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First song
Mona and Lisa’s story about their early childhood memory of singing Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow” running around in long yellow socks made me think of this question.
What was the first pop/rock song as a child or teen you really got into, or really stand out in your memory?
My earliest memory was from a grade 4 Christmas party we had in class where all the kids danced to music, and the teacher played some Beach Boys and Elton John. Our grade 4 teacher attempted to teach us all to dance. To my 10 years old ears, “Surfin USA” and “Crocodile Rock” were the coolest thing I ever heard and always stood out in my recollection (record collection). Interestingly Surfin USA was released March 4 1963, just a few days after I was born!
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33 Replies
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Mona and Lisa, maybe one day Mellow Yellow? Wouldn’t that be cool!
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Great discussion topic, Jung! I’ve mentioned my early history with Puff the Magic Dragon, but at the time I didn’t know it was an adult song because the version I had was done by other singers on a kids’ label. Of course someone has posted a picture of the actual record:
My first real experience with pop music was in the form of TV commercials for “greatest hits” albums that featured numerous consecutive three-second samples from various songs. I watched so much TV as a kid that I memorized those sequences and sang them to myself as actual songs in their own right.
I still remember one that consisted of brief snippets from (in order) Soldier Boy, He’ll Have to Go, The Birds and the Bees, Personality, 96 Tears, Susie Darlin’, Mission Bell, Tell Laura I Love Her, Stay, Remember (Walking in the Sand), Runaway, Rhythm of the Rain, and Come Go with Me.
When I started listening to “oldies” radio a decade later, it was a thrill finally to hear the other 98% of each of those songs!
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David, Puff The Magic Dragon is a great song. Ever since you mentioned it and it’s story here, it’s become one of my faves. I like Peter, Paul, and Mary’s original version.
I mentioned it before, but other early pop/rock songs that I vividly remember singing in elementary school music class that I thought were so beautiful are Coven’s “One Tin Soldier”, and Bob Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind”. I also remember around that time some teenagers in the neighborhood singing Let It Be with their guitars that sounded so great. I think that was one of the earliest times I remember a Beatles song.
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I can’t recall, only that I was exposed to whatever was on radio as radio always was on in our house on various stations… Lol… Oldies, Country, Normal mix of both,… And records that my Mom and Older brothers had, my own collection when I was in my teens… So, I can’t pinpoint exactly my first song Memory… Just know that I had a good listening musical ear taste in music when I heard something… I either liked it /loved it from get-go or hated it right off the bat…. ??
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I just looked up my childhood version of Puff on YouTube and listened to it for the first time in about 45 years. It’s actually pretty faithful to the original, so I didn’t miss out on much.
My grade school music teacher, to his credit, had us sing a lot of nice pop songs from the 60’s and early 70’s, including “One Tin Soldier”. Unfortunately, rather than the original recordings, we got his own unmodulated singing voice and clunky piano playing, so I never got to experience the beauty.
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Jacki, for me too, as I couldn’t afford to buy any records as a kid, the radio was my early window into the beginnings of pop/rock music, as I am sure it was for many of us before internet. It was kind of magical listening to all the music over the little pocket radio in my room. We had quite a variety of stations then. I remember discovering songs like this for the first time. This one transports me back to those times when I hear it.
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David, I had a listen to the “Peter Pan Records Puff The Magic Dragon Full Alb”, and it is great just like the original. The simple lyrics of that song is very touching.
My grade school music teacher, Mr Stevens, sounds like your music teacher. He would put up the lyrics to the songs and have us all sing along while he played and sang on his piano, or Ukelele sometimes.
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Since the question asked about pop/rock that eliminates my earliest because my parents were into musicals so either “Oklahoma” or “The Music Man” (or some barbershop quartet) was usually on the stereo when I was little. But the Beatles “Yes It Is” brings up the strongest memory – my first boy/girl party and my first slow dance with a girl. Probably when I was in 6th grade or so. “Puff” also brings back some great memories from a few years later, because I was in a folkie group and we sang “Puff” at our first paying gig.
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I saw Peter Yarrow perform solo at a small local theater a couple of years ago. Just before launching into “Puff”, he asked about twenty audience members to join him on stage to sing it with him. People slowly filled in behind him, and then he turned around to give them some instructions. Suddenly his gaze fell on one particular guy, and he exclaimed “Holy s***! A person of color!”, and he walked over and gave him an embracing hug. That was the biggest laugh of the evening from a concert that was filled with smiles and love.
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Jim, that would be a very special and fond memory, the song to your very first slow dance with a girl! I never heard Beatles “Yes It Is”, but it is very nice, another gem. It just had a John Lennon feel to it from the start, and I just checked Wikipedia and is indeed written by John. My parents bought the sound track to the movie “To Sir With Love” starring Sidney Portier about a highschool teacher in rough London school in the 60s. It had a nice mix of pop/rock and folk, instrumental, so for me that could technically be my first earliest memory of pop song I liked. Lulu’s “To Sir With Love”. And I remember when I was 4 or 5 my mom use to sing “Downtown” whenever Petula Clark’s hit came on the radio, so that song was always special to me.
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I have no idea what mine was. Something no doubt in the early to mid 60’s most likely.
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Jeepers… to think back on what my first musical memories were: I guess I’d have to say The Banana Splits! The Banana Splits (for those who are unfamiliar) were a show on TV in the mid to late 1960s, long before H.R. Puffinstuff. They were these apes (guys dressed up in ape costumes) who were a musical group, supposedly emulating The Monkees. It was my favorite show when I was 6 or 7, and the first record I got was their “One Banana Two Banana” which my mom got for me through mail order. Of course, when I was 8 years old, I discovered The Beatles, and my life changed forever!!!
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I know you were “there”, Paul, but according to Wikipedia, The Banana Splits premiered in September 1968, and H.R. Pufnstuf in September 1969, just a year later.
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Hmmmmm… I thought Pufinstuf was more like 72 or 73. My, how the years run together when we get this old, LOL!
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