Old Landmark – Aretha Franklin and The Southern California Community Choir. That voice. Maybe I was 4 when I first heard this, and was like, ”Damn, that’s good!” I wish I could find the original full version I heard as a kid, but it’s not really online. All I can give you is this.
Radio Free Europe – R.E.M. It was so different than anything else that was out at the time where I lived and I was old enough, yet young enough to appreciate it. Murmur is one of those albums that, if it were released today brand new, hipsters would explode in writhing ecstasy.
How Soon Is Now? – The Smiths “I am human and I need to be loved just like everybody else does.” It couldn’t’ve been too much longer after hearing Radio Free Europe that I heard this song, and at the time, my home life was a horror show. This song really spoke to me. I lived to hear my music then, and I had to sneak to do it.
Hearing R.E.M. at the indie record shop as a kid got me listening to the local college rock station WMSE, which is where I heard all the Brit stuff and the indie American rock of the early 80s. I was more or less done with the current Top 40 after hearing those two songs at 12.