Readers of my generation will know that when I ask the question, “what was your first record”, I’m talking about those funny looking discs they used to record music on. They were perfect. There was really no need to mess with them. When I was a boy, my father bought me an old record player from Ross’ junk store in the Junction and one record, a 78 (for the kids out there, 78 refers to the number rpms the turntable has to spin at to play the tune). I loved the anticipatory crackle before the music kicked in. My first record was Walking the Floor over You by Ernest Tubb. I have no idea why my father chose to give me that one, especially since he as a jazz hound, but I’ve had a sweet tooth for that old time country sound ever since.
Walking the Floor over You was recorded in 1941 and is the song most people associate with Ernest Tubb even today. Here is Mr. Tubb performing Walking the Floor over You.
I had that old 78 for a long time. I wish I still had it today.
Here’s my second favourite Ernest Tubb tune, Drivin Nails in my Coffin.
27th Street 
Hmmm…..”The two of us” Dinah Washington and Brook Benton, 1960, and Gene Krupa Big Band: “Drummer Man” w/Anita O’Day & Roy Eldridge (Verve, 1956). They were my dad’s, but I kept borrowing them both so much, he said I could keep ’em. I think the first record I bought on my own with my allowance was a 45 of “Uncle Albert-Admiral Halsey/Too many people” by Paul McCartney, when I was about 7 years old.
My first record was Steppenwolf’s Born to be Wild, but I think I actually stole it from my sister. The first one bought with my own money was a Gordon Lightfoot one, but I can’t recall which.
Having the old 78 is one thing Mr A but do you have the technology to play it?
Yes we do. We have a nice old mid-60s vintage record player. We’re having a bit of trouble with it right now…I think it has a loose wire, and the amplification cuts in and out, but with a little patience I think I can restore it to former glory.
You must remember Ross and his various junk stores. I think he mostly found stuff on the street and then tried to sell it to people. What was your first record Salvelinas?
That is easy, my first was Hound Dog, Elvis somethingorother. You ain’t never caught a rabbit and you ain’t no friend of mine.
Great question. Isn’t it funny you had a time warp kind of thing with a record being older as your first record. I just posted how many of the first movies I went to as an independent person of sorts, were often decades old.
I am not sure of my first record. I know my sister and I had several records from when we were really young and we would just play them on our own kids turntable which was a hand me down from our grandmother. They were Burl Ives, Bill Haley and the Comets,. Obviously some kind of left overs from our grandparents. Our parents records were a mixture of thre Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Louis Jordan, The Doors…
Our dad gave us a record and it was The Supremes Greatest Hits and he wrote on the inside “If it feels good do it”.
…but the first record I owned which I picked out on my own with money I earned working for a huge catering company on weekends and what I consider really starting to think about music was David Bowie’s Aladin Zane.
It is curious, isn’t it Candy, since I’ve loved older records about as long as I can remember.