Do you recall your earliest love of a particular song, and do you play it on guitar?

[JP McD]

"There's A Place" by the Beatles. I've never worked with anyone who could get the harmonies right, so I don't play it (that one's mostly about the harmonica part anyway).

"Sweet Caroline" was the first song anyone ever noticed me singing (when it was first on the radio when I was 8 years old or so). My mother said "I didn't know you could sing". And I've been singing ever since. But not "Sweet Caroline".

Paul Simon's version of "Anji" was the first acoustic guitar piece that really got to me. I never even tried to play that until just recently, it's so beautiful and intimidating. I was able to fake the chords, but that's about it. Someday I may sit down for a couple of years and try to learn that one for real.

[kydave]

Oddly enough (for a singer) I don't remember the first song I sang while playing guitar.

I do remember the first instrumental I got my teacher to show me as a 12 year old taking my first guitar lessons:

Walk, Don't Run by the Ventures...

I don't usually play it anymore, but I incorporated an acoustic version of some of that song's contemporaries into a medley I did on my last CD, called "Surfgrass Medley". (Apache, to Pipeline, to Wipeout, back to Apache)

[Jerry D]

Josh White was the inspiration for me learning the guitar, and his "In My Time Of Dying" was, I think, about the first song I learned, and I still play it, but rarely.

Later on, his more complicated (about 12 different chords) "Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out" became my first really polished, more sophisticated piece. Eric Clapton also performs this song, but in the key of C, whereas I play it in D. I still play it a few times a year and always remember the chord changes.

[Luke_]

My first love was windy and warm.... I can play it to my liking and always try and tighten it up. Struttin is more of a "unicorn" tune... I will play it some day that song gives me goose bumps every time I hear it

[Gorquin]

The first song that hit me as being really beautiful was "Maria" from West Side Story, which was also the first movie I ever saw in a theater.

I still think it's a beautiful tune but I've never played it. I guess I should.

To JP McD…I can still sing "There's A Place". I always loved Macca's part in that. I'm not up on my theory like I should be but it sounds like he's singing a 6th in some parts and most people's ears don't go there. LOL

[rumble]

Peter& Gordon "World without Love" Listened to it as a young lad of 8 and learned to play it at 48. four score and loving it more.

[harmonics101]

I really don't revisit stuff I play, I probably go back about 2 years, I only play my own material. I'm with Neil Young on this, move on and explore,

H

[TBman]

The first song I had to learn was "The Needle & The Damage Done," when I was about 17. I learned it off the record, LOL. (Big black round flat things that went on another thing called a turntable that went round and round and a pointy thing called a needle rested on the surface and transmitted the sound to a speaker through things called wires to all you bluetooth new generation guys, )

[Charmed Life Picks]

GlenWillow:

I'm with you on the Everly Bros. My wife and I used to also duet on their tunes, although we never formalized them into something resembling a medley. "Dream" is a great classic perfect for singalongs, since everyone knows it, and "Bird Dog" always get a really good response, even from people who never heard it before.

eshrager: I looooove "Teddy Bear's Picnic". Never learned it on guitar, but my dad, who I lost two years ago, used to sing it to me at bedtime.

As to the OP: "Puff, The Magic Dragon". It was the first song I learned from my my first guitar teacher. So glad I started right up with fingerpicking, which is mainly what I do these days (bare fingers, no picks).

[epluribus36]

I Wanna Hold Your Hand. My 12-years-older brother used to play lots of Beatles in his band when I was just a baby.

I grew up and that was one of the first songs I learned to play. I always thought it was one of my best interpretations, until my second wife said I should stop playing that particular song, because I did a terrible rendition of it.

She said she loved me singing many other songs, but I needed to leave that one alone. Made me scratch my head for awhile.

I kept the song and divorced her.

[Siddhartha]

There are songs that I refuse to learn because to me, some of the "magic" of a song can go out of the window when I break it down to learn it.

I can find myself listening and not really enjoying a song I'm working through, because it will get to a tough part, and I think, "that's what he's doing there!" Then i go off to get the guitar, work on it, etc., and I've lost the feeling that got me there.

One of the first fingerstyle guitar songs I learned was "The Boxer," and yes, I still sometimes play that one

[Bingoccc]

I can't swear it was the earliest, but the theme song to Bonanza was one of the first I remember trying to get down on guitar when I was a kid. Never really did though.

[warfrat73]

Originally Posted by Pheof

Led Zeppelin's "The Rain Song". Never mastered it, never will. It's simply too far above me.

Hah, that's what I was going to say. One of the first songs i learned and I almost never pick up a guitar with out at least playing a little bit of it.

[okieboy]

Huddie Ledbetter's version of "The Midnight Special" used as the opening theme music for WFMT's great program "The Midnight Special." I still play it and will certainly do it tomorrow at a small ranch house gathering up in Osage county.

[love the guitar]

"The Shadow of Your Smile" , when I first heard it in the 60's I loved it and it is
still one of my favorite tunes to play.