I’m SO excited I can hardly stand it!!!
Look what my son discovered today – my vinyl albums from when I was a pre-teen and teenager!!!!!
I THOUGHT these were stored away in a crate in our basement, buried under dozens of other storage crates from the time we first moved here. But they were tucked high on a shelf in the garage – who knew!?!?!?
I’ll be playing these all night in our Music Room! I am SO excited!!!!!!
Looking through these albums has brought back a flood of awesome memories. Here are some of my most favorite albums from this collection – had to share them with you.
Black Sabbath Paranoid
This was the very first album I ever got. My Mom bought this for me when I was a teenager. When I spotted this album today, it made me smile and think about my Mom (thanks, Mom).
I had used my record player for years to listen to all my 45’s, so I was really excited to use it to play albums. I had never heard of Black Sabbath before – I guess Mom thought I would like the songs on the album. She was right! I immediately fell in love with Iron Man and Electric Funeral. I played this album so much, I practically wore it out.
The Monkees Greatest Hits
I loved watching The Monkees television show, and their music made me smile. My friends and I had so much fun walking “Monkee style” down the street, singing these songs.
Daydream Believer and Pleasant Valley Sunday were among my favorites. And like practically every other pre-teen or teenage girl at that time, Davey was definitely a favorite heartthrob. Who was your favorite Monkee?
Beatles Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
Of course I loved the Beatles. Who didn’t?
This is another album Mom bought for me, and I played it often. I’m not sure why, but I kept the plastic wrap on this album, so never opened the folder fully to see what the inside looked like. I always loved albums that had the lyrics to the songs – I wonder if that’s what’s inside this album folder?
Shaun Cassidy
One of the first albums I bought for myself was this Shaun Cassidy album. Yes, I admit. I had a mad crush on Shaun Cassidy!
This record was played over and over and over again. And yes, I probably held the album cover in my hands while listening to the music, dreaming about being Mrs. Shaun Cassidy…. ahhh….
I still love this album, and I’m a full-grown woman! (I guess we’ll just call that an eclectic taste in music). Da Doo Ron Ron, That’s Rock and Roll, Take Good Care of My Baby, and of course Be My JayDee – er, ah, I mean Be My Baby (but I clearly sang it with my name instead). I can still remember every lyric of each of these songs. Again, I left the plastic wrap on the cover – maybe to protect Shaun’s gorgeous face from my perspiring palms. LOL.
Carpenters Now and Then
You know how some songs are really hard to sing along to? The artists voice just isn’t in your range, so it’s difficult to sing and sound good. Well, for me, Karen Carpenters voice is SO easy to sing along to. When I sing the songs on this album, I actually sound half-way decent!
This was one of my favorite albums. Not only because I could sing well to the songs and that I liked the songs, but also because the album sleeve had all the lyrics on it! I also loved how this album was put together to sound like a radio disc jockey playing the songs.
I can remember singing along (loudly) to Johnny Angel, Da Do Ron Ron, Deadman’s Curve, The Night Has a Thousand Eyes, Yesterday Once More, Fun Fun Fun, and of course Sing. This might have to be one of the first albums I play tonight on my Flashback Friday Music Marathon. I doubt my husband or my teen sons will enjoy this album, and I’m sure I’ll embarrass them all when I sing along, but they’re just going to have to indulge me this one time. 😉
The Beach Boys
No album collection would be complete without a couple of The Beach Boys albums!
I loved the album Endless Summer! The Beach Boys were another band that was easy to sing along to. And I did. Loudly. And often. Songs such as Catch a Wave, Surfin’ USA, California Girls, Little Deuce Coupe, and Fun Fun Fun were so much fun to sing.
The Beach Boys Spirit of America was another fun album. I loved singing along to Barbara Ann, 409, and Do You Wanna Dance? All classics!
Various Artist Albums
While I loved all the albums above, my most favorite albums were the ones that had various artists on them. Oh. My. Gosh. I loved these albums! I still do! These albums allowed me to discover new artists I had never heard of, and new songs that I hadn’t heard on the radio channels I typically listened to.
