|
FIRST ENCOUNTERS OF THE VINYL KIND
My first encounter with vinyl records was in England when I was 5 years old, the year was 1957. My Aunt Gwen had the 78 versions of "All Shook Up" and "Hound Dog" by Elvis Presley. I loved his voice and I knew all the words to the songs but, it was the guitar solo and machine gun fills on the drums on "Hound Dog" that really caught my attention!
My Mum & Dad bought me my first record player for Christmas in 1962. It was a blue & cream Dansette which was real hi-fi in those days!
A dawn of a new era was just round the corner.
Five 45 records came with the Dansette player that day and what a Christmas present they were, I remember I stacked them up on the Dansette and watched in awe as they played one after another, down the next record would drop and across the arm would come and gently came down onto the record. The anticipation and pleasure I got from this player and records I will always lovingly hold in my mind's eye. Elvis was still dominating the British charts at this time and was at No. 1 that week in December '62 with "Return To Sender".
Britain's answer to Elvis, Cliff Richard was at No. 4 with "The Next Time" but it was the B side which I loved and played to death, the classic "Bachelor Boy" with Hank and the boys behind him.
At No. 6 this week was "Let's Dance" by Chris Montez with that driving indian drum backbeat and that memorable organ sound and I always loved the count in.
The Christmas record at No. 9 that year was "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee with that raw rock n roll sax solo, still my all time favourite Christmas record.
At No.10 was the brilliant "Telestar by the Tornadoes with the equally brilliant "Jungle Fever" on the B side. Produced by the one and only Joe Meek this record was the first British instrumental to top both the British and USA charts and started my love of instrumental groups.
How I love those records, I still do! but very soon the Beatles would take over the world and almost overnight any act that came before them was out of date!
Oh! and the first record I went and bought was the Kinks "All Day and All Of The Night" 6 shillings and 8 pence from the Department store in Grays Essex.
Great days - Long ago and worlds apart.
|
