What music did your parents listen to when you were a child?

[Skittles]

my dad was a major music fan and had thousands of 45's - mostly country, which I did not care for (although I loved Johnny Cash and Jim Reeves)....but he had some great treasures like Beatles, Rolling Stones, Ray Charles, Floyd Cramer, Roy Orbison, Otis Redding.

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. John Denver :)....Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard,

Bobby Goldsboro, Lawrence Welk, Anne Murray, Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty, and a whole slew of others. Comfort music to me now. :hi:

[GOPisEvil]

2. Both kinds.

Country and Western. :D

Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, etc...

[Misunderestimator]

3. Almost exclusively classical.

Therefore I was a geek from a very early age.

[Porcupine]

63. Would you believe Gregorian Chant? Religiously weird dad......

made my early music exposure rather strange.

[Midlodemocrat]

4. Brothers Four. I still love them.

Tom Lehrer was a huge favorite. I just got his stuff on CD a couple of years ago and he still makes me laugh out loud.

[Strawman]

74. Not to be confused with The Masters Four

There were five of them.


Tom Lehrer is great, btw.

[ghostsofgiants]

5. Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Tom Petty, etc.

[flvegan]

6. My dad LOVED Ole Blue Eyes

I also love Sinatra, quite possibly because of my childhood memories. My mom is a big Tony Mattola fan, as well.

[Left Is Write]

39. I love Frank Sinatra.

But I love Dean Martin just a skosh better.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. Classical.

I very clearly remember listening to Scheherezade and Schubert's 8th Symphony when I was like 3. And I also grew up to be a geek (with a B.A. in music).

[Misunderestimator]

11. Yep...

BA in music too... my father did NOT want me to be a professional musician however... so I became one. :D

[SW FL Dem]

8. Classical, Early Rock, Big Band, Folk

My Dad loved just about everything except country.

[Ron Green]

9. Coleman Hawkins, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Prima . . . . .

I was a very lucky kid, and as a result my musical taste is not stuck in the pop/rock miasma of my '60s adolescence.

[BlueJazz]

29. What he said!

[crispini]

10. Easy listening and beautiful music.

Mantovani Strings and Herb Alpert and various crooners. :eyes: And Broadway show tunes, which I still like.

[gollygee]

12. Mainly country/western

Also show tunes, and Neil Diamond. Oh, and they had a thing for The Carpenters.

[B Calm]

13. Polka's

[LeftyMom]

14. 60s and 70s rock, along with the then-current 80's stuff nt

[TallahasseeGrannie]

15. My dad played the piano

at night when I went to bed. He worked on Beethoven's Pathetique for at least ten years! And lots of Chopin.

On the radio they listened to WOR in the AM which was talk. I don't remember what kind of music they played, or if they did.

When we got a stereo it was a lot of piano easy listening like Roger Williams and also Broadway: Sound of Music, Camelot, Man of La Mancha, South Pacific, Jesus Christ Superstar....

Good memories.

[MaggieSwanson]

25. The Camelot album...

I'd forgotten about that one...I loved it! I wanted to look just like the drawing of Vanessa Redgrave as Guinevere on the cover.

[Pithlet]

16. Rock, mostly.

Talking Heads (mom was and still is a big fan), Steely Dan, Beatles, David Bowie; I can remember hearing those a lot. I think it influenced my tastes quite a bit, too.

[DawgHouse]

17. My dad's list: Merle Haggard, Tom T. Hall, Sonny James, Charley Pride.

But my mom was cool too, Lynn Anderson, The Fifth Dimension, Dionne Warwick, Glen Campbell, too many to list. I still love them all!

[MaggieSwanson]

18. Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell,

Barbara Streisand. Carole King, James Taylor, and my favorite childhood album...

Judy Collins: Judith
?

[Xipe Totec]

19. Trio Los Panchos

Don't admit knowing who these are; you'll definitely date yourself.

[Ptah]

20. I remember Horse and Carriage n/t

[redwitch]

21. We were just talking about this over Christmas

My dad listened to Glen Campbell, Herb Alpert and the Tijiuana Brass, The Sons of the Prairie, Hank Williams, The Kingston Trio, Frank Sinatra- and sea shanties(?). He also had Vaughn Meader and Alan Sherman too. I remember the day he came home with a record player- the kind with the speakers that clip on to the turntable. We thought it was great. Mom had Mario Lanza, Broadway soundtracks- My Fair Lady, Camelot. Ah, the good old days! I miss my folks.

