Record Stores of Yesteryear

And PS, it can really be about wherever you bought physical music, then or now - whether it was in a Sears (as my first 45 was) or a stand alone record store, local or chain.

I grew up near Pittsburgh, so National Record Mart was the main source for music. One had to visit the mall across the border in Ohio to see a Camelot.

R2 Sylvia! Yes, I grew up there too.

We had Camelot at our mall (Monroeville Mall). As well as....Oasis, maybe? Forgetting the name. But the NRM's were everywhere.

When I worked downtown in the 90s there was a Sam Goody store, but it was terrible and overpriced.

Tower Records! And they were open until midnight! Best of all, they had a separate room for classical music. The door closed and you were immersed in an entirely different world from the main section of the store. And the person who worked in there knew what you were talking about and could make intelligent recommendations! Sigh...

[quote][R2] Sylvia! Yes, I grew up there too.

Sounds like you two are going to have a whole lot to talk about.

Record store in the neighborhood. It sold all sorts of bongs, other water pipes, medallions, and what not in display cases on the sides. I can remember spending several hours there on a Saturday afternoon, brousing the collection of albums. A big thing was going to buy an album when it came out.

Cannot stand the way people listen to music today. It's not meant only to be enjoyed through ear plugs. We had the big ear phones and Walkmen, but we also had stereos.

Peaches...I think I still have some of their record crates around!

R5 My exclamation was because I recognized Sylvia as we've crossed paths on Pittsburgh related posts before, too.

R4 I worked at Tower briefly. It was amazing.

I know people who worked at one of the big NYC stores - they have so many vinyl records in their home I think they had to reinforce the floors!

BTW Tower reopened as an online store, but I think it's sort of like Montgomery Wards, which exists as an online store but is not related to the original in any way.

[quote]Tower Records! And they were open until midnight! Best of all, they had a separate room for classical music. The door closed and you were immersed in an entirely different world from the main section of the store. And the person who worked in there knew what you were talking about and could make intelligent recommendations! Sigh...

We had a huge HMV near to where I moved in London. They had different rooms for different genres - you'd walk in and there'd be a totally different atmosphere...plus fantastic video dept. They were always playing great music....and star appearances. It was a very fun place to visit even without buying. I went in there all the time, for years...and spent a ton.

Tower downtown NYC I also had the great luxury of living very near. And the late at night thing was great. Feel a bit flat after dinner? wander over there.

But in the 90s London had the best record stores in the world, I used to go from one to the other...odd, you'd think America would have been better.

Plan 9 in Carytown Richmond. It’s still there, but moved across the street about twenty years ago. I remember subscribing to magazines and listening to the radio, which is how you would know a new release was coming! Then I’d ride the bus to Carytown all fulled with anticipation. Their used section was great, too. When I was really little, I’d buy 45’s from K-Mart.

[quote]When I was really little, I’d buy 45’s from K-Mart.

Give us a few titles, gurl.

Licorice Pizza

Sound Warehouse and Musicland in Dallas. Sound Warehouse was typically in a strip center or a stand-alone store, while Musicland was in the malls.

Eucalyptus Records a western chain. My local one was in Reno. The last I knew the building now houses a sushi place.

[R12] I was not a hip eight year old, and would randomly buy whatever was playing on the radio, which was pretty redundant, I know. I had “Afternoon Delight” by Firefall, for instance. I also had my parents and grandparents old records—everything from Perry Como to Fats Domino to Elvis and Buddy Holly. Showtunes were big in our house especially “The Music Man” and “Oklahoma.” My dad was very sophisticated with his Kingston Trio records! It was a real cacophony in that paneled basement with the hifi system.

youtube link below........All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records is a documentary directed by Colin Hanks on the rise and fall of the American record retailer Tower Records, completed and distributed in 2015.

.... about the rise and demise of Tower Records, the retail "giant" that once advertized its East 4th Street and Broadway New York City location as "The Largest Record-Tape Store in the Known World". It also offers insights into the critical upheavals in the 21st-century recording industry.

[quote][[R12]] I was not a hip eight year old, and would randomly buy whatever was playing on the radio, which was pretty redundant, I know. I had “Afternoon Delight” by Firefall, for instance.

That's the sort of thing I was looking for. No need to be ashamed of your childish music taste.

