some "gunk" on side D of the 2 album set, so I never really got to listen to that side of the album.  I still love the Monkees and their music.  This was the album that started it all for me.

Does anyone besides me remember this album or this show?  I was a sucker for Saturday morning shows and I loved this one.  (Hey, I was a pre-teen girl...I WAS the target audience.)  I got the album and played it and played it and...It's NOT on my current rotation list because it's an album (as far as I know it was never re-released as anything else).  But I still have it.  I refuse to get rid of it.  And I can still sing the first track, "When It Hit Me (the Hurricane Song)" even though I haven't listened to it in DECADES.  (Now that's ear candy!)

David wasn't the only Cassidy I came to love.  When ABC aired the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, I was in it for Nancy Drew.  But the first episode was  Hardy Boys with Parker Stephenson and Shaun Cassidy.  Once again this hormone induced tween was hooked on the latest teen sensation. Before I even had the album, I had the 45 of "Da Doo Run Run." (I'm pretty sure I made my dad buy it; now that I think back on it I should have been a lot more grateful!)  

Does this one come as a surprise?  When I think about it, the album (and the group) certainly don't fit into my collection.  But I love this album.  And I love Kiss (specifically the original line up).  To this day, I regret not seeing them live when they made their comeback in the 1990s.  I eventually gave this album to my brother who either gave it away or sold it, so I in the 1980s I had to buy it again.  It still exists on my shelf.  One of the coolest sounding albums EVER when listening to headphones.  (Which is what I did.)  How the drums switched from ear to ear; making it seem like they were encircling you.  This album scared me, intrigued me and hooked me from start to finish...and I wasn't even 12 years old!

So...10 albums and I've just scratched the surface.  I hadn't hit puberty or middle school yet and these albums were on my turntable and they remain an important part of my musical life to this day.

But there's so much more!  (And those of you who know me personally may be surprised at what IS NOT on the list...to which I say...NOT YET.)

I think 10 more albums for the teen years just might be in order...