For Those of a Certain Age, What Was the First CD You Bought?

[Rick N. Backer]

This came up at Christmas because I noted that no one I know gets CDs, or cassettes, or LPs as gifts anymore.

 

A college roommate was the first person I knew who had a CD player (he was sort of an audiophile).  The only CD we had in the room at one time was David Lee Roth's Eat 'Em and Smile.  The first CD I bought was Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet, which was just starting to break when I got my own CD player.  I think the second one I bought was The Who's Greatest Hits because I loved the song My Wife.

 

If you're old enough to remember the transition from cassettes or LPs to CDs, what was the first one you bought?

[bluefox4000]

my first that was bought for me was Rubber Soul.

 

the first i bought with my own money.........Abbey Road.

 

But man i played the Rubber Soul CD to death, lol

 

Mick

[IbanezJem]

I was still buying cassettes up until quite late, as my first cars didn`t have CD players. Neil Young`s double live CD "Weld", late 1991, I think that was the first. I always felt short-changed by the art and size of the LP - CDs gave a little bit more in that aspect compared with tapes.

[pjbear05]

First one bought for me was The Digital Domain, a demonstration CD  edited by Eliot Mazer..

Not sure which one was first I actually bought; either The Bob Seger System's Ramblin' Gamblin' Man, or the MC 5's Kick Out The Jams.  Both were bought to replace worn out vinyl LP's.

[apetersvt]

Im pretty certain that the first 10 CDs I bought were all Rush.  No clue what the first ones were.  But would guess they were all in the COS-MP range.

[Principled Man]

1985:  I bought my first three CD's at the local Musicland:

 

Moving Pictures

Led Zeppelin IV

The Dark Side of the Moon

 

Cost me over 50 bucks.    

[Rick N. Backer]

7 minutes ago, Principled Man said:

1985:  I bought my first three CD's at the local Musicland:

 

Moving Pictures

Led Zeppelin IV

The Dark Side of the Moon

 

Cost me over 50 bucks.    

And left you with about 5 pound of cardboard with those foot long boxes.

[invisible airwave]

Ben Folds Five self titled in July 97 when I was 16 going on 17.  First I heard on format was Ooh Yeah! by Hall and Oates since my late ex stepdad had that album when it came out.  Remember Everything Your Heart Desires?

Edited December 27, 2022 by invisible airwave

[bluefox4000]

18 minutes ago, Rick N. Backer said:

And left you with about 5 pound of cardboard with those foot long boxes.

 

 

AH i forgot all about longboxes, lol.

 

Looked cool in tthe store.  just more junk when you got em home.

 

lol.

 

Mick

 

 

Edited December 27, 2022 by bluefox4000

[Segue Myles]

Erm...

 

....

 

 

2001, my first CD I bought (not the first CD/vinyl/cassette I owned) was...Kylie Minogue- Fever.

[Entre_Perpetuo]

The first CD that was bought for me was A Farewell To Kings. My dad ordered it off Amazon and it came in a rare day that he picked me up from school, so we listened to it together on the way home. He hadn’t heard it in years and years. It was my first time.

 

The first CD I bought for myself is less certain, but my first memory of buying CDs for myself was the next summer when I bought these at a Walmart on vacation:

 

Mumford And Sons - Babel

Styx - Paradise Theater

Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head

Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto

 

I think there was another one I bought at the same time, probably something more classic rock, like Aerosmith or ZZ Top, but I don’t think it actually was either of those.

[J2112YYZ]

21 minutes ago, Segue Myles said:

Erm...

 

....

 

 

2001, my first CD I bought (not the first CD/vinyl/cassette I owned) was...Kylie Minogue- Fever.

 

If that was the first CD I bought, it would also be the first one I ever threw in the trash 🤣

 

My family was a little bit late on getting into CDs. My parents bought a 4 CD changer some time around 1994/95. The first CDs I ever bought was this Led Zeppelin box set. I don't remember the name of it but it had the crop circles on the cover. I can't remember if it was four or six discs. I just remember wanting to get something I could rotate around in the CD changer right away.

