BACK TO THE FUTURE PART III! It was Christmas morning 1990 and my parents got me my first cd player. BTTF 3 was not only my first score cd, but first cd.
When I bought my first player in 1988 or so, I got three CDs to listen to: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, PICTURES AT ELEVEN... and THE SECRET OF NIMH. I’d already had all of them on LP but the Floyd and especially the Goldsmith were headphone revelations.
I was in record retail for years and had already accumulated a lot of promo cds before I got my first player, but I remember vividly that the first 2 cds I purchased were the Warner Brothers cd of The Living Daylights, which had just come out, and Miles Davis' Bitches Brew. The Miles cd sounded terrible in comparison with the Columbia lp. CBS really butchered the sound on their first shot of transferring two of Miles' iconic albums: Bitches Brew and Kind of Blue. Their was a lot of outrage, and CBS/Sony eventually got subsequent releases right.
My first CD was Silva Screen's DAMIEN—OMEN II in 1989.
I resisted the onslaught of CDs initially because I couldn't face the idea of buying everything all over again but by 1989 it was pretty clear LPs were going to give way to CDs.
CheersI've stilll albums that aren't on CD yet.
I have albums that still aren't on CD yet, exhibit A: (The UK version is minus Michael McDonald's end titles song because Warner Bros. were dicks even in the '80s.)
I can't really remember. I know that the first soundtrack I ever got on CD was this, way back when the film came out in 1991:
But that's obviously not a score.
I think, rather, it must have been this -- also acquired around the same time:
However, not the CD, but a cassette copy with my own, hand-drawn cover (a pencil drawing of Kyle MacLachlan/Cooper).
Both of these were really acquired before I became obsessed with soundtracks. I can't really remember what my first score CD was that also coalesced with my soundtrack interest. Maybe THE ABYSS or JURASSIC PARK or something a couple of years later. I'm terrible at remembering 'firsts'.
Star Wars A New Hope RCA Special Edition back in 1997...that and Van Halen's first album were the first two CDs I ever received. They were a christmas present--coincidentally the christmas I got my first CD player too.
For first soundtrack, I'd have to go back to the Lion King on cassette.
I had purchased the LP back in the late 1970s, but when the CD came out in 1985 I was right on it. This beat the Carlo Savina recording to market by 4 years.
Star Wars Trilogy: The Original Soundtrack Anthology by Arista Records
The thought of re-acquiring the thousand-odd soundtracks in my LP collection on CD was a terrifying financial prospect – so I gave CDs a wide berth for over a decade.
However, as a John Williams aficionado, the appearance of the Arista set made it impossible to put off the inevitable any longer.
Four thousand soundtrack CDs later, and with a severely depleted bank balance, my wife still rues the day that I brought home those initial Star Wars CDs…