Albums Your Parents Instilled In You?

Are there any albums that your parents were always playing in the house that you still listen to today?

 

No, but we had one of these 10,000-pound radio slash record player consoles.

 

Nope. The closest is probably Rod Stewart’s “Atlantic Crossing,” but I’m far more likely to go with “Every Picture Tells a Story.”

If I never again hear Carole King’s “Tapestry” or Carly Simon’s “No Secrets” that would be just fine with me.

What’s funny is my parents actually had some really good records — early Stones, early Dylan, Beatles — but they never listened to those.

 

My mom had a bunch of Herb Alpert albums I enjoyed listening to. They later had some Glenn Miller and Frank Sinatra CDs I inherited and they are great. Apparently they could really cut a rug when they were young. Who knew?

 

Temptations Christmas album

 

All of the Simon and Garfunkel

 

Good to know you can always Rise to the occasion.

 

My grandparents really had no musical tastes whatsoever. I doubt they ever bought a release post-8-track and I'm not that freaking old.

My father was a country guy all the way.

My mother was Motown, though think the bubblegum-ish stuff. When I played Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" album last, she expressed her disapproval because the album concept wasn't just a series of three-minute tracks. It wasn't because of the material that had Berry Gordy upset enough to almost block its release. But she was fine when I rolled out some Earth, Wind & Fire that wasn't their "hits."

My stepfather introduced me to his favorite genre through Prokofiev's "Peter and Wolf," narrated by Dudley Moore. In hindsight, every elementary school music teacher permitted to use CD players, reel-to-reel, etc., should have a copy of this on hand. Good instrumental associations, strong reinforcement and presented in a way that helps absorption of the various timbres. Also, a big George Gershwin fan, though funny enough played more the symphonic overture of "Porgy and Bess" than "Rhapsody in Blue." Never did like that I got into non-traditional music forms and I never understood that. Still don't.

Came fairly close to developing mine on my own, moreso than others, I suspect. So, whoever thinks I'm weird on that front cannot claim that I came by it honestly.

 

Beach music was the music of my childhood. Now, my 76-year-old dad listens to the Grateful Dead channel on Sirius a decent amount. Didn't see that coming.

 

My mom always loved The Spinners. I got that from her.

I can sing every lyric of Rubberband Man (and have, just not for money).

 

I seriously cannot recall a lot of music my dad liked other than Johnny Cash, but he did buy me a Queen record for my birthday once.

My mom liked a lot of what would today be classified as classic rock: Aerosmith, Fleetwood Mac, Eagles, etc.

 

The 7-plus minute version. Accept no substitutes.

You got lucky. I did not, as my mom’s go-to Christmas album was the Carpenters. To this day I get the heebie jeebies from mid-November on just waiting to be ambushed by one of those songs.