Get Off Of My Cloud was bought for me as a wee 5 year old but the first i actually bought with my pocket money was Status Quo -Break The Rules. Still have both of those `45`s GOOMC is in a frame
The first 45 I owned was Money, Money, Money by Abba. My aunt bought it for me, as she knew I loved it whenever it came on the radio. The first 45 I bought with my own hard-earned pocket money was Stand and Deliver by Adam & the Ants. I can remember buying it clear as day. I was 9 years old and I bought it in Boots, in Cheltenham for 99p. It was in those days when even chemists sold records, they were so ubiquitous. I treasured it like it was a valuable artifact - at the time it was probably the most expensive and precious thing I owned - certainly of the things that I had bought myself! The songs that were on it were an escape from the mundanity of school and everyday life. It was then that I realised I could lose myself in music forever - and I haven't come up for air since.
I remember the first single I brought home from the store. My mom paid for it, tho. Hey Jude Still have it.
George Girl by the Seekers. I got the last copy at the record store. After that I visited that store almost every week for 3 years until it closed. They tore the building down
The first one I asked for while it was new (I was too young - four - to buy anything myself) was either the discofied Star Wars theme or "The Name of the Game" by Abba. (I still have the latter.) The first one I actually bought myself was "YMCA", and I still have that one too.
"We've Only Just Begun" (with picture sleeve) - Carpenters. -- Bought at a TG&Y store when I was 9 years old. (how prophetic that was!)
This one and Stones "Honky Tonk Woman" were two of my very first. I had a couple of others but not many.
I got hooked on Apple records with the White Album, and my sense of label design was permanently altered for the better and forever.
The Apple label was of its time. It had Hip Capitalist branding operation written all over it - probably got covered in Advertising Age, and various graphic art annuals. It's okay. Hard to read the green side though. I still prefer plain labels that have a company emblem or logo at the top. RCA's Nipper, whatever.
I think maybe “She’s So Cold” by the Stones but I cannot say that with any degree of certainty. I was very very young. 6 or 7 likey.
I don't remember the first 45 I bought, but I do remember the first 45 I ever had was Quiet Riot "Cum On Feel The Noize" with "Run For Cover" on the b-side. Gift from my parents when I was a kid and starting to (much to their dismay) get into rock music. Don't think I ever actually bought a 45 myself until many, many years later as an adult, when vinyl was on the downslope.
2 on the same day in May 1980 Paul McCartney - Coming Up The Monkees EP Seven tracks between them. Played them over and over
I inherited a few singles from my sister, and even a few from my mother. The first single I remember buyong for my own money was Cliff Richard´s "We Don´t Talk Anymore". You may know that I am a fan of his, and, indeed, three of the singles I inherited was by him. But this song was a pop classic from 1979, and it still sounds fresh to me. Just what pop is supposed to be - or one of the incarnations of pop.
Boy I could not disagree with you more on Apple. It was a timeless design, as Apples are a symbol of evergreen freshness. Apple computers wanted it badly for their music division for which they had to pay the Beatles company likely hundreds of millions to use, as they saw it as timeless as well. It had an Avant-Garde, uncommercial / money-losing venture about it, releasing obscure artists and experimental music bound to poor sellers, along with some hit singles. The album covers and 45 picture sleeves could be wildly low-tech, and low-fi-looking photographic designs. It was distinctive, very easy to spot and the print was often (in the US) in a thick bold easy-to-read font, and the b-side stood out as an interesting eye-popping contrast. The young kids fueling the record industry growth in the late 60s and early 70s were attracted to colorful designs that were very much in contrast to the old guard's record designs. Black Mercury, gray Capitol, and Fantasy's solid blue quickly gave way to a new Fantasy 45 design that had vibrant orange in a green-bordered label (CCR), Roulette records came up with a striking design that featured the addition of a light blue line inside of the traditional look that has used for a few years. London had abanded that dark blue for a fan of lighter and darker shades, and Capitol came up with an orange and yellow fan that looked hip and colorful and also looked amazing when spining on a turntable. But Apple was the first label that I know of to use a photographic label design rather than color illustrations. Plan labels became passe, and went out of style permanently. Logos were revamped such as RCA which came up with hollowed block letters on a bright orange label, ditching the black label with the white dog which just screamed 1950s music rather than the new sounds, new designs, and modern newer eye-attractive looks. Apple would remain an influence on graphic design and be studied by graphic artists and still is to this day. Some simple and starkly clean designs would come back into vogue, but with a different look, sometimes with industrial minimalism, like the very influential Factory Records designer Peter Saville's work with very small size fonts for some text mated with exceptionally larger text, of not much text at all, or missing logos.