Earliest Song From Your Childhood

Second song - it was released when I was 3 years old.

I had the tape. I distinctly recall having the tape and bringing it everywhere with me so I could listen to it. I remember the cassette box.

"When I Woke Up This Morning You Were On My Mind" == We Five

Okay third song because same exact year of release. I was 3. Again I was 3.

My grandmother had the cassette. And we’d watch “Pretty Woman” together.

I was 3 and my much older sisters would wake up to me playing this quietly on the stereo.

Oh and post how old you think you were when you were listening!

I was 6 but I could have passed for 5

Type the name of the song please.

Sweet Thing

Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. I was four, with older siblings.

So, yeah, I'm old. Gonna make something of it?

I remember this very distinctly. I loved the screamed opening line JEREMIAH WAS A BULLFROG!

It seemed like a kids’ song to me, though I wasn’t quite tuned in to the references to wine and making love. I was more fixated on the positivity and the imagery of fishes in the deep blue sea.

And I loved the band name because I loved dogs.

I didn’t get into music much as a kid but just the other day I was vaguely recalling a song I heard a lot in my high school years (I’m 70 so the majority of my recollections are vague) in which it develops that some guys have been trapped by a mine collapse or something and it becomes clear that either they ate Timothy, or Timothy ate somebody.

I had a hard time believing the grownups let that song exist in the world and focused on it intently every time it came on because I wasn’t sure I’d really heard what it seemed to be saying.

For me, it was early Abba.

"High Hopes," by Frank Sinatra. My mother and I sang it together when I was three or four. It has always reminded me of her essentially optimistic nature.

Another Brick in the Wall part 2...it was right around when The Wall movie came out in 1982 and the song was HUGE and played everywhere. I was fascinated by it, despite being, like, 4 years old.

Walk Away, Renee by The Left Bank, or, was it 96 Tears?

Puff the Magic Dragon (Peter Paul & Mary Version)

It was released in 1963 as a single when I was two, and requested a Dragon cake for my 4th birthday.

My parents were into folk music and PPM, Dylan, Baez, Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Odetta, Kingston Trio, and Buffy Sainte-Marie were the soundtrack of my early youth. Puff was the song that I first latched onto.

American pie

Seasons in the Sun

"Without You" from My Fair Lady original Broadway cast album. My father played it all the damn time.

Ferry Cross the Mersey, by Gerry & The Pacemakers. I think it was 1965 so I was 6 or 7.

Put Your Hand in the Hand by Ocean. I was 3. My mom played it all the time.

I was born in December of 1967 and there are two songs I loved that I made my uncles play over and over for me. Octopus’s Garden by The Beatles and Playground In My Mind by Clint Holmes. The former was released in 1969, the latter in 1972. I don’t know which I liked 1st, but I loved them both dearly and still do.

OP, Soul II Soul's first album is a fucking classic of late 80's/early 90s dance music.

Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog.

It was the #1 song of the year on WABC am radio

And The 2nd

The Cranberries, Dreams. Also the first song I played on repeat on my dad's multi-disk CD player (remember those)?

The first 45 I can recall owning. I was about 4.

"Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" by Brian Hyland.

And the second.

"Puff, the Magic Dragon" by Peter, Paul and Mary

The first 45 I bought was "I Got a Line on You" by Spirit. (1969)

I'm very old, because the first popular song I really remember was Jewel Akens' "The Birds and the Bees." I remember my sister had it on a 45 record, and I was probably about 3 or 4, and I would sing along to the chorus.

R30, Spirit's debut still holds up VERY well, it sounds way ahead of its time. I never heard of this band until two months ago when I heard Taurus. Led Zepellin should be thankful.

Theme song from Valley of the Dolls. Mother said she had to sing it to me every night or I would never fall asleep.

King of the Road. I would stand in the front seat of the car between my parents and sing along to my dad's cassette tape. I was probably 2 or 3.

I also remember my older brother putting on a wig and lip synching and acting like Mick Jagger to the 45 “Angie” in 1973.

My first album that I asked for on my own (and got for my birthday) when I was in first grade:

I love this thread. So many great memories.

