Recently I noticed someone online issued one of those dumb little social media surveys people do to generate clicks, likes, and shares. It asked you to post the cover image of the first album you bought with your own money. I mentioned it to Carrie and remarked about how one of the albums shown was from a user obviously far younger than me. Her reply, “So, what was yours?”
Whoops!
My immediate response was “In the Heat of the Night” by Pat Benatar. But suddenly a rush of memories came back and I realized my answer was a quite bit more complicated. I was living in the Philippines on a military base at the time. We would sometimes go off base to shop at a local record store that sold mostly Filipino artists but also counterfeit copies of popular albums from the US and Europe. One afternoon I asked a shopkeeper for a song I’d heard on Casey Kasem’s Top 40 radio show called Heartbreaker. I had no idea who sang it but really liked the song. Happily I took my new purchase of Heartbreaker home with me anxious to play it on my own stereo.
I quickly realized my new album bore no resemblance to the top 40 hit I wanted. It had the right title but my only thought while listening was “um...NO!” It turned out to be Dolly Parton’s album, Heartbreaker, released about a year before Pat Benatar’s song. We took it back to the store and after much haggling, they offered to exchange it for another album. The only catch was they had never heard of Pat Benatar and definitely did not have her album. Angry that I’d spent my money and the store wouldn’t return it, I browsed their collection for what must have seemed for hours looking for something suitable. I ended up going home with Candy-O by The Cars.
Later that year my mom and dad found In the Heat of the Night and gave it to me as a birthday present.
So, it’s not as simple as it would seem to answer the question, “What was the first album you bought with your own money?” because I could make an argument for several albums. It could be Pat Benatar: In the Heat of the Night” (which is what I wanted), Candy-O (which I eventually came to love and never regretted buying), or Dolly Parton: Heartbreaker (returned to the store but I eventually came to appreciate and adore Dolly Parton).
...although, come to think of it, when and how did I obtain that album by Filipino boy band The Boyfriends with the song Dahil Mahal Kita on it? Was that before Pat Benatar? Hmm...
-V