It’s FRIDAY FRIDAY GOT TO GET DOWN ON FRIDAY!
But don’t worry, that is NOT this week’s Friday Video.
HOWEVER. This week we are talking SONGS.
Specifically, what is your earliest favorite song that you can remember?Â
My earliest favorite song that I heard on the radio when I was with my friends and beginning to define my own taste was very 80s: “Into the Groove” by Madonna.
I was obsessed with this stupid movie, and boy, is it dumb and mostly a way for Madonna to pose and look terminally cool. I remember dancing my arms and legs off in the front yard of the church where we were holding a car wash fundraiser. I was probably 11.
But my earliest favorite song?
“Don’t It Make my Brown Eyes Blue” by Crystal Gayle
This song came out when I was about 3 or so, but it is the earliest song I remember LOVING. Full body adoration, similar to my incredible dance moves to “Into the Groove.”
What about you? What was your first favorite song? Do you remember?
Happy weekend, everybody!
My first favorite song?
“I’ll Have to Say ‘I Love You’ In a Song” by Jim Croce
First heard on 8-track.
Top of the World, by the Carpenters.
Ooh, I loved “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue,” too, but my first favorite was “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” with Elton John and Kiki Dee. I used to sing the Kiki parts loudly on my rocking horse (I was 4) while my Mom played her Elton album. I still love that song, and will sing Kiki’s parts when I hear it on the radio, or when I play it.
Peaches by Presidents of the United States of America!
I can remember, as a very young child, spinning around the living room with my older sisters to the song “Dizzy”, and then falling down laughing. Good times.
@Carrie I was just listening to that song this morning, and I do the same thing, minus the rocking horse. And being 4. That’s so funny!
âAmerican Pieâ by Don McLean is my earliest remembered favorite song. I was obsessed with it to the point that I got the album as a present when I was three. I still know every word to that song. My earliest favorite I remembering hearing on the radio is âAmieâ by Pure Prairie League. I could belt that one out loudly in the backseat of my momâs Ford Maverick.
Delta Dawn by Tanya Tucker (she recorded it when she was 13!). I would’ve been about 4.
Red Sails in the Sunset. I know, Iâm older than dirt.
I am 100% ashamed to say, the first song I remember calling my favorite was “Centerfold” by the J. Geils Band (1981, aka second grade). In my defense, I had no understanding of what it was about. My sister and I used to sneak MTV, and I probably liked the video because it’s set in a school and has lots of pretty girls walking around. I just looked it up and I can’t even watch it. The #1 comment is “No wonder we who grew up in the 80s were so well-adjustedđ”.
My bestie loved Desperately Seeking Susan too. We used to pretend she was Susan and I was Roberta. I was secretly glad she wanted to be Susan because I thought Dez was *so* much cuter than Jim.
I remember hearing Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue as “Don’tcha make my brown eyes blue” and being very offended because I have blue eyes and I thought Crystal Gale was singing about not wanting to have blue eyes, lol. Also she had all that long straight hair and I had a little orphan Annie curly situation going on and I just really felt like I was already not living up to beauty standards. (My issues got started eeeeaaaaarly, clearly).
Puff, the Magic Dragon on Peter, Paul, and Mary’s album Moving. My first album, purchased at the grocery store for me by my mom. Is this memory accurate? Did grocery stores in the 60s sell current albums?
Can’t remember my first “favorite” song. Might have been “Groovy Kind of Love” by the Mindbenders. What I can remember is three songs that I had to own the first time I heard them.
The first was “Paradise Under the Dashboard Light” by Meatloaf. We were driving to New Hampshire with the kids & my husband & I kept cutting our eyes at each other going “Did he really just say that.” The second was “Common People” by William Shatner. Again, the spouse and I had a moment–an “Is that Shatner?” moment. and finally, the first time I saw the video of Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt” I was stunned. I still cry whenever I hear it.
Can’t remember my first “favorite” song. Might have been “Groovy Kind of Love” by the Mindbenders. What I can remember is three songs that I had to own the first time I heard them.
The first was “Paradise Under the Dashboard Light” by Meatloaf. We were driving to New Hampshire with the kids & my husband & I kept cutting our eyes at each other going “Did he really just say that.” The second was “Common People” by William Shatner. Again, the spouse and I had a moment–an “Is that Shatner?” moment. and finally, the first time I saw the video of Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt” I was stunned. I still cry whenever I hear it.
I have to go with Tanya Tucker’s Delta Dawn, too. OG GenX. My parents only listened to OG gospel and country, so I didn’t get my rock and pop vibes till later.
I get that Friday song stuck in my head almost every Friday, but weirdly I don’t mind. Maybe that’s how happy I am it’s Friday. That doesn’t mean I’d voluntarily listen to it.
According to my parents, my first favorite song was either “Sweet Dreams” by Eurythmics or the “Duh-nuh-nuh-nuh Batman!” theme song from the old Batman TV show. I would drop everything and run to the sound of the music whenever I heard either one.
