What is the First Song You Remember?

I thought I would do something different with this post. In the comments I’ve read a lot about what you think of songs. I also had a post asking Who helped Form Your Musical Tastes way back 5 years ago. This one is a little different. 

Instead of telling you just my memories, I would like to hear your memories. What is the first song you remember hearing that stuck with you? For me, the answer is one song I heard in 1971. Leaving on a Jet Plane, which ironically I heard in an airport picking up a family member. I can still see the airport with those Tel-A-Chairs around…do you remember those? I can also remember the smell of the airport… no, not a bad one. 

 Anyway…what is the first song you remember?

Tel-A-Chairs were coin-operated televisions that you would put a dime or a quarter into to watch a few minutes of a show. They were at airports, bus stations, and train stations. I would LOVE to have one of those.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

143 thoughts on “What is the First Song You Remember?”

  1. The first song I remember was “Apache” by the Shadows. I was seven years old, and I imagined myself as a cowboy, freedom, prairie, and boundless wanderlust. I smelled the grass, tasted the air, felt the reins, and was completely free. I also already understood what it means to be mortal – at least I knew what it meant to be born and to live from zero hour toward the end. But after the tragedy of sunset, inevitably comes sunrise. And so, “Apache” was followed by “Love Me Do.”

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    2. I thought it would be a little earlier since you are barely older than me. Thats cool though…I would have never guessed that one.

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  3. I have two. It’s Too Late by Carole King. I heard it on the beach in Panama City, FL in 1971 And Your Mama Don’t Dance by Loggins and Messina I loved it as soon as I heard it. I remember seeing them perform it on TV. These are the two that I remember more clearly than any others.

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  4. Back in the early 80’s I stayed over at my grandparents’ house overnight, in my uncle’s room while he was away at prom. I played a bunch of his 8 tracks and cassettes that night. Purple Haze was one that immediately jumped out at me and shaped my tastes for the decades to come.

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    1. Ah! What a great one to start off with. That is really cool and yea that would have an effect. Thank you for reading and answering!

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  5. this is a tough one….there was always music around growing up. mom played and so did a lot of their friends and there were always jams in our basement….I knew at a young age that you couldn’t pick very much cotton when those cotton fields got rotten, I was already asking hey hey good lookin’ what you got cooking, and had no idea what a ribbon of darkness now what a devil woman was…….but thinking a lot about this, the first song, saying something by the Monkees would be easy, but I can remember mornings listening to my dad’s choice of radio station at breakfast and hearing Glen Campbell and Galveston…..I was already playing guitar, and hearing that the first time I really wanted to learn that song…not sure why it hit me, but yeah…….I’m sure everything by Gordon Lightfoot(z) and Ian Tyson was in there somewhere, but Campbell had that voice…..and it pretty much struck me for most of my life….OMG, Wichita Lineman?…..his passing hit me big time…will always remember his TV show, especially when he and Jerry Reed would jam..

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    1. Oh Campbell was such a great guitarist…he shold be on every great guitar player list but usually is not. Wichita Lineman…great song! Thanks Warren for reading and answering.

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  6. For the longest time I thought it was Gordon Lightfoot’s “Sundown” on the car radio when I was a little kid. But now that I think about it, I remember The Raiders’ “Indian Reservation” when I was even younger because that descending glissando at the end of the chorus freaked me out as a toddler. It sounded just like my mom’s terrifyingly loud mixer!

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    1. Now that is a cool comparison! Either way they are good songs. Thanks so much for reading and answering!

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  7. Very hard top answer this. The first songs that came to my ear were french classics from my parents. My mother listened to Véronique Sanson so often that’s probably why her music never left me. Not very far, there are some Beatles made of Yellow Submarine or Penny Lane… And Joe Cocker.

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    1. Thank you for reading and the answers. I know what you mean about music of your parents sticking with you. My mom it was Ray Charles and my dad it was more Merle Haggard and Little Richard…they never left me either.

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  8. Haha, I thought ‘Jetplane’ was an original John Denver song. Shh.

    Those Tel-A-Chairs and the decor looks like something out of a Stanley Kubrick movie. Hehe

    I couldn’t tell you definitively what was the first song I remember. Perhaps it was ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’. Lol It would certainly be in the mix.

