The First 2 A&M Albums That You Purchased.

[rockdoctor]

Here is a question that could be a bit of fun for everyone here.
What were the first two A&M Albums that you bought and why do these two rank so high?

My first was Brasil'66 Look Around. I had heard With a Little Help From My Friends and Roda on the radio and I really liked the latter. In the fall of 1969, I was riding with someone that had this on 8 Track playing in the car. I purchased it in December 1969. The second was Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes and Brasil'66. I wanted Fool On The Hill but did not have enough money at the time. The reason I bought HAP was the songs I had heard on the radio, especially The Joker and Mas Que Nada.

 

[Harry]

It had to be two of the Tijuana Brass albums. Most likely WHIPPED CREAM and GOING PLACES. I remember having those two in mono before I got my stereo record player.

 

[Nemily]

My first was What Now My Love (still my favorite)
second was The Beat of the Brass

 

[Rudy]

No idea. I was too young to buy records, so I listened to what we had in the house, or those I received as gifts. (Only a few were "kiddie" records but, more like the records of a popular TV show like The Electric Company.)

Two of the earliest, though, were TJB's Greatest Hits, and Sandpipers Guantanamera.

 

[Bobberman]

I actually received my first A&M Records for my 11th birthday and Christmas of 1979 but in the summer of 1979 I remember having enough money to buy a cassette version of Chuck Mangione's main Squeeze album ( which I wore out later) and in 1980 I bought my own vinyl copy of Herb's Whipped cream and other delights the price was $6.99 the label was the beautiful silver/tan label ( yes i wore that one out too) to my knowledge those were the first A&Ms I bought with saved allowance money

 

[Nemily]

My first was What Now My Love (still my favorite)
second was The Beat of the Brass

Full disclosure... I see a lot of references about being gifted albums, same here. My A&M albums 1967 through the late 70s were also gifted. The first A&M album I bought with my own money was Breakfast in America in 1979. My second most likely was Synchronicity in 1983.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

The first A&M album I purchased with my own money was Look Around. In fact, it was one of the first two albums I purchased, period---bought them at the same time. The other was Francis Albert Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim. I was 11---about to turn 12 (weird kid).

I'm thinking the second A&M I bought was probably The Beat of the Brass.

 

[rbisherw]

Not exactly sure...however I think "Sounds Like" and "Beat of the Brass"

 

[Rudy]

The other was Francis Albert Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim. I was 11---about to turn 12 (weird kid).

We had that in the stack of basement records, mono version. I never heard anyone play it though. (Same with most of the records!)

My record purchases at the time (they were few) were from E.J. Korvette's, as we had one about four miles down the main road. My dad used to get our film developed there, so it was a regular stop. I'm thinking I might have bought the Baja's Greatest Hits there as well and later on, got Solid Brass. My mother never understood why I bought hits compilations since we had the music in the house already...but these were mine. And I could play them on whatever I wanted, vs. having to stick to the Maggotbox console in the living room where all the "good" stereo records were played.

In my junior high school years, we were close enough to a record store that I could take my lawn mowing money and head up there to buy the latest 12-inch singles or an album when something came out that I wanted. Or I'd get someone to drive me over to Peaches, when they were briefly in our area for about 5-6 years. And when I got wheels in high school, and a part time job, that really snowballed the whole record buying thing. Discovering used records not too long after was the final straw that began my addiction. (And when I first bought used records, it was to get a $3 copy of something I was considering on a $15-$20 CD; then I realized there were so many other records I'd missed over the years, that were cheap and readily available and not available on CDs yet...that was throwing gasoline on the fire.)

 

[Murray]

"Frampton Comes Alive"... That counts as two, doesn't it?

(if not, the second would be "Breakfast In America" by Supertramp)

 

[Electroliner]

"Frampton Comes Alive"... That counts as two, doesn't it?

(if not, the second would be "Breakfast In America" by Supertramp)

Styx, Grand illusion and Breakfast in America for me. Both were replaced with MOFI and Nautilus 1/2 speed masters.

My Parents TJB, Sandpipers, and Carpenters Tan album do not count here.

Superstar was my first A&M 45...

