The very first vinyl albums I ever owned.

Building my collection from scratch.

In 1976, my younger sisters had a small record player in their bedroom. They played the Sesame Street children's album all the time. A year or two later, all I ever heard playing in their room was the movie soundtrack to "Grease". Actually, that entire album is pretty good.

I didn't have a record player at the time, so  they occasionally let me borrow theirs. All I really could afford to buy were "45's". I had quite a few. I remember I had "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Let your love flow", "Fly robin fly", "Barracuda" and several other hits from the 1970's. I couldn't afford actual full-length vinyl albums. Five, six or seven dollars for a record album was way out of my paperboy budget.

For Christmas that year. I received a brand new Sears portable cassette tape recorder. I absolutely loved it! I also got some pre-recorded album cassettes to listen to. I begged my parents for the "Frampton Comes Alive!" album on tape. I got it. I also got "Seals and Crofts greatest hits". I also got a few blank tapes. I was absolutely ecstatic with my new gift!

At the time, it made more sense to me to invest in cassette tapes rather than wait another year to ask for my own record player. Cassettes were smaller, more compact and easier to carry around.

I was taking guitar lessons at the time. I wanted to learn "Stairway to heaven", but I had no way of practicing the song. I didn't have the album or the tape. My guitar instructor, Tony said, "I have an extra copy of Led Zeppelin - IV I'll sell it to you for $5.00" So, I bought it from him. I used my sister's record player to listen to it until I got my own record player following Christmas 1977.

I still wasn't completely convinced that investing in building a vinyl record collection was the best direction for me. Cassette tapes were usually a few dollars cheaper, and I could afford to buy a new one every once in a while. I was only making enough money from delivering newspapers, to pay for my guitar lessons, snacks and Mountain Dew. If I wanted any new music, I either recorded it from the radio or I saved up for it.

Then, Christmas of 1978, our family gathered at my aunt and uncle's house a few blocks away, to celebrate our traditional Christmas eve with the entire family. Back then, everyone got gifts from everyone else. My older cousins decided to break me into the rock genre and get me “Aerosmith's - Toys in the attic” vinyl record album. I was blown away. I was now one of the cool kids. Little did I know that the next day, on Christmas day, I would open a huge box that and brand new record player stereo with separate speakers. Well, this changed everything.

My then best friend Curt, had an older brother, Pete (who would pass away in 1983). Pete lived in the basement of their house. Pete had a huge stereo system in his bedroom. Sometimes Curt and I would go downstairs and hang out by Pete's bedroom door and listen to whatever records he was playing. He had a huge collection of vinyl records. Curt sometimes ended up with a lot of the albums Pete no longer wanted. This prompted Curt and I both to reconsider the idea of buying vinyl albums, no matter what they cost.

Okay, so at this point, I believe that I only had Led Zeppelin IV and Aerosmith - Toys in the attic and about a dozen 45's in my small collection. I had a stack of about twenty cassettes too. I am almost positive that the very first vinyl album that I would buy brand new with my own money was either Fleetwood Mac, "Rumours" or Boston's second album, "Don't look back". I remember buying the Boston album when I was in the first semester of my sophomore year of high school, which would have been 1978. I remember buying the album at the Zayre's across the street from the high school. But, "Rumours" had come out the year before in 1977. I think I bought Rumours after the Boston album.

It wasn't until I started working real jobs after school that I was making enough money to really invest into my stereo system and build my collection of records and tapes. In 1982, I began building my stereo system. I wanted to be a bona-fide audiophile.

I bought a brand new monster Realistic STA-2080 stereo receiver amplifier, a pair of Pioneer HPM-900 loudspeakers, an ADC Equalizer, a small realistic mixer and at least three cassette decks. My record album collection grew to about 150 albums by the late 1980's. I think I have around 200 albums now. I still have about twenty-five 45's. Would you believe that since 1977, my cassette tape collection eventually grew to 579 tapes?!

By the late 1980's, I began to replace many of these classic albums with CD's. I even won the entire Pink Floyd catalogue on CD in 1989 from one of the local radio stations here in town. I think I still have about 70-80 CD's. Maybe more, I haven't counted.

Here's the irony. I don't listen to any of these formats on a regular basis anymore. Everything in my entire music collection fits comfortably on my smartphone. I started digitizing all of my music to mp3's, around 1999. I don't pay for any streaming service. I do occasionally use YouTube to find music that I don't have on my phone. It blows my mind that I can store upwards of about 40,000+ songs on my phone and use a portable JVC 20-watt bluetooth speaker, and listen to any song or album or playlist I wanted, at the push of a button. It works great at the beach and when I go to do guitar lessons.

My nephew has been building his vinyl collection for a few years. He loves vinyl, just like I did when I was his age. I still love listening to old records and tape, but I also like the convenience of having my entire collection in my pocket.

The debate continues as to which format is the best to listen to music. I know that it's vinyl. Analog is like a hot pizza fresh out of the oven. In all of its wonderful convenience, the mp3 file is still digital, and is limited to a certain frequency range. Most people can't tell the difference. I'm a 45-year-audiophile and a 60-year-old musician/instructor. I’m pretty confident that I can still hear the difference.

I have taken excellent care of my entire collection of music. I think of my collection in the same way a book-reader might collect hundreds of books on shelves in the den. One of these days, I need to just sit and listen to some of these vinyl albums.

How about you? When was the last time you listened to an entire vinyl album, and what was it?