Strawberries.

R16 Afternoon Delight” by Firefall? please revisit your 45 collection immediately!

[R18] I still have those compilations “I love Music!” , etc. (By Ronco? ) They are so much fun.

I hope R16 comes back with a few more titles from his trips to the singles section at K-Mart.

I also had a 45 of “Afternoon Delight”

I also owned one of “Midnight at the Oasis”

I wore out my copy of “Fox on the Run” by the Sweet. “Sister Golden Hair” by America still makes my heart swell.

I'm OP and was the one in the department store thread that mentioned buying my first 45 at Sears - On The Radio

But I also remember buying my first albums with my own money. It was babysitting money and it was at Oasis Records (which I have learned was an offshoot of National Record Mart).

It was a 3 for 10 special and I got:

Bananarama

I Feel For You, Chaka Khan

and

Private Dancer, Tina Turner

They should have handed me my Future Homosexual of America punch card right then and there.

Starship in the 80s and 90s. Records and weed accessories.

Way, way back in the day record stores had booths where you could listen to records before buying them. There's a scene in The Talented Mr Ripley with Jude Law & Philip Seymour Hoffman rocking out in a booth...

Harvard Coop.

Tommy's Record Shop in Irvington NJ.

My first 45 was “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves.”

You are not alone, OP/R25. I still recall (and have) the first ever 45 that I ever bought (though I don't recall not where I bought it -- possibly a Woolworth's) sometime in my grade school years. It was....

I love Tommy’s Record Shop! It looks like a John Waters hang out spot.

^^ pardon the editing/lack thereof

We had a couple discount chain stores with great record and paperback sections: Moreland and Atlantic Mills. I bought my first Beatles albums and some sexy paperbacks: Mandingo stirred my loins as did Blue Movies.

R30 Love it, Sylvia!

My sister had that single, it was one of the ones I'd always play on her stereo (which would annoy here) along with David Cassidy and some Bee Gees stuff. She also had a bajillion Bay City Rollers 45s. The Duran Duran of their day, I guess.

Oz Records & Tapes, Atlanta and Birmingham. The Birmingham store had a Wizard of Oz theme, including a yellow brick road and animatronic flying monkeys that delivered what you wanted to buy to the cash register. I bought my first LP there ([italic]Rumours[/italic] by Fleetwood Mac).

Woolworths is where we bought our records.

I didn’t work at the downtown location in this photo, but Rose Records Chicagoland.

I'm in the UK - almost all of our chain stores that sell / sold records and CDs have gone - there's only HMV and Fopp left.

I loved Parrot Records which was local to Essex I think. All my shopping trips were around record shops / record departments. Our Price, Virgin, WH Smith, Andy's Records, Adrian's in Wickford, Woolworths etc.

I haven't been in one since February this year, which I never would have believed if you've told me that in January. In London I visit second hand places a lot - the infamous Music & Video Exchange, Reckless in Soho, Sister Ray, Fopp, Rough Trade off Brick Lane.

I was so excited when I visited the USA for the first time, aged about 13, and found Tower Records was open 24 hours a day - that was my idea of heaven. I used to love Tower in the US, the UK store(s) were always massively over-priced. Now my favourites are Amoeba in San Francisco and Berkeley and Rasputin in the same. I haven't been to the US since 2016, now Trump's going I can't wait to get back to them.

And yes I still buy CDs, and very occasionally records, but almost all by mail order now.

As an American who spent time in London in my early 20s I echo the sentiments above that the city had the best record stores in the world. I spent tons of time and money in them. There was the Virgin Megastore and two huge HMVs on Oxford Street and an outpost of Tower on Piccadilly Circus. I also got a lot of good deals on new stuff at WH Smith and remember buying Peter Gabriel’s so there. But my favorite was the Record Tape and Video Exchange used record shop in Notting Hill. If I remember correctly they had cards with the cassette sleeves and prices you could flip through and then take the card to the counter where the clerks would retrieve the actual cassette from the back. I came home with a suitcase full of music from there. Unfortunately cassette is the worst format ever, next to 8 track, and my music collection was almost entirely made up of now worthless cassettes.

Post teenage years, the store I visited and really miss is Sam The Record Man in Toronto.

It was heaven. Went there several times circa 2000. Wished it was still open now, in the vinyl resurgence.

