TO EVERY THING THERE IS A SEASON... (Updated)

I probably didn't buy my first single 45 rpm record until 1974, and I think it was SEASONS IN THE SUN by TERRY JACKS (don't shoot me).  Over the years, I bought many more, even some earlier singles which predated 'Seasons'.  Many records were available for years after their first release, and could be ordered, brand-new, from a back catalogue kept by record shops and departments.  Some were exactly as they'd first appeared, others had a different Side B, but they were pretty readily to hand if you wanted to order a particular single to fill a gap in your collection.

Eventually, I gave them all to my brother, who hardly ever played them - though when he did, it can fairly be said that he didn't look after them.  A year or two later I reclaimed them, and was astonished to see that he'd discarded any picture sleeves, and that some were bent or warped, and also scratched and seriously scuffed into the bargain.  (Although, to be fair, some were still pristine.)  Over the years, I've replaced the more prominently damaged ones (though I've so far kept the originals), and there's probably only another couple or so that I want to update.

I still have my original copy of Seasons In The Sun, and if my memory is correct in recalling it as the first single I ever bought, it's a bit of a landmark as, hitherto, all the other singles in the house had been procured by my brother.  Whatever record it was though (if I'm mistaken about 'Seasons'), I'll still own it, and it's good to look through them all from time-to-time and remember what was happening in my life when I first acquired them.  (I was still at school when Terry Jack's record hit the airwaves.)

In 1981, I was living down in Southsea, Portsmouth, and I bought ALL AROUND MY HAT by STEELEYE SPAN from a second-hand record shop called JACK'S.  It's stamped with WEAPONS ELECTRICAL OFFICER 1.  H.M.S. SHEFFIELD and also has a word on Side A, which might be a name.  As most of you will know, in 1982, the Sheffield was bombed in the Falklands war and was designated as an official war grave, as neither it, nor the 20 crewmen (out of 281) who were killed were ever recovered.  I can't help but wonder if the previous owner of my record is lying at the bottom of the sea on the edge of the Total Exclusion Zone, where the ship sank after an attempt to tow it to South Georgia.  I hope he was one of the survivors though.  (See footnote at the bottom of this post.)

Anyway, what I want to ask all you faithful Crivs is this: Can you remember the first ever single you bought and do you still have it?  If so, what happy memories does it conjure up for you whenever you play it (or hear it on the radio)?  Don't be shy now, share your reminiscences with your fellow Crivvies in the comments section.

However, before you do, let me say that I have an earlier single that I remember buying, namely I RECALL A GYPSY WOMAN by DON WILLIAMS.  It came out in 1973, but I must've bought it later, after hearing it on the radio one night, as I'm pretty sure I'd left school by then.  Below, should you be interested, are numbers 2 to 5 of the first five singles I bought, though they might not be displayed in the exact sequence I got them.

Footnote: Talking about H.M.S. Sheffield, I used to have a pal who was in the Royal Navy for a short time.  Navy doctors eventually learned of his long-standing knee problem (which he'd had from youth) that would've prevented him from serving effectively at sea, so he was given a choice; either leave the Navy or train for a land-based job (as a 'medical assistant' he said) at Haslar Hospital in Gosport.  He wasn't there long either, but, years later, he created a fantasy for his Facebook page, wherein he claimed that he'd been fast-tracked through the Royal Navy and had been one of the officers on the Sheffield.

In a sense, he was fast-tracked - in one end and out the other - with a brief spell at Haslar in between, but imagine having the brass neck to claim being an officer on H.M.S. Sheffield, a designated war grave and memorial to the 20 sailors who lost their lives on it.  I very much doubt he'd ever set foot on the ship, even when he was still in the Navy.  He now claims he's a Falklands veteran, though as a land-based hospital worker (if he was still in that job in '82), it's unlikely that he was anywhere near the place.  What a lowlife, eh?  A complete fantasist and @rsehole to boot!

******

Update: I learned in September 2023 that he died in January 2013.  His demise makes me feel more kindly towards the youth I recall from childhood, but I still feel irritated and annoyed at his behaviour as an adult.  Still, I hope he's at peace.