Edited December 27, 2022 by J2112YYZ

[Segue Myles]

2 minutes ago, J2112YYZ said:

 

If that was the first CD I bought, it would also be the first one I ever threw in the trash 🤣

 

My family was a little bit late on getting into CDs. My parents bought a 4 CD changer some time in the early 90s. The first CDs I ever bought was this Led Zeppelin box set. I don't remember the name of it but it had the crop circles on the cover. I can't remember if it was four or six discs. I just remember wanting to get something I could rotate around in the CD changer right away.

LOOK I WAS A WEIRD LITTLE KID WHO LOVED KYLIE ANS ABBA AND...

 

...soon really heavy music

[J2112YYZ]

Here's the Zeppelin boxed set I was talking about.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Led_Zeppelin_Boxed_Set

[Rick N. Backer]

2 hours ago, bluefox4000 said:

my first that was bought for me was Rubber Soul.

 

the first i bought with my own money.........Abbey Road.

 

But man i played the Rubber Soul CD to death, lol

 

Mick

I'm so old that I remember when it was a big deal that the Beatles' albums were being released on CD. 

[Principled Man]

After the initial excitement of buying CD's died down, the next Big Thing was the BOX SET.    

 

I remember the awe and glory of buying The Allman Brothers Dreams box set.  FOUR discs in that majestic bronze box..... 

 

     

[Rick N. Backer]

15 minutes ago, Rick N. Backer said:

I'm so old that I remember when it was a big deal that the Beatles' albums were being released on CD. 

I should add that the release of Sgt. Pepper on June 1, 1987 was, to quote Joe Biden, "a big f*ckin' deal." 

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

Bought two CDs to go with my first CD player -- Moving Pictures and Boston's Third Stage.

[treeduck]

I didn't want to buy a CD player, I was a holdout. Around 1988 I thought I was going to get one so I bought a bunch of CDs, including Ozzy's No Rest For the Wicked. I didn't get a CD player though until 1991.

[IbanezJem]

1 hour ago, J2112YYZ said:

 

If that was the first CD I bought, it would also be the first one I ever threw in the trash 🤣

 

My family was a little bit late on getting into CDs. My parents bought a 4 CD changer some time around 1994/95. The first CDs I ever bought was this Led Zeppelin box set. I don't remember the name of it but it had the crop circles on the cover. I can't remember if it was four or six discs. I just remember wanting to get something I could rotate around in the CD changer right away.

I have the same set, in four cassette format. The booklet is really good if I remember rightly, good photos and Zep stories. I`m rather hoping it`ll be worth something one day.

[bathory]

I would get CDs as gifts starting around 2000, started buying them myself around 2005/6, stopped around 2011 and was big in the vinyl hipster thing, vinyl got too expensive and impractical, got a CD-only car in 2016 and have bought CDs regularly since then. I've got 600-700 

 

at smaller shows (1000 capacity or less venues) CDs still sell like hot cakes. saw an edgy misanthropic metal band back in february who were selling a longbox of their new CD for $25 and saw a lot of people at the show lugging it around. vinyl has gotten so expensive a lot of collectors are going back to CD, and newer collectors are starting to get into CDs as kind of a retro throwback thing (in addition to CDs being cheaper than LPs now), although it's not on the level of vinyl. the kids born in 2004 who might have vague memories of the last CDs their parents bought will start to get nostalgic for this type of shit. tons of out-of-print metal CDs already go for hundreds on ebay, and I kinda feel like we're gonna end up with what we see with today's vinyl situation, where teenagers in the year 2030 are dropping like $30 for a 1987 sgt pepper that cost 5 bucks just a few years before. 

[bathory]

also you people spent like $18 on third stage and slippery when wet? those CDs cost a quarter now.

 

my local goodwill has had OU812 since I moved to ringgold in 2016. the guy who dropped it off there probably paid 20 bucks for it the day it came out

[taurus]

like Treeduck, I was a holdout, loved my records. Then Zappa released his You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore series and it was not going to get a vinyl release - so the decision was made for me. So about May/June of 1988 was my first cd purchase

 

 

But even after I finally bought a cd, I still bought vinyl for another 2 years before I went entirely cd in my purchases.

 

As far as I can ascertain my last vinyl purchase before I gave up on vinyl was 

 

 

didn't really buy vinyl again until 1996

 

Edited December 28, 2022 by taurus

[custom55]

My first CD,  The Who - Live at Leeds.

[yyz305]

U2 - War. Replaced a worn out vinyl.