 

[Harry]

I have a feeling that my first A&M 45 might have been the TjB's "Casino Royale" b/w "The Wall Street Rag". I seem to remember being blown away when I heard the stereo version of "Casino Royale" on the album.

 

[rockdoctor]

I have a feeling that my first A&M 45 might have been the TjB's "Casino Royale" b/w "The Wall Street Rag". I seem to remember being blown away when I heard the stereo version of "Casino Royale" on the album.

Just for the note-my first two A&M singles were Fool On The Hill and Scarborough Fair.

 

[Rudy]

The first single that belonged to me was the TJB's "Christmas Song" b/w "My Favorite Things." I was all of three years old at the time. It was part of my record player gift that year (below). I still have that poor old record--it's quite worn out by now!



I can't even remember which 45 I bought first. I never liked singles for the most part and rarely bought them even as an adult. At one point I wanted to buy up 45s of some of the oldies I liked, but that only lasted for a few records. Most often, I'll buy them for a non-album B-side.

 

[jfiedler17]

The first two A&M albums I can remember buying after I took up record collecting were Styx's Kilroy Was Here (first album I bought on any label, actually!) and Burt Bacharach's Make It Easy on Yourself. (I've always had really eclectic tastes, I guess!) [Technically, the first albums I ever had were gifted, but I don't recall any of those being A&M releases. Bob Welch's Man Overboard was the first one I ever owned, followed by the self-titled debut from Toto.]

The first A&M 45 I can remember buying was Double's "The Captain of Her Heart." All three are still in my collection and ones I listen to regularly. [And the first A&M promo 45 I ever picked up was David Batteau's "Walk in Love," which I don't believe even so much as made the Hot 100 but is a wonderful little obscurity that the Manhattan Transfer would later cover on Pastiche.]

 

[Rudy]

I still remember a point in my musical life where, after buying one particular album, I took a look at it and told myself that from this record forward, I was going to take care of them all, and put them away right after playing. Decades later, I guess it stuck! Granted, when I was borrowing some of the records from the upstairs Maggotbox, I usually put those away so I didn't get in trouble. And it's not like when I was ~5 yeras old, when the records would sit in a pile until they got put in their jackets once every few months.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I don't think I ever bought an A&M 45rpm for my own use, now that I think about it. I got a couple of TJB ones off of a "used records" ad once, knowing what the hit-side songs were but hoping for some rare gems on the flip sides, but no luck, so I don't even know what ever happened to those. And I had an original "Lonely Bull" 45, but I don't know how I acquired it -- it just showed up one day. When I started being a dance DJ I had some A&M 45s, but not too many...I used albums for that, mostly.

Albums, though -- that one's easy. My first A&M purchase (the first LP I ever bought, actually) was TJB's Going Places, which I bought for my mom for Mother's Day (or maybe it was her birthday, they're pretty close together). I wound up playing the album way more than she ever did -- she was more into singers like Eddy Arnold, Trini Lopez and the like, and even then she really only played music while doing housecleaning.

My second A&M album, and the first one I bought for myself, was the TJB's What Now My Love. I wore the grooves out on that one as well, much to the consternation of my family. I didn't have my own phonograph at the time -- the only music player we had was Dad's living room cabinet model, which I was allowed to use despite my young age. I was 8 when Going Places came out.

I also had the compilation album Music Box around that time, but I think that came along somewhat later, since it had songs from Ninth and Sounds Like on it.

 

[Harry]

The two albums I mentioned above, WHIPPED CREAM and GOING PLACES were my first two, but they were gifted from my parents. I think I had seen the Tijuana Brass on TV as well as hearing them occasionally on radio, and I loved a good instrumental, so these fit the bill, and they got me those two, both mono. If I'm remembering correctly, it was that Christmas that I was given a portable stereo record player and two more Tijuana Brass albums, this time in stereo. They would have been SOUTH OF THE BORDER and WHAT NOW MY LOVE. hey may have included THE LONELY BULL in that batch, but it was mono, probably purchased before they decided to get me the stereo. I then kept up with the TjB releases by getting SRO, SOUNDS LIKE, and NINTH.