[maveric]

22. Frank Sinatra, Big bands, Burl Ives, Kingston Trio...

Ma was Sicilian and like Italian opera, Tony Bennet, and Jerry Vale. Dad was Irish and love the "Irish Rovers" and Dennis Day.
You should seen there faces when I blasted Black Sabbath on their Hi Fi record player. They almost took me in for analysis.

[Kat45]

23. My mother LOVED Frank Sinatra; she said that

I could recognize his voice on the radio when I was 2 or 3 years old.

[Left Is Write]

41. That's cool! My kids can recognize Dean Martin instantly.

They still have to ask about Frank, though.

I love that my kids like Dean Martin.

[Darth_Kitten]

24. heh heh, I was just thinking of this yesterday....

I remember CCR, Three Dog Night, the Beatles, and Led Zeppelin. :)

[DesertRat]

26. Big Band and Swing. n/t

[Tikki]

27. Early 50's pop...like Frankie Laine and Johnny Ray...

....and Classical and Opera and Show Tunes....but, she loved Marty Robbins and
later in life she would listen to my..... Joe Cocker albums(?)



Tikki

[CaliforniaPeggy]

28. All I remember is listening to classical.......

They also liked opera.......and jazz, IIRC.....

[ET Awful]

Well, my mom was into country and Elvis, my dad was into the same

stuff I listen to, ranging from Crosby, Stills & Nash to the Who to the Dead :P

Basically as far as dealing with live goes, my mom was the greatest influence. As far as music and letting off steam goes, my dad was the greater influence.

That said, I haven't heard from my dad in over a decade.

[chknltl]

30. Marty Robbins, Katerina Valenti, Jim Reeves, Gale Garnet and etc. nt

[dannofoot]

31. Mom listened to Trini Lopez...

..and the Lemon Pipers.

Dad brought home the original cast recording of "Hair."

[johnnie]

32. Let's see

Hank Williams, Jim Reeves, Herb Alpert, Hungarian Gypsy music, different Mexican music. We also listened to West Side Story, Jesus Christ Superstar, Zorba The Greek, Hair and things like that. Many 45s from the 50s too.

By the time I was 8 I already had a record collection of 35 plus albums which was a pretty big collection for that age back then. That included Johnny Cash, Elvis, The Beatles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, Herman's Hermits, Tommy James and a lot of off the wall ones my mother would pick up for me. Some of those I remember were soundtracks with the Animals, Dave Clark five, The Standels, Sam The Sham, and bands like that. I still have most of them but they aren't too easy to listen to these days.

[no name no slogan]

33. Dad: country and 50s/60s R&R, Mom: Beatles, 60s folk, 70s R&B

So I heard everything from Johnny Cash to Elvis to Creedence to Joan Baez to the Commodores to the BeeGees.

It also turned me into a big audiophile, and I have the record collection to prove it (yes, I said record). :)

[DJ MEW]

34. The Beatles

The Beatles, and the Beatles. My parents also listened to the Beatles a lot.

[Dervill Crow]

35. My mom had a huge crush on Wayne Newton.

She also liked country-western, but she was more into singing old folk songs than listening to the radio or records. My dad absolutely loved an album with "Blood on the Saddle" and "They're Hangin' Me Tonight." He would drink a few beers, crank up the volume on the hi-fi, and depress the whole neighborhood.

[Hardrada]

36. Lawrence Welk, the Longines Symphonette and Chorus

the Horace Heidt Orchestra and religious singers like George Beverly Shay amd also the Waldorf College Choir whenever they were in town.

[Dangerously Amused]

37. Dad was a Big Band fanatic.

I (involuntarily) memorized the words to ALL the Andrews Sisters songs.

Also Swing, Ragtime and Barbershop.


Mom and Gramma liked Lawrence Welk. I HATED Welk when I was a kid (except for that crazy piano lady) but I love the reruns at Mom's house now.

[Skittles]

55. some of that big band stuff was pretty rocking for its time

that swing music is pretty frenzied!

[Dangerously Amused]

56. Yeah. I have to admit that I love it.

Even though that makes me kind of dorky.