I posted about Maxwell’s Silver Hammer 🔨 up thread. A few years later I remember falling asleep listening to my brother’s hand-me-down radio. The three songs that stand out: Neil Young, Horse with No Name; Eagles, Lyin’ Eyes; Gordon Lightfoot, Sundown. I can still see the images that would unspool in my head listening to the lyrics, wondering if this was how adults actually behaved (“creeping round my back stair,” “she’ll dress up all in lace and go in style” — the lace always sounded scratchy and hot to me). And never knowing wtf that Neil Young song was about.

Thanks, OP!

The King

Wild Wild West- Kool Moe Dee. My parents say I sang this song constantly

The first song I remember hearing and falling in love with was Diamonds and Pearls by Prince and The New Power Generation. I remember the first time I heard it. Me and my father were leaving my great grandmother’s funeral (first time seeing a dead body). We got in his truck and when the beat dropped with those opening notes I felt the warm fuzzy feelings in my stomach. I didn’t know music could do that!

My parents have a picture of me as a four year old, sitting in my closet (the "floor of the closet" was about 2 feet higher than the floor of the room) holding The Best of Sonny & Cher. This was one of my favorites. The compilation album came out 3 years before I was born.

There’s A Hole In My Bucket by Bob Gibson

My parents bought me a lot of vinyl records, mostly Sesame Street and those read-along albums, but some classical music as well. Brahms's Hungarian Dance and Beethoven's 5th Symphony were my early favorites. As for popular music, hard to say exactly, but I remember Diana Ross's theme from Mahogany and the Carpenters' "Sing A Song" from the radio.

My parents played 3 songs on loop in the 70s during my earliest memories=

#2 =

#3 =

The first pop album that was mine, and not my family's was Simple Man, Simple Dreams, when I was seven. I was obsessed with Blue Bayou.

Stumblin In by Suzie Quatro

Don't Be Cruel by Elvis. I was little.

My mom says when I was toddler I would sing a little song to myself 'You peepee'd in the punch'. It took a few years for the shoe to drop/

I think it was a Gregorian chant.

I've never known for sure whether this song was real or part of childhood imagination.

You Never Done it Like That by the Captain and Tennille. I was obsessed. With the song and album cover. I was in fifth grade whatever age that was. It's a great song. One of their few that holds up.

As a kid, I thought his song was about marmalade, yeas later I figured out what Patty was talking about.

In the kitchen with my mom in her Laura Petrie pants.

I don't know if it was the first, but I was born in '57 so it's possible.

I have fond memories of sitting in my playpen while Mother sang along with this song on the radio.

Kung Fu Fighting

Bony M By the rivers of Babylon....the first time I 'discovered' music. My granny had the single and we'd play it over and over for my whole childhood. Amazing memories. Then Grease, the same year 1978.

Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head.

I have 3 - #1 - “Do you know the way to San Jose?” Dionne Warwick ……. #2) “Sugar, Sugar” - the Archies and drumrolllll: #3) “Julie, Julie, Do Ya Love Me?” - Bobby Sherman.

Horse with No Name is by America, r36.

Olivia Newton-John “A Little More Love” #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 February 1979.

"Trouble" by Shampoo

Even though the song came out before I was born, I have a strong attachment to "Sugar Sugar" by the Archies. I even had to record in my little Close and Play record player.

Sheena Easton Sugar Walls

My sugar wall’s temperature rising inside. Come inside and spend the night.

I was only 4 yrs old!

R65 - “You are my Candy, Girl and ya got me wanting youuuu!!”

Cecilia by Simon and Garfunkel

joining R10

Linus and Lucy- Vince Guaraldi

I was four or five years old and it was the first time I had seen "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". So, 1976/77.

The Supremes, Come See About Me

I was 38years old

Guilty by Babs and Barry Gibb. Christmas of 1981 I got a Fischer Price record player and a small stack of 45's. That one and "The Tide Is High" were my favorites. Though I became obsessed with the B side of "The Tide Is High". Which is a song called "Suzy and Jeffery". It was never released on an album and the first time it appeared on CD was the late 90's. Its a story about a couple about to get married, they fight over a blood test and Sue crashes the car into a wall (with Jeffery in it). And there is a sound effect of screeching tires and a car crashing.

[quote]Theme song from Valley of the Dolls. Mother said she had to sing it to me every night or I would never fall asleep.

In other words, it was no surprise when you came out.

Petula Clark, "I Know a Place" from 1965. My teacher in 3rd grade taught the class to sing it with him.

