The switch to CDs started while der Brucer and I were just beginning our relationship. I was still on cassettes and LPs. He, on the other hand, has just bought a CD player.
One weekend, Wherehouse, the hot store in SoCal for audio software at the time, was having a sale. At the time, their CDs were limited to maybe five racks, almost all classical, but that's what he was interested in. We must have made three trips to the store, replacing his old LPs. At the end of the third trip, the clerk took pity on him and threw in Whitney Houston's first disc as a freebee, "just to give you guys a little variety, y'know?"
The first CD I bought wasn't for myself, but a present for der B. It was the weekend of the Tonys, and I bought him the first CD release of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, (not the improved re-release). We spent much of the weekend listening to the CD, going through the different endings. Since then, we've always tried to make a point of having the winning musical on CD, and as many of the other nominees, each year.
What ever became of Whitney Houston, anyway?