[quote] Reckless in Soho

The sister store to the Reckless Records in Chicago.

They're solid stores (though Dusty Groove in Chicago is the best in town, possibly in the country)

Interesting story from yesterday. Wanted to go to a rather large record shop in very small southern Calif town, and saw "open" hours listed online. It was about an hour's drive away. I sent an email to confirmed that they were indeed open and started driving. I got a replay, and returned the call while driving there. The shop owner said he was closed and only taking appointments to come to the shop, and a $ $ FIFTY DOLLAR $ $ cash deposit was needed to come in, with that amount doing toward that value of records, or you lose that deposit. He said "his time was too valuable to have people just come and look thru his albums"

R42 Wow, what an asshole.

[quote]Showtunes were big in our house

You don’t say.

Nobody knows that “Goody got it”?

By the time I had a Sam Goody store near me, "Goody got it" for 20 fucking dollars for a CD, at which point I started to see why Napster was a good idea.

[quote]Way, way back in the day record stores had booths where you could listen to records before buying them.

Not just record stores--I remember listening booths in department stores that sold records. And these were not like the more modern listening/sampling setups with a bunch of headphones and a button to select what you wanted to hear--they were actual private booths with a turntable. No headphones. You took your disc (album or single) into the booth and listened to it privately.

Listening Booth at the mall in Reading PA

I remember buying albums (and getting cruised by other girls, on occasion) at OZ records...

Cactus Records and Tapes on S. Shepherd in Houston - The money I blew in that store. Later came Soundwaves IIRC a few blocks south.

The first LP I ever bought was from Woolco. I can't remember where I bought my first 45. The first CD was probably from Cactus.

And then there was Columbia House.

In Toronto, we had Sam The Record Man where I spent many long hours looking for albums as a teenager. On Queen Street, there was the Record Peddler which had many import music and books.

Does San Francisco still have Amoeba Records?

I was all about Strawberries in the greater Boston area. Loved those stores! Sam Goody moving in was the first sign I remember of the incoming death of record stores. Still, we still have a pretty decent shop in Baltimore with CDs/vinyl and weed paraphernalia and accoutrements.

Listening Booth/Wall to Wall was the major record chain in the malls around Philly. Actual listening booths were long gone by the time I was ever in one.

R51 yes SF has Amoeba still. I've been to the one in LA which just got pushed out of its iconic building and is reopening in some dreadful, sad suburban style squat box

R54 - oh good news about SF Amoeba but bad news about the LA one. Thanks for the info.

Bill's records in Dallas, TX. One of a kind place you had to see to believe. In it's heyday (the 80's) it was so huge and tightly-packed and complex it would take a lifetime to see it all. It was housed in an old sprawling furniture store spece next to a movie theater that showed midnight movies. They were open all hours. He sold the most cutting-edge underground stuff and the most mainstream stuff and more obscure rock and roll merchandise than you could fit into a museum. Nothing was priced and it was all in his head. Circle Jerks, Flipper, Butthole Surfers, Psychic TV, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Karen Finley, Eurythmics, and other artists would come in when they were in town just to see the place. A total scene and a million memories. It's hard to put into words this "store," but those who have memories of it have lots of them!

R56 The owner Bill Wisener was also a semi-out gay man, which was pretty daring for Texas back then.

Weren't Peaches, Strawberries, Coconuts, etc., all successive iterations of the same company?

Oh, look what I found.

I grew up in the Northeast. I lived in a smaller town in Vermont, not far from the NY border. We'd drive to Glens Fall, NY to go to Strawberries. Our local record shop had nothing outside of the typical Top 40 and Classic Rock genres. I remember when a Strawberries finally came to town. I was so excited. It had just about everything I looked for. The guy who managed it would special order various CDs for me. I moved to another state just a couple years after it opened. When I came back to visit in around 1996, it was already out of business. Sad.

Thank you R59 for your contribution

That seems to be focused on the Peaches chain, so hopefully we can add to that lovely discussion here!

Licorice Pizza

[quote] The money I blew in that store.

You’re doing it wrong.

You should’ve gone for the clerks.

