Music from your childhood

[davestlouis]

I grew up in the late 60s and 70s, and my dad had a record player in the basement, with some LPs down there. I grew up listening to the soundtracks from Fiddler on the Roof and Kiss me Kate, as well as lots of The Kingston Trio. I remember those songs well and enjoy this music today. Whose childhood music has stuck with them?

 

[Dixon Cannon]

I still have our original copy of the LP soundrack from 'South Pacific'. Oddly enough, no date on it, but it did cost $.99!!
The only other music I remember in our household as a child is my mother's collection of Nat King Cole LP's. She loved him!

-dixon cannon

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Same here. I remember we had a Mario Lanza LP (selections from The Student Prince), original cast recording of various Broadway musicals and a number of Mantovani albums. One of them had a recording of Music Box Tango. I wish I could find that recording somewhere.

That was pretty much where the seed of my interest in vintage music was planted. And then when I was in junior high school and high school, Sunday night was not Sunday night without tuning in to Dr. Demento (Barry Hansen) from 6 to 10 PM. In addition to the comedy records (and later Weird Al Yankovic -- who got his start on the Dr. D Show) he would frequently play recordings from the 1920s and 30s. I still have dozens of cassette tapes of selections I taped off the radio back then.

 

[Foofoogal]

the seed of my interest in vintage music was planted.

I have come to terms with the fact that nearly every reason I love vintage was a lady named Mrs. Harris.
Coming from a large family I would go to her home and spent alot of time there. She played classical music and waltzes. She also spoiled me and it was a 2 story green wood frame home. My last house I painted green and was 2 story. She had a special room full of old toys. Today I went to an antique show and stood before a table of toys and went back to that room.
In my mind I can tell you almost every inch of that home.
She sold Avon, She had her wedding outfit from the 1930s with dimes in her shoes. I don't think. I know I am desperately trying to recapture that simpler time in my life.
After I moved away she helped tons of children thru an agency. In 1999 I got to visit her. I nearly went hysterical I was crying so much. Coming from a large family she made me feel so special. She had 2 daughters and one was my friend but she never treated me any less than her daughters.
I often wonder if I have ever had an effect on a child like that as I have worked with alot of children over the years and would sure like to think so.
Sorry. fftopic:
Music in her home was a big thing though. We would listen to waltzes and look thru the stereoview things at people in far away places.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We had every LP that Mitch Miller and his Sing-A-Long Gang ever put out. Likewise Billy Vaughn and his Orchestra, the Ray Conniff Singers, and Lawrence Welk.

My mother's all time favorite musical artist was -- and remains -- Liberace.

When I started listening to Benny Goodman records in junior high, my mother would yell at me to "turn that racket down." I was a dangerous rebel.

 

[DutchIndo]

Today at work we listened to old Country & Western. Boy I was transported back to my childhood. My Pop listen to Jim Reeves, Charlie Pride, Marty Robbins to name a few. Today I heard songs I haven't heard in 40+ years. My Pop used to take us to Knotts Berry Farm (when it was free) to listen to the Live Shows they had. Knotts used to have this Waggon Train seating that surrounded the stage. We saw many famous stars there. When the Anaheim Convention Center first opened by Disney Land my Pop took me to see Glen Campbell there. Yep that was a Looong time ago !

 

[Caleb Moore]

Interesting that this thread should pop up now, as just two days ago I ended up catching "40 Most Softsensational Pop Songs" on VH1 and remembering each and every one of them from growing up in the 70's. My parents listened to soft rock AM radio and there was a lot of Seals & Croft and America and Christopher Cross and so on... They are still in my head after all these years.

 

[MrNewportCustom]

My father usually ran the stereo and I grew up listening to everything from Lawrence Welk to Allen Sherman to Emerson, Lake and Palmer.


Lee

 

[Mojito]

I think I lived my early childhood to an eclectic soundtrack...my older sister loved contemporary music, so there was a lot of Blondie and Billy Joel (not to mention early memories of working out a dance routine with her for Cococabana!). I remember dancing at a block party in New York to "Rock Around the Clock".

My parents loved everyone from Benny Goodman (whom my father interviewed back in his days as a journo, LizzieMaine!...he also did an interview by phone with Elvis) to Ella Fitzgerald and anything by Cole Porter if they liked the artist singing it. They also adored musicals...apparently Dad has some old/valuable records, but I know nothing about that area. Even now, my Dad gets me to go online and order particular musicals and recordings he loved. They also took us to quite a few classical performances.

