^Mike’s gateway record was Duran Duran’s “Wild Boys”

For some reason, the yard sale was in the basement. While my mother went through old fabric patterns and kitchen appliances, I made a beeline for a box of 45s at the back of the room and found it: “Wild Boys” by Duran Duran. My sister had all their records, but I had been banned from listening to them since I put a one-inch scratch through “New Moon On Monday” in 1984. Two years later, though, older and wiser at nine years, I was about to lay hands on my own Duran Duran record.

“There’s murder by the roadside / In a sore afraid new world.” Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome was in heavy rotation on HBO, so my imagination was primed for this type of post-apocalyptic nonsense. I listened to the A-side again and again, mouthing the lyrics and plotting my routine for “Puttin’ On The Hits”. Later, I’d get my own copies of their LPs, but “Wild Boys” will always be the first.

What was your first gateway record?