What is the first song or piece of music you can remember hearing on the radio (or)?

[Whateverist]

I was in 6th grade when the Beatles did the Ed Sullivan show playing She Loves You and I Want To Hold Your Hand. Didn't care for those then at all. The first Beatles tune that appealed to me was Eight Days A Week. After that I was hooked and collected all their albums. Any one else listening to Bill Frisell's "All We Are Saying" album? About it here:

https://youtu.be/DxwX0PSp2Tk

One of the covers they do on the album:

https://youtu.be/JLFi0eDwbT0

[abaris]

Yeah, when I was eleven -- this was 76 or 77 -- a buddy had the Beatles' 67-70 compilation. Now there's a primer for good rock!

Did you do the same as us? One usually bought a record and made a lot of casette copies for the others?

[Faith No More]

Here's one of the first ones I remember hearing on the actual radio.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Yeah, when I was eleven -- this was 76 or 77 -- a buddy had the Beatles' 67-70 compilation. Now there's a primer for good rock!

Did you do the same as us? One usually bought a record and made a lot of casette copies for the others?

Yep. I figured out a way to wire his turntable into my cassette recorder, so we shared music all around.

Over in Iran, most of the cassettes for sale in the stores were pirated versions anyway -- a company called "Odio Tech" seemed to have a monopoly on the market.

My parents also had a reel-to-reel tape deck, but I left that thing alone, too much hassle for me.

[abaris]

Yep. I figured out a way to wire his turntable into my cassette recorder, so we shared music all around.

Over in Iran, most of the cassettes for sale in the stores were pirated versions anyway -- a company called "Odio Tech" seemed to have a monopoly on the market.

My parents also had a reel-to-reel tape deck, but I left that thing alone, too much hassle for me.

Some of us already had integrated casette recorders/players in their Hifis. Or their parents had. So, not much of a hassle in our case. My parents had an old but golden Bang & Olufson set from the 60ies. It had a lot of connectors and so it was easy there too to wire my recorder to that station.

That old set died in a housefire. After more than 30 years of loyal services. It probably would still play records if it hadn't burned. Compare that to todays products.

[Cato]

The first 45 I bought was in 1978 when I was 8; Miss You by the Rolling Stones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuRxXRuAz-I

The first song I have a memory of was The Carpenter's Sing: "A Song". I must have been younger than 5 based on where we lived. It also invokes very strong memories of my mother, who would have been 26 at the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKomWBuEXe4

[Shell B]

Africa by Toto when I was about four.

[Crossless2.0]

I have a distinct memory of being in a pickup with my mom and dad and hearing "Ring of Fire". I couldn't have been more than two or three, since my folks split when I was three. I remember that there was something about Cash's voice that seemed scary to me.

Now I realize that Johnny wasn't really scaring me. It was just the first of many times he would haunt me -- thank god!

[abaris]

I have a distinct memory of being in a pickup with my mom and dad and hearing "Ring of Fire".

"Ring of Fire" and "Fire" are one of my earliest musical memories too. In case anyone wonders what I mean by "Fire", it's that one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOErZuzZpS8

Fire was also a one of the few english words I understood, even as a five year old. It's very close to the German word. Even more closely to how it's spelled in Austrian slang. And ring is the exact same word.