Earliest CD Purchases

[rcarlberg]

I've been trying to reconstruct history lately.

In another thread I mentioned I heard my first CD player in late 1981/early 1982, and began buying CDs in 1983. When I first started buying them, I put the dates on the inside on the booklet. I remember for the first year or so I was determined to buy only DDD productions (digitally recorded, digitally mixed and digitally mastered) because AAD or ADD productions might as well be LPs. There weren't that many at first; the first wave of CDs were labels cashing in on the new CD fad by releasing hastily-manufactured unremixed analog productions.

Which naturally sounded as bad as LPs, or no better.

Packrat that I am, I kept the Tower Records "Pulse Magazine" dated October 1984, which announced "The Compact Disc: The Future Is Now!" It listed all of the CDs on the market as of that time (!) as well as all of the CD players.

Inside the magazine I kept an hilarious 1984 Wall Street Journal article, with such incredible misinformation as "Though the player can be connected to a regular stereo system and speakers, digital speakers are available that produce better sound" and "Even old standard master recordings can be re-recorded digitally to produce higher quality sound." Emiel Petrone, head of compact disc manufacturing for Polygram, states, "We're sure the compact disk [sic] eventually will eliminate the black vinyl disk, but we originally thought it would take 15 years. Now it looks more like seven years to us."

The article states that "more than 1,200 compact disk titles are available, up from 650 last year." Petrone is quoted, "We want people to know that the compact disc isn't some half-baked gimmick that won't be around in a few years. It is a revolutionary advancement in recorded sound, the result of years of research. The compact disc is here to stay. It is the recording medium of the future."

So okay, what was available in DDD in 1984?

Delos:
3001: Haydn/Hummel - Classic Trumpet Concerti (recorded 3/15/79, released 1983, date of purchase: 10/84)
3002: The Sound of Trumpets (recorded same day & place, released 1983, bought 10/84)
3006: Carol Rosenberger - Water Music of the Impressionists (June 1979, 1983, 10/84)
3007: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons (May 1980, 1980(?), 10/85)
3010: Handel - Water Music (Dec 1980, 1983, 10/84)
3011: Dvorak - Serenade/Notturno/Waldesruhe (May 1981, 1982, 10/84)
3021: Stravinsky - The Soldier's Tale (Dec 1980, 1984, 12/23/84)

Telarc:
80039: Stravinsky - The Firebird (June 1978, 1978(!), 11/84)
80041: Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture (Sep 1978, 1979, 11/84)
80076: Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique (May 1982, 1982, 12/5/1984)
80078: Copland - Appalachian Spring (May 1982, 1982, 11/84)
80094: John Williams - Star Tracks (Nov 83, 1984, 6/26/85)

London:
400 084-2: Stravinsky - Le Sacre du Printemps (1981, 1982, 11/84)

DMP:
CD-441: Warren Bernhardt - Trio '83 (1983, 1983, 12/13/1984)
CD-443: Flim & The BBs - Tricycle (Nov 1982, 1983, 12/13/1984)
CD-454: Flim & The BBs - Big Notes (1985, 1985, 1985)

Geffen:
2011-2: Peter Gabriel - Security (1982, 1982, 10/84)

Elektra:
60303-2: The Digital Domain - A Demonstration (1983, 1983, 12/3/84)


So okay, it looks like I didn't buy very much, if anything, in 1983. I lied. Still, I've been buying CDs for thirty years now.

[beano]

Received my 1st CD player from my wife in 1989 for Xmas..1st CD that came with that gift was The Rippington's - Tourist In Paradise....Still have the wife and CD..

[Modry Effekt]

I heard CD 1982, first time.It was until 1993,got my first CD.Dark times

[Fracktured]

Pretty sure I bought my first player in 1984 and bought Buckner sym no 4 Karajan, genesis foxtrot and dimeola elegant gypsy that very day. Still have all three of those CDs although I've gotten rid of a lot of shit since then.

