The first record I remember being obsessed with was The Muppet Show album. The way it folded out and had all the characters in it was a thing of beauty to my six-year-old eyes.
It had such classics as “Mah-Na-Mah-Na” or “Mahna Mahna” if you’re a Muppet purist and Gonzo Eats a Rubber Tire to “The Flight of The Bumble Bee.” I would play that thing over and over. It definitely formed a big piece of who I am and my sense of humor. I see in googling it, that album knocked The Beatles’ Live at the Hollywood Bowl off the #1 spot in UK—where I’m from—in 1977. The Muppets were bigger than The Beatles!
Fonda – Better Days
Speaking of which, that’s my other earliest memory of vinyl, The Beatles albums—my mum, and Wings—my dad. Seems weird to me now I type that. I guess my dad agreed with Alan Partridge “Wings – the band The Beatles could have been.”
I remember obsessively taping the UK top 40 chart on the radio Sunday nights on a crappy tape recorder, memorizing the songs and then going to Woolworths to buy 99p singles of my favorites. Some of the earliest were Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights”—me singing this would become a party favorite for years to come, and Art Garfunkel’s “Bright Eyes” from Watership Down. I’m still scarred for life from that movie…
The first album I remember asking for as a Christmas gift was The Jacksons’ Destiny. I wore it out so much, it would buckle and do magical things as it played on my turntable. I was 7 and obsessed with that and Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” that I’d bought at a car boot sale. Odd combination but it worked for me.
As I got a bit older there was the TV show Top of The Pops helping shape my choices and the best record store ever, Beano’s in Croydon.
I have so many memories of scouring the shelves there for goodies, buying Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walking” after becoming obsessed with that song from Full Metal Jacket, stands out and Madonna’s Like A Virgin, wrapped in a brown paper bag—the 80’s equivalent of Lady Chatterly’s Lover, so as not to offend anybody on the train ride home.
—Emily Cook
Fonda’s brand new Better Days hits store shelves TODAY!