The first one I really remember just loving and being blown away by was “Tell Me Lies” by Fleetwood Mac. Everything about it, the sound, the video. The fact that women were wearing cool clothes and hanging out. Loved it. I was definitely an MTV kid.
Conquistador by Procol Harum. It was the late 60s and it was on the radio in my parents car during a trip to Niagara Falls. Even my parents enjoyed it. Great memories.I love that song to this day.
When I was little my parents gave me albums to listen to, and Henry the Eighth by Herman Hermits seemed romantic to me. But in second grade I made my “boyfriend” listen to Help! by The Beatles, because that had Ticket to Ride on it.
I loved Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler. I had a whole interpretive dance for it!
And then when I was old enough to go to the roller rink, it was Mickey by Toni Basil. So much fun!
God, Iâm old. All my earliest remembered favorites are Beatles songs: âShe Loves Youâ, âI Wanna Hold Your Handâ, âTwist & Shoutâ, etc. And these were when the songs were first released, lol.
I listened to whatever stuff I found among my parents’ tapes at first. Audrey Landers was definitely a thing at age 8 or so. We had one tape, and I listened to that a lot. In a fit of nostalgia, I bought the LP a few years ago – and it’s ultra-cringey. They were mostly cover versions, and her cover of Scott Mackenzies’ San Francisco is a crime against music, there’s no other word…
The first tape I bought from pocket money was the soundtrack of the Little Mermaid – that was “my” Disney film.
Then Roxette was the big thing when I started to get interested in pop music and a school friend loaned me several CDs that I copied onto tapes. Dangerous and Spending my Time were my favourite songs. And Belinda Carlisle – basically the whole Runaway Horses album was my favourite, and that was the first CD I bought myself.
And then… @DiscoDollyDeb, we had the With the Beatles LP, which my dad had bought in his teens. And that was my gateway to massive late Beatlemania from 12 or 13 years old for several years. I still consider All My Loving one of their best songs. And I have all their albums on vinyl.
@DiscoDollyDeb, I may have you beat – the first one I remember was World Without Love by Peter & Gordon, 1964. I was maybe five or six and I had a whole pantomime routine I did to the lyrics. My older sister thought it was hilarious and used to make me do it for all her friends.
@Xandi I was a HUGE Herman’s Hermits fan in my early teens; I liked them better than the Beatles. Many years later I got to see Peter Noone in the stage revival of Pirates of Penzance with Jim Belushi, and he was still as cute as ever.
The Turtles: Happy Together
“Imagine me and you, I do …”
The Box Tops: The Letter
“Give me a ticket for an aeroplane …”
And any Beatles songs from the early to mid 1960’s.
I don’t know that it was a favorite, but I remember Fly Me to the Moon from my childhood in Australia. It was released by Frank Sinatra in 1964 (though others had released it previously); I likely recall it from a few years later.
What a fun post, @SB Sarah!
I remember being absolutely in love with “Check Yes or No” by George Strait when I was little.
âRaindrops Keep Falling on My Head,â B. J. Thomas, 1970, I was 5. Before that, âA Sharing Time Is A Happy Time,â which my mom played on the piano (composer/writer n/a).
Mama was a folkie, so I was raised on Peter, Paul, & Mary, Jim Croce, and the soundtrack from “The Sound of Music.”
I Will Survive by Gloria Gagnor. I remember my parents still had that on cassette and I listened to it constantly, even in the car where they would very kindly rotate between all 4 of us who got to pick a song on car rides I picked that one every time to the point my sister would beg me to pick another song and I would still choose that one.
Still love that song â„ïž
A cover of Malaika by Pete Seegar from the Strangers and Cousins album.
Later found a Miriam Makeba and Harry Belafonte version.
I know i listened to ABBA and the Carpenters as a kid, but I don’t think I would consider them as favorites. I did have a vinyl of the Chipmunks singing a variety of songs.
I would say “Cool Rider” and “Girl for all Season” from Grease 2 were my first favorites.
DDD you are not alone in remembering those Beatles songs from when they were first released. I have older brothers and somehow ended up with all of the families singles – not that many because we went for albums as soon as we could afford them – so I still have some of those songs as originally issued in the UK. Those older brothers did not all like the same music so there was also a lot of early Rolling Stones and the Who in the mix. My kid brother and me used to play being the Beatles, I was always George as he was definitely the coolest!
Jane, itâd better not be embarrassing, because âCenterfoldâ is tied for my earliest favorite with âI love rock n rollâ by Joan Jett. (B-side was âCrimson and Cloverâ). My older sister bought them both on 45, and we listened to them endlessly. I was five or so. I still imagine myself as punk princess just born a little too late.
@Sarah, you probably didn’t use a hairbrush as a microphone, like I did when I was four. đ
@Kathleen We also LOVED “Crimson and Clover.” We used to sing it and when we got to the part where her voice skips, we’d pound on our chests to make our voices skip like hers.
I love how across cultures, generations, locations, at one point many of us probably sang into a hairbrush.