[Zeuhlmate]

1993 Jean Paul Bourelly: Trippin

[ThomasKDye]

1993: Steve Hillage: Open. Because that was the only way I could get it.

I taped most CDs as I got them until I discovered CDs were easier to deal with at home and better-sounding. By 1996 I'd stopped buying cassettes altogether.

[presdoug]

I bought my first CD player in 1990, with my first purchases of CDs being Quatermass on Repertoire, and Elgar Symphony 1-Halle Orchestra conducted by Sir John Barbirolli.

[GuitarGeek]

The first two CD's I owned were given to my dad for Xmas 1988, along with my first CD player. One of them was the first Ted Nugent album (which I think came with the CD player, my dad bought it second hand off a guy who ran a pawn shop on his mail route) and Grateful Dead Skullfuck.

I think the first one I actually bought, with a gift certificate for Camelot Music I got that same Xmas, was Triumph Allied Forces. And I think the first that I bought with my regular walking around money, ie not a gift of any kind, was Psychedelic Furs Talk Talk Talk.

[JKL2000]

One of my roommates got a CD player in 1987. He was super worried one of us would leave it running and that would ruin the laser. He also came up with elaborate constructions to keep the cats off of it.

My first three CD purchases were (in order):

1. The Explorers (Phil Manzanera project)
2. Clutching at Straws - Marillion
3. Radio KAOS - Roger Waters

Maybe Radio LAOS came out before Clutching?

[FrippWire]

I don't remember exactly what year I acquired my first CD player but I know I got one once the prices sort of came down to earth. It was definitely in the early-to-mid eighties. The first CD I bought was a used copy of Larry Coryell performing Stravinsky's Rite Of Spring on the Phillips label. I didn't have a disc player at the time but knew I would eventually get one and this was a disc I would want especially since I'd never seen it on vinyl. I still own the disc. It has since gone out of print as far as I can tell.

[Rune Blackwings]

Pink Floyd-The wall and three Duran Duran cds. Actually, they were given to me. I don't recall, but the first I ever bought was probably Powerstation or Andy Taylor's Thunder

[Dave (in MA)]

Inside the magazine I kept an hilarious 1984 Wall Street Journal article, with such incredible misinformation as "Though the player can be connected to a regular stereo system and speakers, digital speakers are available that produce better sound" and "Even old standard master recordings can be re-recorded digitally to produce higher quality sound."

That was back when they slapped "Digital-Ready" stickers on speakers and headphones and probably raised the prices.

[Library Jon]

I got my first CD player for Christmas in 1986 and bought my first two CDs: John Fogerty "Centerfield" and the first Boston album. The Powerstation CD and Duran Duran "Notorious" were both two of my first ten CDs that I bought.


Library Jon

[rcarlberg]

The first CD player I bought was a Sanyo CP300B purchased October 1984 (hence my first CD purchases). It was a piece of shit.
http://vintage-audio-laser.com/sanyo/cp300r/image65.png
I replaced it within the year with a Technics SL-P7 which lasted me a good ten years.

The prototype player we played with in late '81/early '82, at the professional audio company where I worked, was a Sony Goronta I believe:
If it wasn't the Goronta it looked just like it. The one CD we had to play on it was a disc of Japanese pop songs -- awful!

[Dave (in MA)]

I still have my original CD player, bought for me @ Christmas 1984. It was a few years before I was buying CDs regularly, the prices being so high. I'm not OCD about keeping track but one of my first was Oregon : Oregon. Another was the disappointing Al DiMeola:Tour de Force Live.

[WytchCrypt]

I bought my 1st CD player (a Pioneer with a 6 disc magazine) because of 2 releases in 1988. Jimi Hendrix Live at Winterland was a CD only release and the 20 Years of Jethro Tull box had just come out and you could either get the 5 LP or 3 CD version - the thought of knowing that in a few short months those 5 LP's would probably have a few pops and scratches was enough for me...and with both of those released around the same time, I just couldn't put it off any longer. I'm pretty sure the next CD I bought was The Best of Procol Harum

[luvyesmusic]

I refused to buy a c.d. player until 7 years after they first came out. What I first bought, I can't remember.