Our local department store (Rosheks) had a record store on the mezzanine level. A local radio station had a broadcast booth in the store as well and they did a lot of fun promotions. They'd have musician appearances to promote new records. The store also had teen "ambassadors" who would wear the latest styles to school and be at the store for various promotions. There was a new parking ramp built across the street in the early 60s and there would be "ramp dances" on the top level with live bands performing.

Boss, r64!

Really boss!

We had a great Tower here in Boston.

3 floors of awesome and a great place to spend a snowy afternoon.

The Tower in Boston, to echo others here, was a pretty special place. The classical floor was immense. There was a separate room for musicals/vocals. All in a great building on Newbury Street.

Replaced Peaches in my town...

I used to got to Bogart's in Addison, IL for a lot of my music. It was also a head shop. Then onto Rolling Stone in Norridge that had a fantastic selection and great coupons. I'd walk out of the store with 12 CDs for about 70 bucks. They're still there, BTW. I also loved Wax Trax on Lincoln Avenue to fill my punk rock needs. Then I discovered Tower Records. Good God, they had everything. After they went under I started buying from Dusty Groove in Chicago proper. Great place for non-mainstream music. I always avoided mall record shops like Musicland; they always had the shit selection of hit records and nothing too uncommon. (Yeah, I can be a music snob.)

We had two independent record stores in my little New Jersey town. I would go to one more than the other, as the owner was a friend of my father's, and he gave me a 10% discount on everything I bought.

I started out with 45s. I had practically all the records on this list, from 77 WABC-AM, Tuesday, September 3, 1963. I'm posting this particular Silver Dollar Survey because it's the first week "Be My Baby," one of the best songs of all time, entered the chart, at #4. I played this so often, including the weekend after Kennedy was assassinated, my mother bought me a new stereo for Christmas, so I could listen to albums and not just 45s.

The ultimate for me was Dress Circle in London. Not large, but entirely dedicated to cast albums, soundtracks, and musical theatre vocalists. They even had their own record label at one point. I used to spend hours in there chatting with the staff and the other customers. Theatre queen heaven! Met many celebrities there through the years. I cried when they closed down.

Does Footlight in NYC count as "yesteryear?"

R14 Shout out to the Sound Warehouse chain in Dallas (in the 1980's)! They were always the first to get anything, and also had extensive and promptly-stocked import and "alternative" sections. Plus a great selection of dance 12" records. There were several in the area but the one on Beltline and Preston was the most active. Loved that place.

In the 80's Dallas had a surprising number of "punk" and underground record stores and scenes, but Sound Warehouse was great for anything else you wanted.

Also this was still the age of the record store signing. Bands on tour made an appearance in store to sign and sell records. You could get up close and talk to them, often getting them to sign anything and not actually buy the record (which I usually already had). At that Sound Warehouse Beltline location I saw Bow Wow Wow (Annabella in head-to-toe glittering gold, including lipstick), The Clash, Yazoo, Wall of Voodoo, Big Country, The Alarm and I think The Human League. I still have all the autographed records! Bands don't do that anymore because the point of touring is no longer to sell records.

My area had countless record stores, but for my money none of them could touch Korvette’s record department.

Ah, such memories. In London, I would shop for records weekly. Like R38, I was a regular at HMV, Reckless, as well as Cheapo Cheapo, Groove Records, and RecordShack. Good memories at Tower Records and Virgin later on. Black Market Records was nice too. I feel very old now!

[quote]The ultimate for me was Dress Circle in London. Not large, but entirely dedicated to cast albums, soundtracks, and musical theatre vocalists.

They were once so sweet to me. There was a movie soundtrack that was very hard to get hold of so one of the guys recorded it for me and gave me the tape at no cost.

The Record & Tape Exchange in Notting Hill - I went there for years. The nastiest people I've ever come across. A lot of them are gay, unbelievably, considering they look like plumbers and electricians.

In the old days, 80s and before - you couldn't buy older pop music, it was the only place to go and I'm sure they had their fair share of creeps to deal with bringing in their records all day.

Luckily I always hated tapes so continued to buy LPS and 45s when so many of my generation only bought tapes - and records last. I have 45s from my childhood over 50 years ago.

[quote]Luckily I always hated tapes so continued to buy LPS and 45s when so many of my generation only bought tapes - and records last.