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    1. Well that is cool! Oh he did write Leaving on a Jet Plane…but I remember the Peter, Paul, and Mary version of it.
      That would be cool…both first songs by Denver.

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      1. When I saw the PPM version I assumed it would have pre-dated JD. Silly me.
        I know we owned his record when I was very young and we listened to it a lot.
        Your recollection of the airport and the song was cool Max. Cheers.

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  9. My dad put a little radio next to my bed when I was about 3 or 4 years old. I listened at night and first thing every morning! I have thought a LOT about which song I remember hearing first and haven’t nailed it down yet, probably never will. I know ABC by The Jackson 5 had to be one of the first, and Just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in, by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. But there was also some Burt Bacharach playing too! Haha!

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    1. Those are two great songs to be introduced to music by radio Shelia…either one would be good. Thank you for reading and answering! I think being at an Airport…my only trip to that point…highlighted my memory.

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    2. All of that good AM radio music pouring out. I remember our little radio in the kitchen playing this stuff. “This Guy’s in Love with You” by Burt. I fell in love with that song!

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  10. Tony Orlando and Dawn– knock three times. i was maybe eight?– and so into roller skating. they played this song constantly … skates, bub’s daddy bubblegum, and ponytail flying. i remember it like it was yesterday. 🙂

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    2. I got into them for a while because of a Tarantino film that mentioned them. Intersting band…or group. Thanks Glyn for replying!

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      1. “Deathproof” has one of their songs playing at a pivotal moment in the movie. Great song paired with horrific moment, just like Stuck in the Middle with You in his The Reservoir Dogs.

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  12. wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen those chairs with TVs built in. Cool idea for the times.
    A great topic, Max. Alas, I can’t say I have one “ah ha!” moment where I heard one song and that was etched into my mind before any other. I do seem to remember clearly when I was very small there was a copy of ‘Sgt Pepper’ in the living room and my Mom was playing the album … might have been hers, might have been my older brother’s, don’t know … and the LP cover was propped up against the console, and I remember what that looked like and being fascinated by the colors and the costumes on it. And thinking the music was pretty neat, especially the title track and ‘A Day in the Life ‘ though it would be probably a full decade before I knew what it was called. I seem to remember hearing Glen Campbell songs a lot when I was very young and also, one that has re-remerged this summer due to the singer’s death, ‘Julie do you love me?’ by Bobby Sherman. I heard that one a lot , maybe my Mom had the record perhaps. Anyway, I quite liked it and hearing it again weeks ago brought back a few memories

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    1. Yea…when we were growing up we had the Glen Campbell show, Tony Orlando, and a host of others so that would be a place some were heard.
      On the Sgt Pepper…that is probably one of the reasons you like that album so much…I know you like the songs but that doesn’t hurt. I wish I could say the same thing for my first songs.

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      1. yes, Campbell had his TV show, so maybe that’s why I remember hearing his iconic songs like ‘Wichita Lineman’ and ‘Galveston’ so much when I was young. The memories probably increase my appreciation of Sgt. Pepper, but even without, it’s still one of the best-ever to me. But you suggest a good point in that, if it had been the White Album instead, I probably would have paid no attention at all to the cover so maybe wouldn’t have connected it to the music later

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      2. Yea I didn’t get the White album until late…when Lennon was shot and that winter I lived on it. Sgt Pepper I got when I was 10 years old… yea that could be true.
        Meet The Beatles…is probably the reason I like early Beatles just as much…I didn’t own it then but it got me into the Beatles.

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  13. This is a difficult question. I have so many songs that I remember. My dad played a lot of oldies, so Elvis & Roy Orbison were staples.

    My dad said that as a kid I’d ask for Roy’s Dream Baby by asking for “Boom boom boom, boomp boomp boom” – which was the opening baseline. So I guess I would say that one. At the same time, I remember my aunt, Who is 4 years older than me, my brother and I all dancing around the living room to Zorba the Greek by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.

    Truly, I don’t remember what the first song I remember is, but it very well could have been one of them or a Beatles song.

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    1. Thanks Keith…sorry for the nudge but you are one of the ones I was thinking of.
      Dream Baby would be a great one to go on! Thank you Keith for reading and answering…I know it’s a hard question to narrow down…the reason I remembered was because of the place I went to and heard it.

