Stretching Your Memory: What is the oldest song you remember when it was new?

[SolidGold16]

I remember first being excited by radio (and music in general) when I was in my parent's car on vacation at 5 years old. I never forgot my first favorite song -

Palisades Park - Freddy Cannon (1962)

I thought this was the coolest song I ever heard (although, obviously I hadn't heard many at that age). In later years, I found out it was written by Chuck Barris, creator and host of the "Gong Show".

and the second song I remember from back then was -

Roses are Red - Bobby Vinton. Not exactly a song that a 5 year old would normally be into, but something about it made me smile. I just liked it, I don't know why.

Both of those songs go back as far as my memory allows, does anyone else remember any songs before about age 4 or 5?

 

[semoochie]

The oldest song I remember is "Primrose Lane". I think I heard it on the weekday version of "American Bandstand" but it seems like there was another similar show at the time. It might even have been "Your Hit Parade". I turned 5 in the summer and really have no idea of the specifics. The oldest song I remember from the radio is "Itsy,Bitsy, Teeny, Weeny, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" but I remember a conversation with my dad about "Hound Dog", when it was still popular. I have no idea when that was. I remember "Cathy's Clown" pretty well. Everything's fairly spotty until 1962, when I start to remember just about everything. Most songs before that are pretty vague.

 

[cd637299]

Good question....I'll have to mention a 1962 hit as well.

For me, I think it was "Big Girls Don't Cry."

cd

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

Oh My PaPa Eddie Fisher

 

[FRR]

Portugese Washwoman...( No kidding, WKRC Stan Matlock Show Cincinnati) First rock song, Rock Around the Clock...

 

[CTListener]

The Twist, from 1961. I was 6 and I think I saw it being performed on TV. Neither of my parents listened to rock & roll, or any other popular music (dad was into classical and folk) and my little sister was too young to care, so I had very little exposure to popular music as a young kid. We did, however, watch Ed Sullivan every Sunday night and that's when the gates of rock & roll were opened for me, in 1964.

 

[deltas69]

before i discovered rock... via WLS in the early sixties...i listened to WSM on a small transistor radio at night in bed...mainly because it was the only station that would come in..i distinctly remember "Life has Meaning" I think is the title by Bobby Lord IIRC..after I got a nine transistor radio..I could get Art Roberts...OH YEA !!

 

[oldies76]

Probably the first songs I remember hearing released new were from sometime in 1975 or 1976...was only 8 at the time.....

KC & the Sunshine Band hits, Silver Convention's "Fly Robin Fly", O'Jays "I Love Music" from late '75 and many, many hit songs from '76 are remembered for sure!

 

[PirateJohnny]

I actually thought about this the other day. It has to be Winchester Cathedral by the New Vaudeville Band. I liked the funny voices. Joel Whitburn says it was on the radio in 1966 when i was 8. The only music I heard before that was Eddy Arnold when I visited my grandmother.

 

[CTListener]

I actually thought about this the other day. It has to be Winchester Cathedral by the New Vaudeville Band. I liked the funny voices.

Haha! That was the first song my little brother liked! He was 2 and I was 11. I had the 45 of Winchester Cathedral and he used to jump around and try to whistle every time the intro played. When it was over, he'd beg to hear it again and again: " 'Feedral! 'Feedral!"

 

[joybandit]

My mother listened to the radio while cleaning the house (WJET AM 1400!). The first songs that I remember liking were "Woman, Woman" by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap and "Abraham, Martin & John" by Dion.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Eddy Arnold. Cattle Call. 1944.

 

[firepoint525]

For me, probably a Beatles song, "Yesterday," "Hey Jude," or "Let It Be."

 

[radiobum]

mr. bass man by johnny cymbal-1962 i think

 

[TheFonz]

Eddy Arnold. Cattle Call. 1944.

The Eddy Arnold version would have been 1955. Maybe Tex Ritter (1947)?

 

[deltas69]

well GRC just jogged my old mind...I got a record player in 1957 from Randy's Record Shop here in Gallatin for Christmas when I was around six..and about a dozen records..and 'Cattle Call" was one of them along with Gene Autry's Rudolf, Silver Haired Daddy of Mine, and a couple other western tunes..along with something my much older sister must have picked out... an instrumental.."Malaguania"..must have dialed in WSM a few years later....

 

[TheOtherRadioRob]

I remember hearing "Livin' Thing" by ELO and being scared of the violin intro. Also riding with my father and him trying to get me to believe the Bee Gees were singing "Baldheaded Woman!"

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Eddy Arnold. Cattle Call. 1944.

The Eddy Arnold version would have been 1955. Maybe Tex Ritter (1947)?

I think he put out a newer version in 1955. I read through the history before I posted. The history is a bit convoluted.

I moved from Texas to Arkansas in 1952. I pretty sure I attended a rodeo in Elsa, TX circa 1949 and they played Eddy's recording ovder and over.

Hell, when I lived in Texas I thought Cattle Call was The National Anthem.

 

[semoochie]

I'm having trouble with the concept of "the oldest song remembered when it was new" as being from 1965, 68 or 70!

 

[CTListener]

For me, probably a Beatles song, "Yesterday," "Hey Jude," or "Let It Be."

Those songs were separated by some five years. Surely you can remember something a bit closer to those last two than "Yesterday." Most stations weren't playing five-year-old Beatles songs in 1970 -- what oldies did get played on Top 40 radio were mostly pre-British Invasion, and there was so much current material moving up and down the chart that recurrents weren't often programmed. So how do you think you might have heard "Yesterday" new, or if not that, then nothing at all until 1969 or 1970?