Originally Posted by Terrapin_Station

My favorite musical artist overall is Igor Stravinsky. And I can remember the album that made me obsessed with him:

Firebird Suite/Petrushka - Pierre Monteux / Paris Conservatoire Orchestra



That was a birthday present from my grandfather (who had already gotten me into a fair amount of classical, big band/swing, etc.) when I was 9 years old, the year it was released with that particular cover.

Second favorite musical artist is Frank Zappa. That's not as simple, because I heard him prior to thinking "I have got to buy everything this guy does!" But what really got me into him was Uncle Meat, a couple years after it was released (so 1971, and almost the same exact time that I got into Stravinsky above), because one of my drum teachers at the time was into Zappa and he had me work on playing along with a couple tunes from the album. 200 Motels, which came out just a few weeks prior to my ninth birthday, was the first Zappa album I bought when it was new. (I was also taking piano lessons at the time, which is one of the things I bonded with my grandfather over, as he was a pretty good amateur pianist).