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  15. I think it was the music that played at the opening of romper room. and the first music I remember my parents playing was my dad on Saturday mornings and I later came find out it was jazz

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  16. My older sis was a teenager and listening to all that radio friendly British stuff like the Beatles, Hermans Hermits, Dave Clark Five, Petula Clarke, Bee Gees and of course Elvis. A bunch of those songs are still stuck in the cranium for better or worse.

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      3. CB you made me think of Popeye and the music on there. Remember that little “scat” he used to sing while he was walking along? Popeye is one helluva great character for all time imo.

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  17. The first song I can remember, though it is very distant and ethereal, just barely clinging in my memory, a speck of time is of my mother singing ‘You Are My Sunshine.’ Which is strange since I was told when I was older that as a wee one I was a whiney little shi- diaper filler. The song that I recall hitting me right between the eyes and ears as not just a pretty tune but as something soul stirring, as MUSIC, was hearing Dusty Springfield’ Wishin’ And Hoping.’ My God. That blew my juvenile liking for cute kids stuff like ‘Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Polka Dot Bikini’ into the weeds. The next was watching the Honeycombs ‘Have I The Right’ on a neighbours black and white TV. (Owning/renting a TV was beyond me and my brothers imagination and well the budget of Dad and Ma. Thank God my brother saved up and bought a transistor, it became our musical lifeline!)

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    1. “whiney little shi- diaper fille” whoa…now that is cold!
      Hey either one…You Are My Sunshine or Wishin’ and Hopin’ are not bad at all!
      The transistor radio was damned important for a few decades. It was the traveling jukebox. I even caught it before it was gone.

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      1. Pre i-toons and phones a transistor was your haven from the outside world, wasn’t it? For kids its that first step away from parental guidance.

        This is a really entertaining post Max, you get to read other peoples way of hearing what was/is important to them. Great topic, great read.

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      2. Thank you Obbverse…I don’t know if you were around for that other one I did but I love these kinds of posts because I get to know the readers more.

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    2. great memories, Ob. I remember going ga-ga over Dusty’s voice. Her and Bobby Gentry and what got thrown over the bridge. It was like big topic of convo I remember. That and Jeannie C Riley with Harper Valley PTA

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      1. Yes, its funny how some songs had people talking in the school yards, at the bus stops or half-whispering at the back of the class. Looking back now there were a lot of female voices on the charts in the 60s, and I’d venture to say, a few more from the UK that didn’t hit in the US? Cilla Black, Sandy Shaw, Petula Clark, Lulu. (Who had a bucketload of hits but is only known for ‘To Sir With Love’ over there(?) But there were plenty of US gals doing well, Lesley Gore, Dianna Ross, Tina, Bobby and a swathe of Country artists like Loretta, Tammy etc. I believe lil’ ol’ NZ even got a look in with Gale Garnett, singing in the sunshine. Of course for every Janis Joplin there was an Anita Bryant to throw some cold water on the fun.

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  18. Great post, Max. The first song I remember…Jingle Jangle by the Archies, then Sugar Sugar. My parents bought me the Jingle Jangle album for my birthday and then they had to go right out and get the Everything Archies album so I could have Sugar Sugar. My mom never bought 45s. Wish I had those albums now.

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    1. Thank you Pam! Oh that is awesome. A fun one to start with and it sets you up for pop/rock down the road. I’m listening to it now…I do remember it as well. I would watch the Archies on reruns on Saturday.
      For my 8th birthday my mom bought me the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang album. I also wish I had that album again.

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    2. I think of the summer of Sugar Sugar. My folks got divorced and my mom and us 3 kids moved into a new neighborhood full of kids. My first crush was on a kid named Doug Tenbrock and I remember thinking of him while listening to this song.

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      2. we have this thing in Canada where a certain percentage of music played on radio has to have Canadian content….the song Sugar Sugar was co-written by Canadian Andy Kim…so got a little extra radio play way back when because of that…

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      6. Cool on the Canadian content. I think Dale, one of my blogmates, told me about that. Co-written by Andy Kim. I remember he did Rock Me Baby (I think that was the title) and that’s all I know of his music, but I’m guessing there’s lots more.