 

[astrang1]

Hello,
I grew up with an eclectic musical background. My mum loved ABBA, and
1950's Rock'n'Roll. With my dad it was Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash and the big bands of the 40's like Benny Goodman. At the time a lot of it I wasn't keen on but as you grow up you really appreciate it and it brings back good childhood memories.
Best wishes,
Al

 

[Doctor Strange]

My musical education...

My Depression/WWII parents had two primary musical interests:

Broadway musicals - their first date in 1947 had been the original production of Carousel ("And I sprung for the good seats - 85 cents!"), and we had a bunch of cast album LPs. Besides those, we took additional ones out of the library after seeing the movie versions of musicals, and I memorized them all: The King and I, Oklahoma!, Peter Pan, Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, Camelot, Fiorello!, The Music Man, West Side Story, Candide (my folks having been among the few who saw the "failed" original production, completely loved it, and bought the cast album), etc. The first Broadway show I saw was the original production of Man of La Mancha when I was 11.

Light classical - in the early 50s, they had bought a pile of 10-inch LPs by the Musical Masterworks Society for $1 apiece mail order. These were US-licensed recordings by minor European orchestras: Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Schubert symphonies, the Bach Brandenburg concertoes, romantic favorites like the Tchaikovsky ballet suites and Night On Bald Mountain and The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

They also had a minor interest in folk music - my mom played guitar for a few years, and we had records by the Kingston Trio, Burl Ives, the Weavers, etc. But they had no interest in the emerging neo-folk of Bob Dylan, etc. And they hated rock and roll ("From the first time I heard Elvis..."), so contemporary popular music simply wasn't on the menu. (And while they had liked much of the popular music of the 30s-50s, we had suprisingly little of it.)

Anyway, I absorbed all this stuff, and quickly expanded my interest in classical. The first LP I bought was the original 1968 Switched-On Bach by Walter (not yet Wendy!) Carlos. I was soon buying budget classical records, mostly from Nonesuch, and getting a heck of an education from the liner notes (and our World Book Encyclopedia). I took to baroque music in a big way, and soon found that much of the later romantic style was a bit too bombastic for my taste. I also began to make inroads into early jazz, bridged by Rhapsody in Blue, and when I started collecting Super 8 silent films, found my way to Scott Joplin, Paul Whiteman, and Louis Armstrong. About the only contemporary music that appealed to me in those days was Simon & Garfunkel.

It wasn't until I hit college in 1973 that I became interested in rock. I quickly caught up on the Beatles, Stones, Who, etc., and eventually found my way to being a serious Deadhead for many years. It was also in college that jazz really grabbed me, and I began to explore it in some detail (starting with 30s swing), though my real record-buying would come later, in my 20s. I also came to folk, bluegrass, and country, mostly from the Dead's influence (Old and In the Way was a key record for me). I got into movie soundtracks at this point also, when somebody lent me an awesome 2-LP Bernard Herrmann album that I copied on my reel-to-reel deck (cassettes not really yet being taken seriously as an archival medium in those days when Dolby decks were rare and prohibitively expensive.) And I kept buying those budget classical LPs too...

Because I came to rock last, from a strong classical/Broadway background, I found that I listened to it differently from most people. I was more fascinated by the interplay of instruments than the driving beat. An intellectual vs. visceral approach, if you will. But as time went by, I found that my seemingly eclectic taste wasn't so weird: I came to realize that if there was virtuosity and emotion, all different kinds of music moved me in the same way. If it's got something to say, I dig it, whenever it's from and whoever it is...

 

[scottyrocks]

My first records were 45s that were my mom's. These mostly included music from the '50's, but very little rock-n-roll. I still have them and would have to look through the box for artists.

My first fan-crush was on the Monkees. I got my first Monkees album when I was 7, and would up with all five of their original albums, and still know most of those songs by heart.

 

[Professor]

Classical to Classic Rock

My Father played "Blood, Sweat and Tears" and "Simon and Garfunkle", my mother played "The Four Seasons" and "The Mamas and the Papas" while my grandfather listened to the Los Angeles Classical radio station. When I was eight years old, my grandmother gave me her record collection from the early fifties, which included Tony Bennett and Kay Starr. It was from that point I started collecting records, and not too long after I found my other grandfather's collection from the thirties and forties, introducing me to Guy Lombardo and Jan Garber. On top of all that, I snubbed Country till my early adult years, when I suddenly realized I'd been listening to true Country Western, such as Spade Cooley and Tammy Wynette, all along and just never known it (duh)! So you might say my taste is eclectic...now if only the radio dial still was.