:)

[Ron Green]

58. I don't think it's really that dorky.

Music that swings is at the highest level of hipness, in my opinion. It's not really very hard to rock, and that's why so many bands do it. But to swing ... that's the real thing.

:smoke: B-)

[Dangerously Amused]

67. Right.

I respect the older music - well, any music, really - that actually requires musicians to play it, and musicianship to play it well.

[Oeditpus Rex]

60. Ahem

Swing is the greatest music ever created. And I'm not a dork. :hippie:





A geek, yeah. But not a dork.

[Dangerously Amused]

65. Gotcha.

Geek!

:pals:

[Left Is Write]

38. Mostly country - the Statler Brothers, Emmylou, Don Williams,

Porter and Dolly, Johnny Cash.

My mother also had Everly Brothers and Simon & Garfunkel albums, but I was pretty much raised on country music. I still love Don Williams to this day - comfort music, you might say.

[mykpart]

40. Daddy was a huge Mario Lanza fan.

But he also liked Phil Harris and Homer & Jethro. Mom liked show tunes and classical. Daddy also loved all novelty songs.

[jane_pippin]

42. Tom Waits

I thought "Ice Cream Man" was about an actual ice cream man, and I thought it was a delightful little song, too--especially the part where he mentions free ice cream. :D

They also listened to a lot of what's been mentioned already here--Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Crosby Stills Nash & Young...I remember a Motown collection was in heavy rotation for a while, Buddy Holly, Everly Brothers, and so on. But the Tom Waits stands out the most.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

43. My parents listened mostly to classical but also to an odd assortment of

novelty songs and a Scottish singer named Harry Lauder.


http://www.besmark.com/lau19bre.ram

They're in the right generation for big band music, but I can't ever recall them listening to it, other than Lawrence Welk, who was really a bigger favorite with my grandparents.

Like everyone else, they watched the Ed Sullivan Show (which had every imaginable kind of act on) and The Voice of Firestone, which was, believe it or not, a prime time program in which opera singers would come on and sing arias.

[jane_pippin]

50. My gramma loved Harry Lauder.

On one of the last Christmases we had together we gave her a Harry Lauder cd set and she just about flipped her lid when she saw it. Thanks for inadvertently jogging a nice memory.

[undeterred]

44. Yoko Ono - thats why I am so disturbed

:hippie: :mad: :eyes: :puke:

[RevCheesehead]

45. Me.

[proud2BlibKansan]

46. Ray Conniff

Ferante and Teicher (sp?)

Mainly mellow muzack type music. But they had some fun stuff - like Rolf Harris. And my dad loved Alan Sherman. That brings back great memories.

[Goblinmonger]

47. My mom loved Nat King Cole

which is ironic because she is so fucking racist.

My dad liked Herb Albert as well as John P. Sousa music.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

48. Classical, Broadway Musicals, Movie Soundtracks

and on New Years Eve they'd pull out their old 78s of things like:
"Alright Louie, Drop the Gun"
"Mr Five by Five"
and
"Civilization"

[CBHagman]

49. Mr. Acker Bilk.

Surely I can't be the only DUer who remembers Acker Bilk.

They also listened to Broadway musicals, generally Lerner and Lowe, Lionel Bart, Rodgers & Hammersteing, but not Frank Loesser, for the most part. I don't know why that was so.

My stepmother introduced me to opera.

[swag]

51. Weird stuff. Walter Brennan, Kingston Trio, Burl Ives, Harry Belafonte,

Hank Williams, Patti Page, Tex Ritter. Sing Along with Mitch. Tennessee Ernie Ford.

I guess that's not such a strange collection. But it seemed strange to me at the time, back when I was three.

[chookie]

52. Opera

My mother was a great fan and had many friends who sang. As a kid I used to get to hang out back stage, which was totally cool.

[progmom]

53. classical and folk

first concerts they took me to were Peter Paul & Mary and the Kingston Trio, and it was mostly classical that played in the house.

[Aristus]

54. The Carpenters, The 5th Dimension, Wes Montgomery

and Glen Campbell.

That was as funky as my folks got.


Years later, my father confessed to me that he listened to a lot of The Doors when he was over in Vietnam. But part of me suspects he was just trying to bond with me during my 'Jim Morrison Is God'phase.

[bliss_eternal]

57. Father--Elton John, Beatles, Stones, classical

Mother--r&b, Carol King, motown sound--jackson 5, etc. Both parents had ALBUMS! Long before the days of cd's. LOL!

