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Happy Birthday to the CD

Posted at 7:59 AM on March 2, 2009 by Steve Seel (19 Comments)

It was on this date in 1983, a new digital audio system, a five-inch compact disc containing up to 1 hour of music was launched by Sony, Philips and Polygram. I remember when it came out - it was still so new that the abbreviation "CD" was still not standardized, and it was often referred to as the "digital laser disc" and such quaint things. I also remember that we thought they were indestructable and that you could do things like run over them with your car and that they would still play. Ha ha.

Funny thing, though. I can't remember the first CD I bought. Seems like it should have been a momentous purcahse, but I'm blanking on it.

If you're old enough to remember this celebratory transition to the mysterious new world of little silver discs, do you remember your first CD purchase?

Comments (19)

WOW, happy bday CD! my first purchase is not embarrassing at all: I'm pretty sure it was Men at Work's Biz as Usual. I did not purchase Mister, Mister.. but will admit that Kyrie sounded pretty good as a demo track... ok, ok THAT's embarrassing. Love the show Steve! thanks, Craig in NJ

Posted by Craig | March 2, 2009 8:15 AM

Ok. I don't think I actually got my CD player until like '86 or '87 but my first CD was (it was a dual purchase) The Head on The Door by the Cure and Soul Mining by The The. Two records I already owned on vinyl and were favorites of mine...

Posted by wellst. | March 2, 2009 8:36 AM

I was pretty late to the CD game - 1st full album purchase was Pearl Jam's "Vs." in '93. 1st actual physical purchase was a single - "Reason to Believe" from Rod Stewart's Unplugged performance. I'm still wondering why I went for that as my first CD purchase......

Posted by Joe | March 2, 2009 8:46 AM

"Reach the Beach" by the Fixx and "Shaboo Shoobah" by INXS. I bought a $400 Technics player in '84. It took forever to load disks but had a cool blue lcd display and was the coolest thing I had bought up to that time.

Posted by Mike | March 2, 2009 9:27 AM

I'd have to say my first c.d that I actually purchased on my own was Everclear - "So much for the Afterglow", but the first cd I ever recieved was Rock on 1969... which I still listen to - some very classic hits on there.

Thanks for all the good music you play!

Posted by Desiree | March 2, 2009 9:31 AM

My father brought me to Target after the purchase of our households first home stereo system. I remember selecting the Counting Crows- August and Everything After, and Warren G- Regulate... G funk Era.

I'm almost positive, that he was less than thrilled to go home and listen to Warren G.
To this day, I randomly jam to both albums!

Thanks for the great music on The Current!
Amy in Casper, Wyoming

Posted by Amy | March 2, 2009 9:32 AM

I think I was in the 6th grade, and after saving up my allowance, bought 3 CD's at the same time... Rage Against the Machine's self-titled debut, "Ten" by Pearl Jam and "Appetite for Destruction" by Guns & Roses. My parents weren't very impressed...

Posted by Andrew | March 2, 2009 9:39 AM

Ah, my first trip to the record store netted these two gems:

1. Eric Clapton, "Unplugged"
2. Arrested Development, "3 Years 5 Months & 2 Days in the life of..."

It's funny, I still have a very vivid memory of going to store and getting my CD player as a present from my Grandmother (can't remember why, though) and hooking it up to my Dad's old amplifier.

I'm moving to all MP3s now, so I've been digitizing my CD collection to eventually sell them, and it's been all very bittersweet. So many memories!

-Jonathan

Posted by Jonathan | March 2, 2009 9:39 AM

My first CDs were The Breeder's Last Splash and a Crash Test Dummies album that I don't remember the title of. While I'm embarrassed by the latter I still love the former- a classic if you will
I still remember when my family went to Best Buy to purchase our first CD player- a thrilling day.

Posted by Brandon | March 2, 2009 9:40 AM

lulu - trip shakespeare; already had it on tape, but had to replace it :)

Posted by Kate Hanson | March 2, 2009 9:41 AM

I remember my first CD - Led Zeppelin 4. I was late to the CD so I went for the classics to replace my tapes. The Wall and Dark Side were the next two.

I still have all 3 of them and will never be without a copy.

Posted by Carey Stortz | March 2, 2009 9:41 AM

Ugh, well, I can't remember if it was a gift or purchase, but I'm pretty sure my first CD was "Hangin' Tough" by New Kids on the Block. Yeah, not so proud of that one, though I did learn one thing about pop music -- all of the songs were written by the group's producer (well, one or two were co-written...). I hope I've mostly avoided artists in that mold since then.

If that wasn't my first purchase, the first CD I actually bought was probably the "Wayne's World" soundtrack.

Posted by mulad | March 2, 2009 9:41 AM

I'm pretty sure my first cds were Greenday "Dookie" and Weezer Blue album. Then followed shortly by Billy Joel "The River." I listened to that Dookie album so much, my parents could probably sing the whole thing... which is a very disturbing image for me. I remember sitting with my friend in my room looking at all the stuff drawn on the cover. It's like a dirty Where's Waldo? That's one thing i'll miss as we move more and more to digital music, album art.

Posted by Colin | March 2, 2009 9:42 AM

The first CDs I ever bought were The Breeders' The Last Splash and a Crash Test Dummies album that I don't remember the title of. While I'm embarrassed by the latter, I still love the former- a classic if you will.
I still remember when my family went to Best Buy to purchase our first CD player- quite a thrilling day.

Posted by Brandon | March 2, 2009 9:43 AM

I'm not a Luddite, but I was a broke high school and college student when CDs broke onto the scene, so I didn't get my first CD until 1991. "A Man Called E" was a gift from my college radio station's Music Director for innovative programming, followed by Little Earthquakes from Tori Amos.

Posted by Elizabeth | March 2, 2009 9:44 AM

First CD player I got was a scratch n' dent Sony from Best Buy in 1987 or 88 for $129. Had that thing for a number of years before it finally gave out.

The person demo-ing it for us put in The Cars "Heartbeat City" and forgot to take it out. So that was my first acquired CD.

The first CD I purchased was from Down in the Valley records in Golden Valley and it was Peter Gabriel's 4th Self Titled - known as "Security" in the US.. The one with "Shock The Monkey" on it. And then I bought Brian Eno's "Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks" because it was my favorite album of all time at that time.

Posted by Frick | March 2, 2009 10:05 AM

My first CD was U2's The Joshua Tree. I bought it as soon as it came out, I didn't even have a cd player yet!! The second one was REM's Dead Letter Office and it's still one of my favorites to this day.

Posted by Hotdishgirl | March 2, 2009 12:11 PM

My memory is failing me, but my first CD purchase would have been either Cinderella's Heartbreak Station or Living Colour's Time's Up The other would have been given to me on Christmas Eve 1990. Thinking, but not totally sure, I was going to get a CD Player from my parents for Christmas, my grandparents gave me two CDs that night: Poison's Flesh & Blood and either Time's Up or Heartbreak Station. When was the last time you bought/received an album and had to wait 8 hours to listen to it?

Posted by Scott | March 2, 2009 1:20 PM

Aaah the memories-it was hard to know what to buy first, but I bought Dan Fogelberg/Tim Weisberg's "Twin Sons of Different Mothers" Which I was really into back then thanks to another station that used to be good...! And my sister got Howard Jones' "Dream into Action"!

Posted by Sharon | March 2, 2009 1:55 PM

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