Sometime later, I remember that one day they came home with FAMILY PORTRAIT, a nice surprise, and a good introduction to the A&M catalog. I immediately fell for "Like A Lover" by Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 and started collecting whatever they'd put out up to that time, so that little sampler did its job.

 

[Rudy]

While they weren't my records, I still remember my dad keeping the stereo A&Ms in his closet until we got the first Maggotbox console in the living room. Look Around, maybe Fool on the Hill, a Baja album or two, possibly Beat of the Brass...all tucked away safely out of my grasp. Anything earlier by TJB and B66 was mono, and we didn't have a single mono Baja record in the house. My mom kept on buying an A&M or two each year, as we ended up with the later records by Herbie, other BMBs, and she had a thing for Burt. (I still remember the afternoon we drove store to store, looking for the Make It Easy album and my stupid false alarms each time I'd see that Jimmie Rodgers record with the black cover. )

 

[carlitos]

Chris Montes:The more I see you
The Sandpipers:Guantanamera

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I immediately fell for "Like A Lover" by Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 and started collecting whatever they'd put out up to that time, so that little sampler did its job.

Same here with Music Box: It contained Sergio's "Look Around" so I immediately started looking for those albums. I am not sure, but I think the first Sergio Mendes item I bought was Stillness on 8-track. I think I got that one and then sort of worked my way backwards. I think I had all of the Brasil '66 albums in that format, except the debut -- I only ever had that on LP in the pre-CD days.

 

[martin]

I had received Herb and the TJBs "America" for Christmas in 1969, so I did not actually buy it, and it was also released on the German "Karusell" budget label, even if it also said "A & M" on the cover. However, in January, right after my birthday I ran out in the city of Oslo to buy "Going Places". The next one, a couple of months later, was "Whipped Cream".

- greetings from the cold and snowy north -
Martin

 

[Mr Bill]

I have to kind of strain my memory on this.... This all transpired between 1972-73 when I was 12 to 13... As I started taking my filmmaking seriously I had pulled several of my parents albums form their collection and used them to play along with. my films... I know they had Herb's Lonely Bull, WC&OD, SotB and S.R.O.. From the BMB they had For Animals Only and maybe one other early one. And I believe they had one of the first two A&M Sergios... My paper route money from age 12 to 15 funded both my filmmaking AND my record collecting. In Canoga Park there was a great little new & used record shop that had been around since the 1950s called "Pal's Records." One day my dad took me there and I remember buying six albums, my first purchases of records with my own $. Used records were either $1.59 or $1.89 at Pals. Those first six (all used, of course) were (IIRC): Herb's Ninth, Sounds Like, Going Places, and BMB's Watch Out and Heads Up and the Something Festive compilation. The following Christmas my parents got me Brass Are Comin' and Volume II. I later bought (new from Pal's) BMB's Rides Again (the only thing besides Greatest Hits still in print at that point). Shortly after that I remember buying both Solid Brass and Summertime, new, at K-Mart, as well as Herb's and BMB's Foursiders, followed shortly by the excitement of the new TJB's You Smile, The Song Begins.

--Mr Bill

 

[Mark-T]

My first two A&M albums were Carpenters Close to You and then The Tan Album.
Prior to that, I was into Motown almost exclusively.

 

[3Favorites]

My first 2 A&M albums were either "Close to You" and ""Ticket to Ride" or "Close to You" and "Come Saturday Morning" by Liza Minelli. I can't remember which was first for sure.

I know I saw Liza on a talk show and then decided to buy CSM. I also found her first A&M in one of the cut out bins too. At least I think it was in the cut out bins. The edges of the cover were sort of beat up but the front and back were good and the record was fine. Not sure how the edges would get beat up like that. And it seems like it would have been kind of early for it to be a cut out. Maybe the store where I got it was just trying to move older inventory.

I was also aware of Liza appearing in the movie ":The Sterile Cuckoo" as well and the song "Come Saturday Morning."

The first single would have to have been "Call Me" by Chris Montez.

I didn't have too many A&M records before the Carpenters.

My Mom had "Whipped Cream" and at least one other Herb Albert album. I think he was sitting on the cover in a director's chair with his back turned but looking over his shoulder. I'm sure I have the records somewhere. They would have preceded my purchases.