My Musical Milestones

Music has always played a big role in my life. I can track just about any event to a song or album of the time.

Just so there is a record of this; here is a list of all my "format firsts" that I ever purchased.

First 45 - Season In The Sun - Terry Jacks (1974)

First LP (mail order from a TV infomercial!) - The Monkees - The Monkees (Laurie House double LP) (Summer 1976)

First 8-Track - This One's For you - Barry Manilow (1976)

First LP (from a real record store) - Disovery - ELO (1979)

First Cassette - Blizzard Of Oz - Ozzy Ozborne (1980)

First CD - Welcome To the Pleasuredome - FGTH (1985)

First Razormaid CD - The Very Best Of Razormaid! RM-CD-01 (1987)

Burned my first CD-R - bought a first generation "WORM" drive and $1000 software package to be able to do this - freaked out all my friends that I could make my own music compilation CDs! (1994)

First dowloaded song (via Napster) - I Wanna Be A Cowboy - Boys Don't Cry (1999)

First purchased digital song (via iTunes) - Wichita Lineman - Johnny Cash (October 23, 2003) - First day of iTunes launch on PC.

Finally, on April 23, 2008, I acquired the complete Razormaid! library - 5727 songs from 550 LPs/CD since 1984 all in lossless (1000 Kbps) AAC digital format - delivered on a 500GB drive (April 23, 2008)

30 years later and the death of "format" has arrived. It's all 'bits' and can be had with 2 clicks of the mouse.

No more weekend trips the used CD store. No more rummaging through 'cut-out' bins a the Goodwill. No longer a sense of accomplishment of "discovering" that new band after hours of listening in the store.

Apple, you ruined my life.

CD History and other worthless triva

The CD format was invented by a collaboration of Philips electronic in the Netherlands, and Sony of Japan. Collaboration started in 1979.

The original audio CD spec of 74 minutes was set to accommodate a complete performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony

The Philips factory in Germany, where the world’s first CD was pressed, belonged to Polygram – the recording company owned by Philips at the time. The first CD to be manufactured at the plant was “The Visitors” by ABBA. Although, the first CD to be RELEASED commercially was Billy Joel's "52nd Street" in Japan on October 1982 (along with 49 other titles, mostly classical)

The CD format was launched in the US in March 1983 with the introduction of the Sony CDP-101 and Phillips CD100 CD players and 16 titles from CBS/Sony (including the Billy Joel "52nd Street" - although it was an IMPORT!!!).

The very first compact disc manufacturing plant that was built in the U.S. was the Digital Audio Disc Corporation [Sony DADC] plant in Terre Haute, Indiana, which opened May 2, 1983, with commercial CD production at the plant starting in September 1984. The first Capital Records CD every released, "Dark Side of the Moon" (catalog number - Capital Records - CDP 46001) were pressed at this facility.

The first CD that I ever bought was Frankie Goes To Hollywood "Welcome to the Pleasure Dome" - released on CD in early 1985 (although it was released on LP and cassette in the US in October 1984). This is also the first CD to be recorded in Full Digital - contrary to many posts that the first was Dire Straights - Brothers in Arms (which wasn't released until May 1985) - although, Brothers in Arms was the first CD to be simultaneously released with it's Cassette and LP brothers as a DDD recording.

FGTH was released by Zang Tuum Tumb Records (ZTT), which was owned by Trevor Horn. Trevor Horn was the lead singer and founder of the Buggles (most famous song was "Video Killed the Radio Star" - which was also the very first video to be played on MTV when it launched in 1981). Trevor was a pioneer in the Digital recording arena - with his digital recording of his first band to be signed to ZTT - FGHT. Trevor also started the band "The Art Of Noise" which was WAY ahead of its time. Trevor also signed Grace Jones and produced the album - "Slave to the Rhythm" - a landmark concept album that he also recored in DDD. It was released in the fall of 1985.