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  19. As a wee tot I was deeply fascinated by my grandfather’s grandfather clock. So, naturally, my first song was “My Grandfather’s Clock”. I recall it being sung to me all the time. My first words were, of course, “Tick-tock”.

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  20. Max, is this some sneaky way of finding out everyone’s age? 😂

    Not counting anything from church, Sunday School or kindergarten, my song would have to be “Wake Up Little Susie” by the Everly Brothers. I was 7 and it was fun dancing around to. I wasn’t sure what they meant by “What are we gonna tell our friends when they say, “Ooh la la!” but by the silly giggles it got from the older kids, I knew it was something important. It’s still a great song; that’s what you call ‘staying power’.

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    1. LOL…I never thought of that! This would be a good plan!
      What a great song and memory Nancy. I could see that song doing that. I do like finding out about the readers and what they like. I do appreciate it Nancy!

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  21. Gosh, I really don’t remember. Chances are it must have been a song from those vinyl albums my six-year-older sister had, which I first heard when I was 7 or 8. So it could be anything from Carole King’s “Tapestry”, Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”, CSNY’s “Deja Vu”, or greatest hits compilations by Santana, America or Simon & Garfunkel. While I guess this narrows it down somewhat, it’s still not very specific!🤣

    One specific early song I remember is “Sweet Sweet Smile” by Carpenters. I dug it right away and still do!😀

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    1. Your sister was cooler than mine! lol. All I got was Osmonds. That is awesome Christian…at least you did have some cool songs when you were young. Thank you for answering man…this was really cool finding out all of this.

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      1. The funny thing is my sister, who was in her early teens at the time, pretty did all of it unknowingly. I simply overheard the music as she was playing it on her turntable in her room with the door closed. I think it also helped she had a boyfriend at the time who was a guitarist with long blonde hair playing in a band. And that dude had great taste!😀

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      2. LOL…great story dude! He had good taste…any long hair guy in a band…usually does!
        All I heard was teeny bopper music…while you were listening to a long hair musician’s music….good deal dude!

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  22. Oh wow. Good question! The first song that I can remember singing was ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’, which I was obsessed with when I was three or four. Would sing it everywhere. I have a vague memory of singing it in a supermarket and being asked to quieten down… The first contemporary song I was aware of was ‘I Will Always Love You’, the Whitney Houston version, and my ‘girlfriend’ at the time singing it to me… (we were six)

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    1. That is wild…because it waw Puff that I heard right after Leaving on a Jet Plane. I would feel so bad for Puff.
      lol…love that early story…that is cute.

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      1. I’ve said this before…that one makes me cry as well…along with the last scene of It’s A Wonderful Life.

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  23. When I was pre-school we had some 78’s and a basic 78 player, so the earliest memory of music is playing Disney’s Snow White – I’m Wishing and Heigh-Ho – till they got sat on accidentally.

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  25. Gosh, I can’t remember a specific song because my parents always had the radio on the car and played albums at home. So I grew up immersed in the then-current pop music of the 1970s and stuff they grew up with from the 50s & 60s. They also listened to Irish folk music. One song I have a strong memory of is “Baby Come Back” by Player. It was playing when we were going home from visiting my grandparents in Brooklyn and it was very soothing as I fell asleep in the backseat of my dad’s car. That song came out when I was just about 4 years old, so it’s definitely not the first song, but it it is an early one.

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    1. Thats a cool AM song to remember. If it’s the one you remember most…yea that would count for this. I’m sure I heard other songs but that Leaving on a Jet Plane stuck with me. Thanks for answering Liam!

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  26. Wow, tough one. Hard to remember anything specific, but I was born in 1962, so the Beatles are tied up in my earliest memories. If I had to guess, I would say “I Want To Hold Your Hand” or “Can’t Buy Me Love”. Possibly something from Simon and Garfunkel. I was raised on Peter, Paul and Mary also. Love their music.

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    1. Oh cool! Thank you for answering…I thought this would be an interesting question. I know it’s hard to tie one down…I know I heard songs before Leaving On A Jet Plane but none stuck with me like that one. The other one would have been Puff The Magic Dragon

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      1. (Funny how even as a kid listening to Puff we were already aware of how quick we grow up. It is indeed a sad song and if there are/were any hidden references in the song it went way over a wee kids head. Kids take things seriously literally.)

