What's the first song you can remember hearing?

probably something by Homer and Jethro or Vaughn Monroe.

true epipheny

Too many to name, aidan. There are songs that I know and don't know why I know them. I feel that it has to do with family tradition. From my Mom, ragtime; from my dad; strange songs like, "Don't Let the Deal Go Down." and "The Old Apple Tree in the Orchard."

From my brother, lots and lots, although I never got to know him. I now depend on my older sister to remind me.

Make of it what you will, but I think it has to do with RNA from the womb, and I'm serious about that.

Example is knowing the words and hearing the melody to "..And Mimi.." Stunned when I heard Al Jolson sing it, and I searched and searched for the reason.

Yeah - who could forget something like that?

I think the receptivity comes from the womb. Although by the time I was one year old, I was living in New York - I have always held a love for bluegrass and country- because both of my parents are music lovers who were born and raised in the south.

It's sort of like how I think African people must/ seem to respond to the drum- generations after leaving Africa.

Oh Oh...here's another

5th grade...we learned to sing this one

Here's another that always strikes me - Mrs. Boughton whom I loved - this portly woman with a bust like a shelf who encouraged us to sing:
Eerie Canal - and then of course my hero- Bruce Springsteen did it later and it will forever live in my memory:

I meant to post this version: this is one of the first songs I can remember singing in music class with Mrs.Boughton STANDING at the piano - she never sat down - and as a piano player I can appreciate that:

she must have had amazing calf muscles - pedaling and all for 8 hours a day....

First song I remember hearing: Cecilia by Simon and Garfunkel. I was probably 3 and something about the beat had my ear stuck to the gigantic speaker, literally.

Yeah - I remember hearing Cecilia for the first time and Candida.

My parents had one of those console stereos and they loved musicals - so I remember looking at the album covers for 'The Music Man' and 'My Fair Lady' and 'Man of La Mancha' and 'The Sound of Music' etc. and listening to the music with my ear pressed against the speaker while looking at the album covers. I always loved the pictures for 'Camelot' best- I so wanted to have a dress like Julie Andrews dressed as Guinevere on her wedding day.

And then I heard the bass pumping through my brother's ceiling and through my floor and Roberta Riccio introduced me to Bruce Springsteen and Lisa Speigle introduced me to The Who - I somehow discovered The Allman Brothers on my own - and it all took a different direction from then on....

I had to think for a while about this one. At first I thought "must have been Happy Birthday or something."

Then I remembered a time before I went to kindergarden where my mother went on this jag playing John Philip Sousa marches at a high volume. I remember her trying to get me to march around while they played using a broom or something as a baton. I wanted no part of it. For a while my father would insist of playing polka records while we ate dinner. Really dumb ones like "who stole the keiska".

Maybe that why I find most music to be basically an annoyance.

My mother used to sing "Beautiful Brown Eyes" as I drifted off to sleep but on the radio, I remember hearing and really liking "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Early 60's I'd say.
Before then there were tv show openings, "I Love Lucy", "77 Sunset Strip", "Howdy Doody", etc. I remember many of those.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight - I always associate with being in the car - same with It's Gonna Be a Bright, Sunshiny Day - probably has to do with a trip to Texas and hearing it over and over - same with Wasting Away Again in Margaritaville- and another Waylon Jennings song - I'll have to remember which -. But all bring back good memories.

beatles ~ "do you want to know a secret"
the nostalgia i feel whenever i hear it is indescribable...

oh yeah. For me, the car song to beat all was Mungo Jerry's "In the Summertime". We sang that one all the way from Chicago to Baton Rouge and back that summer. 1970/71?
But now I remember singing "The Little Drummer Boy" with my kindergarten class for the school Christmas pageant. That was about 1960.

I just remembered the Waylon song I remembered hearing over and over and over:


The Beatles - Susan Maresca and Frank Elm introduced me - I remember I said that I was confused that Lucy in the sky with Diamonds was the same thing as Judy in Disguise - and in fifth grade - they helped me differntiate- how can I repay them for that?

As a child, Frankie Howerd's hilarious "Three Little Fishes" was imprinted on my memory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McSm0iBKkYM

That must have freaked you out. One of the most interesting things I've found about living in the UK, is that you guys were exposed to TOTALLY different music than we were in the US.
I go to quizzes at pubs here and the songs that were number 1 in the UK during the same time in the US were songs I've never EVER heard before. Like, I've never heard of Cliff Richards before I moved here - and British people can't believe that. They think I must not have listened to music - and I did - but I never heard of him. They were playing different stuff over here (UK) than they were over there.
It's been a real eye-opener.

amen