Abbey Road by The Beatles 1969

I came home from school one day and there was a brown paper bag in the shape of a record sitting on my bed. When I carefully opened the top of the bag, I was excited to see the new Beatles album, Abbey Road. And it was my first new album. Everything else I had was records passed on from other people. This was something new and untouched by anyone else.

I was a bit wary because recently I had been to a Form 2 party where they had repeatedly played the first side, and it didn’t thrill me all that much. So when I played it for the first time, I put on the second side.

And for me, it’s now the ultimate side of a Beatles album. No silly songs, sonic adventures or twee writing to mess it up. And the way the songs tumble into each other...

So began my record collecting with the Beatles. What a great way to start. The first thing I decided to do was collect all the Beatles albums.

Many years later, when I was a DJ at Rubber Soul, the Sixties nightclub, we would put on Beatles specials where every third song was a Beatles record. One of the standouts for me was when Ronny, the other DJ, would put on the second half of side two  Mean Mr Mustard, Polythene Pam and all the rest.

It was totally groovy!

Cocker Happy by Joe Cocker 1971

Joe Cocker's Cocker Happy was a number one album in Australia in 1971; it was an album you couldn't avoid. Especially at the start of summer, around December, when I found myself with another crew to hang out with. South Box Hill and hanging out with Sharpies wasn't working out. Warm beer and late nights when I was only fifteen were just painful.

I had a friend who lived on one of the new estates. I'd go round to his place and listen to records, then wander around all the new streets and houses. We met a couple of girls and started chatting to them. I quite fancied one of them. Her name was Bernadette.

We became kind of friends, and I would go around to her place a lot. Her dad was a teacher who made his own ginger beer under the house. She taught me to play canasta. She played Cocker Happy on repeat.

One day near Christmas, she let me kiss her in the long grass behind her house. And then she came to the New Year's Eve party with her new boyfriend, who was taller and cooler than me. I was devastated.

I didn't go back to her house. But I bought a copy of the album.