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      2. I think I remember that Peter ands the Wolf disc- didn’t it have musical instruments ‘sounding’ like the animals? Or am I mistaking it for something else? There was one where you had, say, a duck waddling and the music played was played an oboe or somesuch, played in a plodding way?

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  27. I remember an album of Peter and the Wolf as a small child. Not sure if I had my own record player or not but I was able to put the records on the turntable. Other more modern songs back then the Beatles album with I’ve Got a Secret (is that the title?) and all the rest. I also remember Ricky Nelson Travelin Man.

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    1. Thanks for answering! Oh…either Do You Want To Know A Secret? or I’ve Got A Feeling. Wow it’s been a long time since I thought of Peter and the Wolf!…Traveling Man is a great one as well.

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      3. Lisa I want to thank you for answering this again. I was going to ask you to come here or answer in email…it was a fun question that got a much better response than I ever dreamed! I’m about to post an 80s Twilight Zone…a short short post.

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      4. Excellent question that generated a world of good traffic, Max. When I think of how much music enriches our lives I’m overcome with gratitude. Ooh, you know anything to do with TZ and I’m there. I just watched an interesting little mini-series called Hysteria! with Bruce Campbell playing the small town sheriff. Really good show if you can find it. I got it from the L.

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  28. Sometime in the mid 70s (I think) I borrowed my sister’s spanish guitar. Didn’t get very far with learning it but I do remember playing Leaving on a Jet Place on just one string!!

    But to answer your question… it’s a difficult one. But I think the one that’s stuck in my memory most was Que Sera Sera sung by Doris Day. My mum used to sing it to me, too. I’d have been about five or six when I first heard it, I think. These days I find Day’s voice too cloying, but I loved it then.

    I remember how surprised I was when I discovered not that many years ago, that she’d originally sung it in a Hitchcock movie!

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    1. I have memorie of Que Sera Sera…she had a TV show that she walked down a winding staircase singing that song…I’ll never forget it. Thanks for answering Val!
      I didn’t know that about the Hitchcock movie!

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    1. Now I LOVE that answer! Bruce…this post still is drawing in comments…I love to hear from people….I think you might have told me that before.

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  31. “Help Me Rhonda” by The Beach Boys. As a kid, I thought they were saying “Hefty Mama,” and I would laugh and laugh. The catchy hook and energy of the song still resonates through my bones and subconscious. It’s me now.

    Love this question, Max!

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  32. This is a great topic. I’m totally impressed. Feeling older than old, but still impressed.

    My father was a trumpeter who knew how important it was to introduce his sons to music. My mom played the cello but that was not an important part of the woman I knew. What was important was her love of musicals and great songs.

    I couldn’t begin a guess of the singular first song I heard. I know my early childhood was filled with The Music Man, Stan Freberg, big band swing, Rogers and Hammerstein, Peter and the Wolf and lots and lots of other classical stuff and so very much more. One of the first records I bought was My Son The Nut by Allan Sherman. But the most important record is part of a story I love to tell when remembering my father.

    Learning how to musically count is not the same as how to count numbers in school. My father taught both my older brother and I how to do it, at the same time, the same way. In the garage, on the upper shelf, were a few records and most likely a men’s magazine. One of those records was Cocktails for Two by Spike Jones. This was how my father taught us how to count, and how important it is. The record is a classic, with all sorts of wonderful noises and chaos and all the things that made Spike Jones great. And the lyric, “Most any afternoon at five,” which like each line in the song is followed by a rude sound effect. This time the sound effect is the demure sound of four tinkles, like glasses clicking or such. Four. Not five. The record sets you up to expect five, but the song only allows for four beats. WONDERFUL. And my father’s sons both joke the expectation, the joke and the lesson.

    My older brother turned the radio to KHJ to hear Jimmy Gilmer’s Sugar Shack. Our last name is Schaak, and the kids at school referenced the song. That was, I think (but my memory for dates is not very good), 1963.

    Jimmy Gilmer had another small hit with Bottle of Wine, a song written by Tom Paxton. That lead me to Paxton, and somewhere along the line I learned the importance of reader liner notes and exploring.

    These days I read blogs like this and wonder if I heard Lollipop or My Boy Lollipop first. These are the important things in life. 🙂

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