What is the first "hit" song you can remember hearing as a child?

Realize I gave an incorrect answer - Yellow Submarine based on seeing the movie in 68 at age 3.

Earlier than that I remember hearing Weavers hit records such as Goodnight Irene and Tzena Tzena Tzena on my parents mono HiFi. Those would have been the first hits I heard.

 

I think my babysitter was playing "Surfin USA". Made zero sense to me. Then I recall hearing "Downtown". First rocknroll number that grabbed me to where it clicked was Stones "It's All Over Now" - that Brian intro was what got me into rock music.

 

Rod Stewart - Da Ya Think I'm Sexy

 

Aqua - Barbie Girl

 

The first one I remember is hearing "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" playing on the car radio back in the early 70's when I was around five years old. Of course, I didn't know what the song was until years later, at the time I just knew it as the "Hands Across the Water" song, every time it played on the radio I would tell my mom "I like this song!".

 

I'm not sure the timeline... maybe somewhere around 6 to 8... my mom had a stack of 45s that I liked to play with... Jailhouse Rock and Hound Dog stick in my mind. Parents also had an 8-track of which I remember one by the Beatles which included I Want To Hold Your Hand, one by The Carpenters with Top of the World, and ones by Helen Reddy and Hank Williams

 

I was five and thought the lyrics were bizarre.

 

It was either
She Loves You
Or
Deep Purple by Nino Tempo & April Stevens

 

I'm confused. A hit song that was brand new or hit song from a long time ago?

 

I was born in ‘73 so I wouldn’t have heard Uncle Albert when it first came out as a single, but it is somehow imprinted on my brain (especially hands across the water), despite my parents not having Ram in their collection. So it must have been radio play.

I am told that the first song I reacted to whenever it was played was Rhinestone Cowboy, which was a crossover #1 in Canada when I was two.

 

Killing me softly
American pie

 

A couple of other people have mentioned The Beach Boys' "Surfin' USA."

I'm not sure that's the first hit I remember hearing, but it's the first that I
ever played on a juke box. I was about six, and my family was in some
typically early '60s style casual cocktail lounge type restaurant, and I was
given a dime for the record machine. I picked this record because I wanted
some rock 'n' roll, without really knowing what that might be, but just knowing
that it was probably something very tough and cool. I thought the title was
"Sufferin' USA," and this sounded tough and cool, and maybe even serious
too. The juke box volume was disappointingly low, and I didn't get a sufficient enough
listen for the song to make an impression, but my mom said that the percussion
sounded like someone banging a monkey wrench on a cement floor. That was good
enough for me! I decided I liked it.

 

Well since nobody can answer if it was from the time I first heard it or it was a hit from long ago. I guess at the time it must have been Petula Clark Downtown. If it was from long ago it must have been Mozart's piano concerto number 21.

 

I don’t know. I remember slobbering Yeah Yeah Yeah over and over again to the amusement of adults.

 

It may have been "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash or "Walk Right In" by the Rooftop Singers.

 

King of the Road.

 

CCR Who’ll Stopped the Rain that my step father still love to sing/play on guitar

 

"Aquarius" by the Fifth Dimension.

 

No offence intended with this little story:

My rather religiously austere father turned off It's a Knockout (a British TV programme of contestants slipping and falling over in weird costumes that somehow became a cult international contest in the guise of 'jeux sans frontiers" when he heard me singing "mama mia, mama mia", which I obviously had picked up from Bohemian Rhapsody. He took offence to it in that he thought I was taking the Virgin Mary's name in vain - I must have only been about 7 years old and of course didn't have a clue what he meant.

Before he passed away, I should have taken my father to see the Queen musical ... come to think of it, for real payback, I could have taken him to see the ABBA musical instead!

 

I'm not that old but I was always into history. It was my 2nd favourite subject at school & I now work in heritage preservation. I was brought up with songs which are much older than me. I've also seen entertainment that was way older than me. I've had to research 1920's & 1940's music for 1920's & 1940's days at w0rk. I normally get the job of vocally conducting the sing-alongs. We used to have weekly sing-alongs at Grandmas & my Uncles where we sung songs from the 1910's onwards. A lot of the time I prefer older music. I love antiques. I remember old phones. I've not only seen gramophones but I've got 1.

 

Probably "Crocodile Rock", on the car radio, when I was about 3. I used to go bananas whenever it came on, which was pretty often in '75.

 

Definitely something from early Beach Boys days.

 

Big Bad John by Jimmy Dean

 

Nancy Sinatra - These Boots Are Made For Walkin’

 

Its My Party.....Leslie Gore

First 45 record......Green Onions.....Booker T


I loved instrumentals back at an early age for some reason.