I always hated cassette tapes, too. Thought I was the only one. An ex-boyfriend left a cassette deck behind when he moved out, so I used it for making tapes for the car, but otherwise, I never got the craze for tapes.

Found out in the 21st century what I really don't like is listening to music while I'm out and about, other than to drown out noise from other people, and for that, I'd rather listen to music I don't like that much. I don't want to associate music I love with anything annoying or unpleasant.

R76 Spot on about Record & Tape exchange. It seemed you had to be a smug cunt as a prerequisite for working there. I went a couple times with friends, never went back. "Too cool for school" and seriously disinterested about sums it up.

The mall record chains like Camelot or National Record Mart were awful--the biggest hit and most remainders. They were the music counterparts to what Walden and B Dalton were for books---dumbed down crap. I feel sorry for mall nostalgists because they dredge up these crummy places as their memory sources. They were no better than going to Woolworth's or K-Mart for your records. The local chains like Rose in Chicago or Record Rendezvous in Cleveland had much more to offer and were better places to browse--their best stores were in slightly sketchy parts of downtown which meant you could avoid the mall types. Into the 90s, just about any decent sized college town had a decent, fairly comprehensive record/CD store---part of my disappointment with Bloomington, Indiana (much loved here by deranged Hoosiers) was that--despite a very good music school---they didn't have a decent place to buy music.

[quote]The mall record chains like Camelot or National Record Mart were awful

I don't know Camelot, but National Record Mart stores were located in nearly every Pittsburgh neighborhood. They were the main place to buy records in the 1960s (and probably earlier), but in the early 1970s, a bunch of cheap local stores (Flo's, Heads Together, Lou's) started to appear, and suddenly you could buy $3.99 albums at the price of 4 for $10.

Still, I preferred to shop at non-chain store The Listening Post in Shadyside, where you found the most comprehensive selection of old and new records, albums and singles. I think they sold stereo equipment, too, though I already had a stereo, so I wasn't paying that much attention.

You knew those 4 for $10 records had to have fallen off a truck.

Asking the London people, in the early 1990s I feel like one of the reasons I made a pilgrimage to Camden Town was a record store, but I can’t remember it’s name or why it would have been famous beyond something I read in The Face magazine?

R81 So many record stores there... Was it Camden Lock Vinyl?

Maybe Rock On, R81 - famous oldies/collector's shop?

R81 Could it have been Resurrection Records?

There was one whole street of record shops in London - or maybe more of a back alley, behind Oxford Street Virgin Superstore.

Now they've gone, as have so many of the bookstores, I'm at a loss as to what do when I go to the West End, because that's what I used to do.

the alley is called Hanway Place

The downtown NYC independent record stores in Greenwich Village were the best. In the 1980s - 1990s there were a lot of them and most of them pretty good. They had British imports, hard to find vintage releases, independent releases that you may not find in the larger record chain stores. I would spend my entire Saturday afternoons about once or twice a month and spend more money than I should. Rebel Rebel on Bleecker Street was my favorite. They are pretty much all gone now except for House of Oldies (overpriced and poor quality copies) and Record Runner (disappointing selection and a tourist trap). I remember when Tower first opened, it was a convenient location, but it was more a place to look for the more popular items, and was a convenient stop after a evening show at the nearby Bottom Line venue. The hyper-gentrification from about 2000 and on basically annihilated all the remaining small business stores.

R79 You're probably right about the mall stores, but in the 80s I was a fledgling queen with banal tastes that were easily satisfied by a mall store. (Actually, not so so banal - I always liked a lot of UK stuff that wasn't necessarily well known, and some stuff like Romeo Void.)

After I went off to college, I was more about indie places with a wider range of music. In Pittsburgh there was Eide's and Paul's. Cleveland, I remember, had a number of cool places. And Chicago was a mecca back in the day, in the mid 90s - but by then I'd shifted from albums to CDs. Now back at vinyl.

NRM's flagship store was decent, but yes, the Waldens/B Dalton comparison is apt.

This would be a good place to say that Borders, for a large retailer, did have a solid music department for a stretch of time.

[quote] but in the early 1970s, a bunch of cheap local stores (Flo's, Heads Together, Lou's)

Holy fuck, Heads Together. A name I haven't heard in ages.

Hearing commercials for Heads Together and Dream Waterbeds seemed like the height of coolness. (I still remember the Dream Waterbeds jingle.)