Father worked late. Used to come home, put on headphones and sing along to his albums. I was probably 6 before I realized that the words to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road did not include the lyrics "Shut the F*** UP--I'm tryin' to sleep!"

:P

[Skittles]

71. HEY!!!

I had albums! AND 8-TRACKS!!! IT REALLY WASN'T THAT LONG AGO !!! :o

[bliss_eternal]

72. No, it wasn't Skittles--

but to hear some talk of it today--they speak of it as if it were a loooong time ago. LOL!

[MrSlayer]

59. Fuckin Disco.

And it was horrible. Probably what drove me to be an extreme Metalhead.

[Ptah]

61. PEnnsylvania 6-5000

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=4498304&mesg_id=4498726

[ashling]

62. Cole Porter, and lots of showtunes

I knew Annie Get Your Gun and Oklahoma by heart at 5 yrs old

[Richard Steele]

64. Our house had both kinds of music- country AND western!

I still have dads reel-to-reels somewhere.

Marty Robbins, Sons of the Pioneers, Johnny Cash, etc....

[NMMNG]

66. My mom liked a combination of

"soft rock" (which now is classified as "easy listening) such as Neil Diamond and Rickie Lee Jones and the gentler country such as Donna Fargo, B.J. Thomas and The Marshall Tucker Band. It about floored me recently when I mentioned Jim Morrison and she had no idea who he was. Even though she didn't listen to that type of music I just assumed, given that she was a teenager and young adult when he was popular, that she would have heard of him. Apparently not. :shrug:

[WCGreen]

68. Big Bands... Showtunes.... Jerry Vale... Herb Albert...

[In_The_Wind]

70. ...

Did my family know your family?

[khashka]

69. The theme to Peter Gunn

Even hearing it 40 years later gives me the shakes.

Or Willie Nelson's "Stardust" - that meant Mommy and Daddy were going at it like rabbits.Ick!


Khash.

[Seabiscuit]

73. Frank Sinatra. Benny Goodman. 40's music. You're almost all young

enough to be my kids.

[Strawman]

75. Obligatory 1980's mainstream dad rock, e.g. Huey Lewis's "Sports" LP

ZZ Top "Eliminator"
Phil Collins' "No Jacket Required"

Very "mainstream" stuff.

[u4ic]

76. Country/Western and Bluegrass

mostly the latter. Hank Williams and Hank Snow I recall very clearly. The duelling banjo chaps, and Roy Acuff. I'm sure there was some sort of a Hee Haw album around somewhere. :eyes:

That was my father's taste. My father also believed that the Beatles brought drugs into the world, and the drug epidemic now is all their fault. :rofl:

My mother would listen to whatever the kids listened to, with 2 exceptions: "She's come Undone" by the Guess Who (she noted her displeasure for it, so my 2 oldest sisters locked her in a room and continuously played the song for hours), and "Goodnight tonight" by Paul McCartney, which I played continuously for months. Went through about 3 singles of that damn song.

I just heard it a couple of months ago for the first time in what? 20 years. Didn't do a thing for me, now. :shrug:

[usedtobesick]

77. What great memories

all of the old masters of MoTown... my parents wold dance around the livingroom to Sam Cooke, The 4 tops, the spinners, also Herb Albert, Franky Valley and the 4 seasons... those were simpler times back then...

[Hissyspit]

78. Herb Alpert.

All the rage for mainstream suburban cocktail parties in the mid-60s.

[usedtobesick]

79. I would be dangerous if I could spell...

but I loved his album covers

[Hissyspit]

82. Oh, I didn't even see your post, usedtobe! Even though it was right

before mine. I was just posting what my parents listened to.
Yes, it is alPert. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. :7

[BikeWriter]

80. During the 40s and 50s in Texas it was mainly country.

[bertha katzenengel]

81. my god... damn good question, Skittles... i don't think about this one,

for all my constant introspection on my childhood.

My mother listened to what I thought were oldies. Among her favorite songs were "Honey," "Flying Purple People Eater," "I Love" (Tom T. Hall - not an oldy). Her favorite radio station was KWIZ.

Either my stepfather didn't listen to music or I blocked it all out -- no, wait a minute. He listened to Dean Martin. Hmm.

