I nearly branched out into this in my post about The Swingle Singers yesterday.
I discovered Gershwin in 5th grade via the symphonic pieces, Porgy and Bess shortly thereafter, and he is forever honored as my first true musical obsession. Almost concurrent with Porgy, South Pacific opened my eyes to the world of musicals. The gatefold cast album, an edition I still love, got played TO DEATH. That led to more Rodgers and Hammerstein, and then The Music Man rocked the boat in a major way. Li'l Abner and Finian's Rainbow worked their way in there, and finally came the mother lode, West Side Story.
During this time (this is all junior high and high school) I opened myself to popular music on the radio, basking in the glories of WQAM, Miami's "Tiger Radio", 560 on the AM dial, with Rick Shaw, a top notch DJ revered today. I could probably only name a handful of favorite songs from then, but I loved it all.
The Swingle Singers exploded onto my scene with that first album and the Bourree, and I freely correlate the joy of that with my senior year introduction to Arthur Loesser and his uniquely incredible way with Bach on the piano. Brubeck's Take Five was a revelation. Gilbert and Sullivan entered my life via the Kenny Baker movie of The Mikado and the Groucho Marx presentation on the Bell Telephone Hour, both seen on B&W TV. Once I discovered the lush stereo series of D'Oyly Carte recordings, I was hooked. In the summer immediately following high school, a friend of a friend brought the forces of Gustav Mahler and Carl Orff into my life, capping this period and propelling me on to the world of college and beyond.