[Digital_Man]

Not sure what my first cd purchase was but it might have been Big Generator by Yes.

[Progbear]

1993: Cressida’s Asylum. I didn’t even have a CD player yet (but subsequently received my sister’s Pioneer player as a hand-me-down, one with one of those multi-disc cartridges available. I used the single-disc cartridge, as I tended not to like having multiple discs out at the same time and risk losing/misplacing them. It also was really noisy when it ejected one disc and loaded another).

I also remember the first album I wanted to buy that was not available on vinyl: 2nd Wind by Todd Rundgren. I eventually caved and bought it...on cassette!

[Jerjo]

I could tell you my first vinyl but CDs, man I have little idea. My first player was a Denon, bought around '89. I'm guessing that my first buys would have been the staples: Zep, Rush, Tull, Mozart, Stones, Floyd, Van....

[luvyesmusic]

I forgot that I was given c.d.s as gifts years before I bought a player. I, like most, had 8-tracks, l.p.s and 45s and then a huge amount of cassettes. I was in no hurry to replace everything to c.d.s. Granted, I've gotten some bargain bin c.d.s but I remember before and during the introduction of c.d.s how they were going to be cheaper than l.p.s to the consumer ( at least in the states, some bloody music fans overseas parting with a lot of money back in the day for l.p.s from what I remember) because they weren't oil based, etc, etc.. Another lie perpetrated on the consumers. ;-)

[TheLoony]

1986. Got a player, so I went to Wherehouse to get, I believe, Exit...Stage Left. I know I was looking for Rush and nothing else, whichever disc it was. It didn't exist at the time so I ended up with Signals. Pissed me off that it didn't exist as it was the only Rush album I didn't have and now I think it was AFTK that I was looking for and I didn't get Exit as it was missing a song. I think that's what happened, in any case.

My first cd player had a thing called sectors. I guess that feature never caught on, as I never had any discs that registered with sectors inside of tracks. I thought that would be cool with the multi-part songs but for some reason that went by the wayside.

I'll never forget the first thing I heard on cd, it was a test pattern not unlike the THX "THUD: The Audience Is Now Deaf" - for those who have seen the Looney Tunes movie you'll get the joke - and it blew me away. Twenty years later, I'm buying albums(with cd's, but still) again. Go figure.

[bob_32_116]

I'm pretty certain the first CD I bought was Van Morrison - Inarticulate Speech of the Heart. Or it may have been Elton John - Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.

The last vinyl I bought was The Psychedelic Furs - Mirror Moves.

The first CD I bought of which I already had a vinyl copy was The Dream Academy self-titled. That was followed shortly afterwards by Elton John self-titled.

[GuitarGeek]

The first CD I bought of which I already had a vinyl copy was The Dream Academy self-titled. That was followed shortly afterwards by Elton John self-titled.

I think the first album I ever rebought on CD was The Who Sell Out.

[happytheman]

Bought Classic Yes first and had a friend (who had a CD player) record it on cassette for me.. Second purchase was the 4 disc Yesyears.. somewhere around that time I got the 3 disc Tull set.. Around that time I joined BMG and went for the boxsets they offered when you could "work" the BMG system.. you know buy one get ten free.. etc. They caught onto that and wouldn't let you you buy boxsets as part of the deal.. Ended up buying a boombox w/ CD player first (like others the prices for CD players as well as CD's were through the roof in the beginning.. still are in my humble opinion) Ended up buying a Dennon for around $300 a few years later but that boombox and my Discman did the job for me for several years.. another sign of the times was when our local radio station would "announce".. "That was Pink Floyd on CD"... geez they really played the new technology up..