:hi: Your namesake is acting the slut tonight. I still haven't been able to catch her to get her to the vet for her spay. :banghead:

[Dees]

83. My parents were acutely square.

Which I loved them for. Show tunes, 50's pop (Perry Como, Peggy Lee}. Dad could sing like a Broadway tenor. Mom couldn't carry a tune in a shopping cart but they made great music together.

When Elvis became a big deal I thought my Dad would come apart like a dollar watch. You crazy kids and your rock and roll!!

[Ellen Forradalom]

84. My dad taught music

so they listened to a very wide range of classical, jazz, blues, the current rock, and experimental. Captain Beefheart, Harry Partch, John Cage, Frank Zappa were all pretty common listening around the house.

[ChoralScholar]

85. I remember tons of 8-track tapes

of mostly country music: Alabama, Kenny Rogers, Johnny Horton, etc.

[Taverner]

86. Merle Haggard, Tom T Hall, Johhny Cash, Cop Rock

[nini]

87. I vividly remember Louis Prima

He was played often in the home. Also, big band type music.

[seemunkee]

88. Herb Alpert, Sergio Mendes, Ray Conniff

[Jamastiene]

89. Whatever I was listening to. They had no choice. I liked it loud.

I started young. They had all types of music including everything from opera to rock to folk to percussion only albums. I learned how to operate the record player by three years old and took over. After that, they heard whatever I was playing. And I played music incessantly. They woke up one night after hearing Richard Tucker's opera singing to find me with the album cover across my chest as I slept in my little rocking chair. I was out cold. I had snuck back up to listen to music in the middle of the night. Been doing it ever since. Before they bought some headphones for me, they listened to whatever I was playing very loud most of the time.

[LaraMN]

90. When my Mom was home:

folk and bluegrass, followed by bagpipes, followed years later by Irish folk music (my Mom still plays with a Irish folk band on occasion.)

My Dad; acid rock, very loud, seemingly scary stuff (ie: King Crimson, Jethro Tull) that made me hide under the table as a wee one. Some classic rock.

[redqueen]

91. Ooh nice topic!

My dad listens to classical, so from him I grew to love opera and the classics.

My mom was sort of a hippie, so from her I grew up listening to the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Eric Burdon & The Animals, The Who, Frank Zappa, etc. etc. etc. She was also a fan of opera, and introduced me to Edith Piaf, whom I adore.

[Patiod]

92. Mitch Miller, Perry Como and my dad liked Verdi

My mom hated opera, so it was for listening in the car only.

I had an aunt who like Gilbert & Sullivan, and got me "A Child's Gilbert & Sullivan" -- I grew up to spend 12 years in a huge G&S Opera company in Philadelphia!

[RandomKoolzip]

93. My dad was a reggae freak.

One of my earliest memories is the smell of pot and the "Harder They Come" soundtrack playing on the turntable.

I heard lots of reggae, lots of Stones (my dad's favorite band), a lot of girl-group stuff (The Marvelettes, The Crystals, etc.), Otis Redding, Tom Waits, and Van Morrison.

Oh, and John Lennon. Mostly Lennon's solo stuff.

[Beer Snob-50]

94. tom jones, harry belefonte,

sousa marches

[underpants]

95. Helen Reddy, The Carpenters, Nat King Cole

My Mom

[Burma Jones]

96. Dad - BeBop and Swing.....Mom - Tom Jones and Glen Campbell

they kept telling me that the Beatles would be forgotten before 1980........

[tinfoilinfor2005]

97. In Europe the big American entertainers were Nelson Eddie

and Jeanette MacDonald. They were into operettas.

[ariesgem]

98. My father was a jazz man and my mother was a soul sister

My father played - Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Nancy Wilson, Dizzy Gillespie(sp), Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway(sp), Louis Armstrong, etc... He grew up in Harlem in the 30's and hung out with some of these dudes.

My mother- Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway(sp), James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, Graham Central Station, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, some Motown (not all- she hated the Supremes, not enough soul), Gladys Knight & The Pips, The Staple Singers, Isley Brothers, etc...

[William Bloode]

99. Dad,

More or less like big bands, and easy male singers like Sinatra, Martin, and Reeves. He played in a bluegrass band though.

Mom wandered the path of country, bluegrass, and rock.

Grandma, was more into blues, jazz, and classical.

[sakabatou]

100. My mom was into Folk, Dad is into Jazz