The Top 40 singles....

I know I've written about this stuff B4, but not lately, & as a memory Xercise, well whatthehell....
Here's a list of the 1st 40+ 45-rpm singles I bought from Fall 1970 onward, thru mid-1977. I only hadta peek at The Collection briefly 2 finish this list; most of it I was able 2 jot down off the toppa my head 2nite at work, so mayB I'm not COMPLETELY gone in2 Alzheimer's yet....
I've done this B4, but we all know each other so much better now, that I thot You Out There might B much more likely at this point 2 critique my musical taste as an 11-year-old. So have at it. Some real crap follows. But what I REALLY wanna know is: What music did you start out with?
Take a deep breath. Here goes, in sorta-chronological order:

Ernie (from SESAME STREET): Rubber Duckie. (& what did YOU start with...?)
Anne Murray: Snowbird.
R. Dean Taylor: Indiana Wants Me.
Partridge Family: I Think I Love You, Doesn't Somebody Want to be Wanted, I'll Meet You Halfway. (No Xcuses here, but it took me a dozen years 2 bag their 1st 3 albums -- which I LOVED at the time -- & finally found at a garage sale in San Antonio, Texas around 1983....)
Dawn: Knock Three Times. (I plead peer pressure on this 1.)
Jackson 5: Maybe Tomorrow.
Rare Earth: I Just Want to Celebrate. (Still can B heard in TV commercials today....)
Neil Diamond: I Am I Said.
Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds: Don't Pull Your Love. (Sounds like a TV commercial....)
Bread: Mother Freedom.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: Some of Shelly's Blues. (Written by Monkee Mike Nesmith. These guys were great! Ever hear their rockin' version of Kenny Loggins' "House at Pooh Corner"?)
Bobby Russell: Saturday Morning Confusion. (Hilarious!)
Ringo Starr: It Don't Come Easy.
Three Dog Night: Joy to the World, Family of Man. (With "Joy to the World" my parents pretty-much stopped listening 2 the stuff I brot home....)
Five Man Electrical Band: Signs.
John Lennon: Happy Xmas (War is Over). (On green vinyl. Still 1 of my fave John songs....)
Don McLean: American Pie.
Lobo: Me and You and a Dog Named Boo.
Todd Rundgren: I Saw the Light.
Gladstone: A Piece of Paper. (Sorta a folky protest number by a countryish acoustic duo who never had another hit, & this wasn't a very big 1....)
Mal: Mighty Mighty and Roly Poly. (Just a bouncy little ditty about school friendships, it never made the Top 40....)
Carpenters: Goodbye to Love. (Worth it just 4 that great guitar solo at the end....)
Raspberries: Go All the Way.
Lighthouse: One Fine Morning. (Don't they sound like they coulda bn Chicago...?)
The Guess Who: Rain Dance.
Mouth and MacNeal: How Do You Do?
David Cassidy: Could it be Forever?
El Chicano: Brown-Eyed Girl. (Van Morrison's old hit given a joyous only-slightly-Hispanic-flavored new arrangement, & it never made the Top 40....)
Paul McCartney & Wings: Give Ireland Back to the Irish.
Michael Jackson: I Want to be Where You Are.
The Who: Join Together.
Gary Glitter: Rock and Roll Part 2 (?!).
Raiders: Birds of a Feather. (Beats me....)
Mocedades: Touch the Wind. (Well, at the time I thot it was gorgeous....)
Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells.
Chicago: I've Been Searchin' So Long.
Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run. (Grabbed me by the throat the 1st time I heard it. I was the only person I knew who grabbed a copy....)
Bob Welch: Sentimental Lady.
...A couple years after that I started buying singles every week at my fave record store, & soon I found myself WORKING there....

I don't even remember WHY I bought some of these -- Dawn; Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds; the Raiders; Gary Glitter; I guess they seemed like a good idea at the time.... I still have most of these, in some form or another. "Saturday Morning Confusion" is long gone, & a few others....
Looking back, I'm also not sure why I bought almost no singles thru most of 1973 -- maybe cos my parents got tired of me buggin them 4 more $$$ 2 buy music? Maybe Bcos I'd Bcome obsessed with taping Good Stuff off the radio & mistakenly thot tapes would last 4ever -- I figured-out the reality Bhind that 1 fairly quick, but cassette tapes were cheaper & U could fit a lot more music on them.... MayB Bcos when I wasn't taping I was reading, & thru late 1973 & in2 '74 almost all the spare $$$ I had got spent at the closest used-bookstore.... Certainly it WASN'T Bcos I wasn't hearing anything good coming outta the radio.... & what about that weird veer in2 non-hits in '72? I got bored & then strange pretty early....
If I could do it all over again, there R other things I woulda grabbed in place of summa these: The Stones' "Tumbling Dice" & "Happy," Van Morrison's "Wild Night" & "Jackie Wilson Said," Cat Stevens' "Peace Train" & "Moonshadow," Boz Scaggs' "Dinah Flo" (first released in '72, a minor hit 7 years later), Badfinger's "Day After Day," Yes's "Your Move," Neil Diamond's "Walk on Water," The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" & "Behind Blue Eyes," & probably lots more ... & all those great singles from '72/'73 that I've never heard since & can't find: Billy Lee Riley's "I've Got a Thing About You Baby," Jonathan King's "A Tall Order for a Short Guy," Kracker's "Because of You," etc. In some cases I spent years tracking down some stuff from this period that I missed buying at the time: Casey Kelly's "Poor Boy," Chris Hodge's "We're On Our Way," The Wackers' "I Hardly Know Her Name," etc.
...& what did you start YOUR music collection with? You can Confess All below....

Next: The 1st 40 albums....