[quote]In Pittsburgh there was Eide's and Paul's.

Paul's is now...a vape shop. So sad.

[quote]Holy fuck, Heads Together. A name I haven't heard in ages.

Were you around during the (original owners) King Larry and Queen Charlene era (same side of Murray Avenue as Mineo's)?

[quote] Paul's is now...a vape shop. So sad.

I loved Paul's. Sad that Karl Hendricks died, but the shop after his seemed to be doing well for a while, was surprised to see them closed. Really surprised that Bloomfield or hipster Lawrenceville doesn't have a really kickass record shop.

[quote] Were you around during the (original owners) King Larry and Queen Charlene era (same side of Murray Avenue as Mineo's)?

I didn't live in town until the 90s - so probably not? Used to hear the commercials on YDD and then XX - came in to the city with friends from the suburbs as a teen.

[quote]I didn't live in town until the 90s - so probably not?

Definitely not. I'm talking about the early '70s. I moved away for many years, so I don't know when Larry sold Heads Together, but it had a new owner when I moved back in the '00s.

[quote] (Actually, not so so banal - I always liked a lot of UK stuff that wasn't necessarily well known, and some stuff like Romeo Void.)

Did you used to buy imported magazines like The Face?

I remember The Face, R93, and I bought it a few times. (I also got a few free copies from a record store employee that liked me - cute shy older guy.)

But I was a DEDICATED fan of Star Hits!

r36 r50 In the late 70s, I worked at Woolco. Woolworth company created Woolco, a larger department store, similar to Kmart. Woolco would have 2 albums for $5 record sales of the latest records. I started my collecting of primarily female vocalists. Debby Boone's You Light Up My Life, Streisand's Superman, Melissa Manchester, Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt even the TGIF soundtrack. I was able to amass a fairly large collection, that I still have to this day. We had a Peaches near enough by, but those Woolco Sales could not be beat.

I used to buy The Face regularly and they even carried it in the Waldenbooks in the mall in West Virginia near where I went to high school, of all places. I kept a stack of them in my old room at my parents house until they were moving and I tossed them out around five years ago. I’d buy the NME and Melody Maker from time to time as well. That’s where I learned how wickedly cunty British music writers could be.

Wall to Wall sound and video tryin' to do it right for you!

Fuck you Jerry S

I used to use The Face to hide reading Playgirl in the B Dalton's

In the early 90s, I used to work at a couple of record stores in the Seattle area - Cellophane Square and Easy Street Records. Surprisingly, Easy Street is still going strong.

In California, I remember Music Plus. I also worked at Sam Goody, one holiday season.

I worked at Tower in Chicago for a hot minute. Got to see Art from Everclear (who was VERY friendly) and Morrissey (horrible awful cunt from hell). I had a big crush on a hot beefy dude in a leather jacket and the sexiest voice ever, and after several visits realized it was Pat, the lead singer of the Smithereens (sadly RIP).

An old ex BF worked as for NRM and also had worked as assistant to the concert promoters in Pittsburgh (who were connected to NRM somehow) and told me that when the Go-Go's toured he had to go to four different stores to find some sort of tea and a very specific feminine hygiene product for Jane Wiedlin.

Oh, and Sophie B Hawkins' very hot, bulgy bass player grabbed his crotch and asked a bunch of us who wanted a taste....but then implied that only the person who brought him "magic dust" would get a taste. Yep.

[quote]I had a big crush on a hot beefy dude in a leather jacket and the sexiest voice ever, and after several visits realized it was Pat, the lead singer of the Smithereens (sadly RIP).

Pat Dinizio?

I know this is DL, but even for DL....

R102 In the 90s he looked like this. Quirky look but definitely one of those guys that was just quietly sexy in his own way, very confident.

Lauries Records in Evanston, Il. Later Wax Trax in Chicago.

I also loved Tower records. All the zines and odd books.

Why was Morrisey a cunt, R101?

Details, please.

R101

I wish I still had the long list of instructions, but we were not allowed to breathe, speak, look directly into his eyes or even exist in his presence. Basically a VP from his record company was the only person allowed to look at him or speak to him. I get that some artists don't want to be bothered or need to remain focused. We were all professionals and could respect that. But it was how he did it. He was just extra cunty about it.

