The CD Turns 30 Tomorrow. What Was Your First CD Purchase?
Thursday, August 16, 2012 at 9:11AM
It was August 17, 1982, when Sony and Philips first trotted out their new audio thingy for the media. After years of joint work, they unveiled the compact disc. "Perfect sound forever," they said.
Despite much initial resistance--record labels and record stores had no interests in the costs associated with a new format--the CD pulled the music industry out of a deep post-disco recession and heralded an era of explosive growth that continued until Napster came along.
But that's another story. What I want to know is what was your first CD purchase?
My first CD wasn't a purchase at all. I had an opportunity to tour the Cineram plant in Canada and was gifted with a digital recording of some Glenn Miller tunes. I still have it somewhere.
The first CDs I bought for my new Technics player were Love by The Cult (LOVE the dynamics and the close-miked drums on "She Sells Sanctuary") and So from Peter Gabriel (stunning production). Then it was Avalon by Roxy Music because I was eager to show off how good recorded audio could be.
After that, it's a blur. It became a sickness. The current collection is somewhere around 10,000.
What were your first CD purchases? And to help you along, Spinner has this article on the subject.
Reader Comments (37)
The first CD I bought? Perverse by Jesus Jones.
I continued to buy vinyl until 1989. I got a 5 disc Sony cd palyer in '89 and bought Disintegration by The Cure (which I had on vinyl but the cd had extra songs)
"Front by Front" by Front 242. I didn't even own a CD player until a month later.
My first CD was The Lion & The Cobra by Sinead O'Connor, I received it as payment for babysitting my cousin. I still have it.
First CD that I bought myself... was probably Spiritual Machines by Our Lady Peace, and still to this day it's one of my favourites.
When my Sony WM-10 broke in the late 80s, I picked up a Sanyo "portable" cd player. The first disc to go in it was "Third World Child" by Johnny Clegg and Savuka.
I remember buying my first CD very vividly.
It was Green Day's 'Dookie'.
I was 15 years old.
I didn't get a cd player until Christmas of 1993. I was 14.
I got the 5 albums that I asked for that year:
Guns N Roses - Spaghetti Incident
Duff McKagan - Believe in Me
Izzy Stradlin & The Ju Ju Hounds
Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way?
The Black Crowes - Southern Harmony and Musical Companion
Believe it or not, it was the Led Zeppelin box set. I knew I was getting a CD player for Christmas, so I planned ahead.
My first sigle-disc purchase was 'Time's Up' by Living Colour.
Don't remember when I purchased a CD player but I do remember the first CD, Black Sabbath "We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll"
AC DC- highway to hell
Green Day's 'Nimrod' in 1999 when I was 12
The Best of The Velvet Underground
The year was 1992. I was 12yrs old. I remember paying top dollar for Queen - A Day at the Races. Still one of my favorite bands of all time.
The first 2 CDs I got were as birthday presents. Tom Cochrane and Red Rider - The Symphony Sessions, and Rush - Presto.
I don't recall what the first CD I bought was. However, it was very likely ordered through Columbia House Music.
I was late to the CD party - with a mid-90s stereo purchase. I had always bought cassette tapes.
I have made a couple of nifty used CD purchases: Acabab by Genesis and Shattered Room by The Fixx. Both still came with original ridgeless case sidings; I think these may have been part of the original approx. 100 CD titles.
For $1, I also picked up a yard sale copy of Platinum Blonde's Standing in the Dark of 1983. Which makes me ask what were the first Cdn. titles issued on CD?
The first cd album I obtained in the early 1980's, before getting myself a cd player later that same year, was Rainbow - On Stage. Still have it, still LOVE it. Must be one the first pressings maybe? In the 1990's my taste became wider, and I started collecting Smashing Pumpkins cds from all over the world. Promos, test pressings, watermarks, BBC glass masters, DJ 1 of a kind pressings, everything. I recently went over the 1,000 cds with them... Amateur music geek? lol
I think it was around 1987 (give or take a year) when CD players first became cheap enough to consider, although they were still insanely expensive. My ex and I got a front loading one with a remote to hook up to his receiver. It was several hundred dollars. At the time, cds were just becoming available, and they were also insanely expensive, I think around $25+ each. When we bought the player, we could choose two free cds from the store's very limited stock of about 10 or 15. We got Dire Straits Brothers In Arms, and a Paul Young cd, the one with Everytime You Go Away, because other than B-I-A, there wasn't much else we wanted.
I too joined the cd game late having invested heavily in cassettes. My first was a Christmas gift from my parents along with a crummy Venture bookshelf stereo cd player in 1992. It was Suicidal Tendencies' How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today.
Were they trying to tell me something?
Lovelife by Lush
Christmas '91 saw the arrival of a huge, boxy Goldstar stereo thingy in the house — I still use the speakers almost every day, actually — along with copies of Bonnie Raitt's "Luck of the Draw", a five-disc set of Baroque tunes played on period instruments and an incredibly cheesy version of Pachelbel's "Canon" accompanied by the sounds of crashing surf. (I never quite know when my father is kidding with some of his gifts.)
The first disc I can remember buying was a couple of months later, when I blew off school for the morning and picked up Was (Not Was)' kinda-sorta best-of disc, "Hello, Dad... I'm In Jail" at HMV. Man, I miss their buy-10-CDs-get-a-disc-for-free rewards cards.
It was '84 or '85, and the CD was Dire Straits, Loce Over Gold
First CD I was given was the Wayne's World soundtrack.
First CD I bought was Spin Doctors - Pocket Full of Kryptonite.
First CD I bought was in 1992 : Bon Jovi Keep the faith
First CD I pawn two weeks later: Bon Jovi Keep the Faith
In the exchange I got Pearl Jam Ten and I've never look back since!
30 years old! Wow.
When I was 13, I received a gift certificate for my birthday. That gift certificate was for a now-defunct music store called "Records on Wheels" in a mall near my house.
I bought "Clumsy" by Our Lady Peace. Great record from a great band.