My girlfriends and I would sing and dance to these albums in my room, using old television antenna’s as our ‘microphones’. We had so much fun singing and dancing!
K-tel’s Music Express had several songs we played over and over – Cat’s In the Cradle (Harry Chapin), Mandy (Barry Manilow), Chevy Van (Sammy Johns), and Run Joey Run (David Geddes) were some of our favorites.
K-tel Dynamic Sound was another awesome album. Singing and dancing to Let It Ride (Bachman-Turner Overdrive), Heartbeat – It’s a Lovebeat (The DeFranco Family), and of course an all-time favorite Last Kiss (Wednesday). Oh that Last Kiss song is g-o-o-d!
K-tel Fantastic is another one of my favorites. I discovered Elton John by listening to this album! Songs such as Crocodile Rock and Rocket Man were so good! I also loved singing along to Lean on Me (Bill Withers). Such a great song! And my most favorite on this album is Little Willy (The Sweet). My girlfriends and I loved this song and even had our own dance choreographed for it – fun memories! And check out the album art… it doesn’t get any more “classic ’70s” than this!
K-tel Music Power was one of my most favorite multi-artist albums. The songs on it were the best! Smokin’ In The Boy’s Room (Brownsville Station), Spiders And Snakes (Jim Stafford), and Painted Ladies (Ian Thomas). Ah, I love those songs!
K-tel 22 Explosive Hits is another fun album. I especially loved signing along to Chicaboom (Daddy Dewdrops) and Power to the People (Chi-Lites).
K-tel Sounds Spectacular is another cool album. Free Ride (The Edgar Winter Group) and My Eyes Adored You (Frankie Valli) were good sing-along songs.
K-tel Pure Power is a fun album, too! Apparently I’ve lost the album sleeve, but at least I still have the album. Some of my favorite songs to sing to on this album are I’d Really Love To See You Tonight (England Dan and John Ford Coley), She’s Gone (Daryl Hall & John Oates) and Jeans On (David Dundus). That’s a fun song!
Queen (all of their albums are amazing!)
I have a lot of Queen albums that I’ve collected over the years and I love them all. Queen is literally one of my most favorite bands of all time. I love the eclectic sounds and unique lyrics. Freddy Mercury was a musical genius! And the recent release of the movie Bohemian Rhapsody reinforces Freddy and Queen’s never-ending popularity… no matter what age you are.
One of the first Queen albums I bought was Hot Space. There’s not a bad song on this album, but I definitely like Under Pressure, Las Palabras de Amor (The Words of Love), and Body Language the most.
The Queen Jazz album was another early purchase. I think I played this album at least once a day. So many classic songs on this album – Fat Bottomed Girls and Don’t Stop Me Now were definite favorites.
Prince and the Revolution
Another all-time favorite band is Prince – he was another musical genius. I seriously love every song Prince produced, they are all awesome!
I have many Prince albums, but this was the first one I purchased. All of the songs are so much fun to sing along to. I especially like singing along to Let’s Go Crazy, Take Me With U, When Doves Cry, I Would Die For U, and of course Purple Rain. This album is such a classic ’80s album!
The Motels All Four One
Okay, so I wasn’t a teenager when I bought this album. It has special meaning to me, so I had to include it here. This album was one I purchased in the late 1980s after meeting a guy I fell in love with. It was one of his favorite albums, and the songs were popular on the radio the year we started dating. Every time I hear the songs on this album, I think back to dating who would eventually end up to be my husband. Such awesome memories. My husband and I still love listening to these songs…
Dazz Band Keep It Live
This is another album I had to include from the late 1980s, also an album that my then boyfriend loved. The song Let It Whip was on the radio a lot when we were dating, and it was one we loved. Every time I hear that song, I think back to the early years with my husband. It’s also a fun song to sing along with. 😉
So there you have it – some of my most favorite albums from my childhood through my adulthood.
Do you have a favorite album or two? Share in a comment below and let’s start a conversation!