Used to love listening to this ditty on the juke box and the pizza parlor. I was about four.

When I was three years old (1967) is the earliest time I can remember listening to songs I liked: 'Rockin' Robin' by Bobby Day (came out in 1958, but they were still playing it on the radio in '67); 'Downtown' by Petula Clark (released in '64, but still playing in '67); 'The Happening' by the Supremes (1967), and 'Up, Up, and Away' by the Fifth Dimension (1967).

You Can Make It by Tammy Faye Bakker

We used to sing “ You Can Fake It”

I would perform "You Gotta Have a Gimmick" from Gypsy at our neighborhood block parties. I was six.

My mom had an 8-track of Barbra's Greatest Hits that I played over and over. My favorite song was "Second Hand Rose".

As a child, I recall visiting my parents' friends' lavish apartment in NYC upper west side, a place that felt like a palace with one apartment per floor. It was the epitome of sophistication, but my young self managed to find moments some fun amidst the opulence.

The apartment was immense, boasting 6 or 7 bedrooms, and their friend, a sophisticated older woman who felt like a great aunt/mother figure to my newly immigrated parents, lived there with her adopted teenage niece. Now, this niece was quite aloof, showing no interest in my presence. Thus, every time we visited, I found myself wandering the sprawling expanse of the apartment alone searching for entertainment.

One day, while meandering through the apartment, I heard the enchanting strains of music wafting from the niece's room. The song was none other than "Stop in the Name of Love." (1965). Intrigued, I followed the sound like a detective on a mission, and there she was, Edie —holding a hairbrush and passionately lip-syncing to the catchy tune in front of her bedroom mirror.

I was utterly mesmerized by her performance, and when she realized I had been her secret audience, she seemed to relish the attention. From that day forward, whenever we visited, I was granted special access to Edie's room, and she would put on a show just for me. Singing whatever was the current hit.

I was only 3 or 4 years old at the time, but in that grand apartment filled with glamour and laughter, a budding appreciation for the finer things in life, including fabulous music and fabulous company, began to take root.

Jesús that was badly written😵‍💫

Was that Edie Sedgwick, R81?

“Seventy-Six Trombones.”

R74's teacher sounds like a pedo.

"Sugar, Sugar" by The Archies.

Nobody listened to the radio in our house when I was a little kid, so the little pop music I absorbed came to me in different ways.

Like a lot of kids of my era, I was taken to see "Yellow Submarine" when it was released and had my little mind blown. I immediately latched on to the title song.

The other way I got to know a few pop songs was through the fact that my older sister took dance classes, and had to buy the songs they were going to dance in the recitals to, to practice the routines. I got pretty familiar with them by my sister playing them over and over again.

The three songs I recall off the top of my head were "Spinning Wheel" by Blood, Sweat & Tears, "Cracklin' Rosie" by Neil Diamond, and "Montego Bay" by Bobby Bloom.

"Spinning Wheel" didn't really do much for me at the time, but I was fascinated by "Cracklin' Rosie", and "Montego Bay" just seemed so damn catchy.

The Beatles singing "She Loves You" on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.

The repeated "yeah, yeah, yeah" and the girls screaming in the audience (which made no sense to me as a kid) are what made it memorable.

"Me and Bobby McGee." The Joplin recording.

My mother woke us up every Saturday morning blasting it on full volume. I hated it for years but have grown to love it now. I miss my Mother Darling.

When I was a little kid this was on the radio. Yes I’m old. I asked my mother while she was driving the car “why would someone want to be turned upside down?” Hahahahah she didn’t know what to say

^^^ Apparently that song from Diana is in the international language, because the Italians she was performing for were all for it and seemed to get it (unlike me when I was a kid) She really is amazing

Rocking Robin

Earliest songs from childhood... The Mama's and the Papa's all their albums. My non-DNA dad was at work, and that is what she played all the time. Mom could sing like Cass Elliott& had a soprano voice like Michelle Phillips. California Dreaming& I call your name were her favorite songs. She thought Denny was adorable& John Phillips was a PIG!!

Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours. My grandma bought the 45 for me for her record player. I love this song. So many memories

To Sir, with Love--I was five and smitten with both Lulu and Sidney Poitier.

Remember hearing this on a card radio when I was 4 or 5 years old.

Au Clair De La Lune.