 

[vitanola]

The Hubda Sokolska Kapelnik Herman playing "Barushka" and the "Chordovatsky Pochod" "Ted Lewis' Popular Favorites", a 25 cent Columbia sample record, Jerry Mazanec's Orch playing "Repete", Yerkes' S. S. Flotilla Orchestra playing "Stumbling", The International Novelty Orchestra playing "Cukoo Waltz" and "Lena - Rhinelander".

These were among the records that came with my first talking machine, a Victor V of my great-grandfather's that was given me when I was five years old. I played those records until I could practically see through them!

 

[C-dot]

My mum was big on Classic Rock too. I grew up with Zeppelin, Rush, Gerry & the Pacemakers...
I think I turned out alright! lol

 

[dhermann1]

We had a TV very early (like 1950 or 51) so I was exposed to a lot of it. I used to imitate Eddie Cantor doing "If You Knew Susie, Like I Know Susie". Johnny Raye was huge at the time, and I and all my friends (age about 5 or 6) would do derisive imitations of his tear jerker "Cry". We had a little 45 rpm only record player, with a stack of much mutilated yellow clear plastic records. I remember one was "Old MacDonald Had a Farm", and another was Fran Allison (of Kukla, Fran and Ollie fame) singing "Here Comes Peter Cottontail, Hopping Down the Bunny Trail". And I was also a Howdy Doody nut, so I sang "It's Howdy Doody Time!" every night. (Those guys did a solid hour of live television five nights a week for years. How did they survive?)
Later on my mom turned me on to Big Band music. at 5 when the show came on. In 1959 the Kingston Trio played at Chautauqua (they used pictures of the concert on about 3 of there albums, it was a huge night.) I had a pal with their "Live at the Hungry I" album. Everybody in the world was singing "Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley" in the winter of 1959-59.
In January of 1964 I'd run upstairs every night at 9 to listen to WABC in New York play a solid hour ob Beayle songs. They had ten of the top 12 songs as I recall. I was a total Beatlemaniac.

 

[BinkieBaumont]

"Being born in 1957 my Childhood Musical memories are of the 1960's classic Beatles pop, Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, and of course the Seekers, (Morningtown ride) mixed with songs aimed at us kids, such as all those Danny Kaye songs such as "Tuby The Tuba" "The King's new clothes" 'The Ugly Duckling"was a favourite' "Nellie The Elephant" and "Right said Fred"oh and Sparky and the magic Piano!!!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMKxnYRhk6I

'The Ugly Duckling"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3etiNLAFi0

"Sparky and the magic Piano"

 

[JennyLou]

I grew up in the late 80s. I remember my mom listening to the popular songs of that time, and also Linda Rondstadt. I remember everyone in my house knowing lyrics to Elton John's "crocodile Rock" and we would all sing along while some of us pretented to play the piano. I remember seeing pics of when my mom would dress me and my twin up in matching Micheal Jackson shirts. Other than that, I don't remember much.

 

[LaMedicine]

In January of 1964 I'd run upstairs every night at 9 to listen to WABC in New York play a solid hour ob Beayle songs. They had ten of the top 12 songs as I recall. I was a total Beatlemaniac.

Our 9th grade girls' phys ed class in junior high talked our P.E. teachers into using the Beatles for calisthenics exercises (would be called aerobics now). We did sit ups and push ups and whole lot more to Please Please Me and This Boy and whatnots. When Beatlemania hit Capitol Hill, one of the classes were featured on local TV about how it was hitting the local teens lol lol lol

 

[Lillemor]

I tried to learn to like what my generation listened to in the 90s but the bluegrass, country, folk, musical music (Oklahoma, and similar), 40s-60s music I grew up listening to eventually had the greatest impact on my adult taste in music. I do appreciate genres my dad (mom listens to whatever mainstream stations play) doesn't care for or has never heard of such as various goth rock but I always go back to the music I heard him play while I grew up and music he listened to as a teenager and adult. I even like some of the artists and groups he grew out of long before I was born.

I've always listened to Patti Page, Patsy Cline, The Limeliters, Flatt & Scruggs, The Beach Boys early stuff, Emmylou Harris, The Carpenters and the list goes on... I don't care for any of the post 63-70s rock I grew up listening to. I don't like The Beatles and I don't think my dad cares particularly either but my mom probably liked them at some point. Well, I do like The Cars and Dr Hook but I don't remember other groups names and I'm pretty sure I won't like their music. My dad has probably grown out of Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, Dion Dimucci, Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, Bobby Vinton, Bobby Vee, JLL, Danny And The Juniors, etc. but while I grew aware of them I've only just grown in to them recently. I'm not even sure my dad liked all the ones I've listed at the bottom but he certainly would've been aware of them and he doesn't mind buying their music for me.