Oh my goodness, we had the record too! it was a 33 & 1/3; said "pretty bird" over and over and OVER! The parakeet never spoke. One day somebody's small child got loose, came into our house and let the bird fly out the window.
Our Budgie used to march up and down on the window ledge over the kitchen sink. Mom would cut up some veggies for him and he'd eat while she was doing dishes. Once he fell into the soapy water and flew around the kitchen - it was like the Lawrence Welk show for a while there.
He also loved landing on my Dad's bald head and pecking him.
One day, like RadishRose's bird, Budgie flew out an open kitchen door and never returned, despite our wandering the neighborhood all night calling out "Budgie! Budgie! Buuuuuuddgggieeeeeeeee!"
When the kids were small, they had to have a parakeet. We bought them the cage, swingy thing, bells and just about anything else we could stuff in the cage. We got a pretty greenish, blueish bird and the kids named it Sandy.
The cage sat next to the apartments steam radiator and the weather had turned cold that day so the heat came on. See where this is going?
The wife came into the living room and noticed Sandy was laying flat on the cage floor and nary a peep out of her, him. Oh poor Sandy, thought the wife. Sandy has passed away and I'll just put the cage out back in the cool hallway and tell the kids they have lost their little bird Sandy.
As the kids came home from school, the first thing they noticed was the missing bird and cage. As the wife started to explain that Sandy had gone to birds heaven, a peep and a tweet were heard from the back hallway. She rushed to the door and there in all it's glory was Sandy perky as ever. The wife looked at the kids and told them that she was giving Sandy a new view or some excuse to satisfy the little ones.
We did move Sandy away from the radiator and Sandy lived happily ever after. True story.