He was supposed to play four songs from his new album. He played two, complained loudly that he could smell hamburger from a nearby restaurant, hissed and flounced out.

He was mean to his people, too. Just a negative force of energy. My fandom for the Smiths and for his solo stuff just died that day.

PS and honestly, it wasn't my disappointment at not speaking to or meeting him, I already had an inkling of how he'd be. But they'd also promoted a short meet and greet for winners of a radio contest and his bitchy ass flounced on them, too. One had driven 14 hours to see him. Not a fun scene.

Thanks! I've heard he was a bitch but never heard examples.

Man, I miss Pat Dinizio. And Tower Records.

There was a record store on campus at the University of Kentucky called Cut Corner when I was in high school. It was more notable for me for it's video selection. That's where I first saw Almodovar movies and other cult films like Basket Case and Frankenhooker. When I got to Chicago for college, I wandered into Dr. Wax in Hyde Park and was surprised to find out that they were owned by the same person.

I was born in Philadelphia, family relocated to central Ohio when I was a teenager and moved to New York City after graduating OSU. The major record stores for me were: Korvette's (Philly); Buzzard's Nest, National Record Mart, Peaches, Woolworth's, and Lazarus dept. store (Columbus/Lancaster, OH); School Kids, Used Kids, Johnny Go/Mole's Records, Magnolia Thunderpussy, and Singing Dog (OSU campus); and Tower, HMV, Academy Records, Disc-o-Rama, and J&R Music World (NYC).

R111 I've been to Used Kids recently - I liked it. When I was in Columbus a few years back I did Used Kids, another store on High Street, one downtown in a pretty industrial area, and a store on Elizabeth Street, maybe? Next to a cat cafe.

Have never been to Magnolia Thunderpussy. Not sure why but it never really seemed like my cup o' tea.

In my first job out of college, I worked as a producer at an all-news radio station in Phoenix. Not long after I arrived, I attended a festival of some kind and won a jukebox in a raffle. Needing a lot of 45s, I spent much of my free time at Circles Records on Central Avenue. Sadly, I eventually gave the jukebox to a really good friend and he traded it for a vintage Victrola.

Later, when I lived in Spokane, Washington, I sometimes drove five hours to Seattle on a weekend and spent many happy hours at the Tower Records store near the Space Needle. I also later shopped at the one in Portland, Oregon, and the one on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

Good thread OP.

I'm the bloke in the other thread who grew up two blocks from a Grant's. Right next door to it, on the corner of 3rd ave., was a Woolworth's, which sold singles (and maybe albums? I wasn't at that level yet) in the basement and that's where I started my lifelong vinyl habit. The bad kids would slip a 7" into a comic and buy that, 12 cents instead of 99 cents.

From there to midtown shops on both the east side and west side (think Colony Records). I went away as an undergraduate and there was an excellent store in that post-industrial town called Stan's, I really built my knowledge there. Back to NYC and it was the no-wave era, 110 Records on Chambers street and the Soho Music Gallery, where I got to be on speaking terms with downtown people (John Zorn etc). That store morphed but still exists as the Downtown Music Gallery, which you all should patronize and I'm putting the link below. Gone but not forgotten are 99 Records, Rocks In Your Head, Tower, others.

One that should be forgotten is that cunt Bleeker Bob, who verbally attacked me and drove me out of his store. I discovered afterwards that I wasn't the only one.

The last time I visited Orlando (over 10 years ago), I went to the Tower Records in Downtown Disney and loved it. I thought it was almost as good as the one on 66th and Broadway in NY.

The first Tower Records I ever went to was the one in Hollywood on Sunset in 1980. It was more like a warehouse than a record store. What was great about it was that it had many albums from the 70s for $4.99. There I was able to buy stuff by people like Joe Cocker and Procol Harum, albums that weren't big hits in their day but were cheap enough to take a risk on....and oldies singles were 89¢.

I remember the Virgin Megastore on Michigan avenue in Chicago.

I'll always remember three interesting purchases made there:

"A Classic Cartoon Christmas" and "A Classic Cartoon Christmas, Too". These were audio CDs of the songs from some of the Rankin Bass, and a few other, Christmas specials.

Also, Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl's "Forty Years in the Can", a 4-CD collection of his broadcast history.

High school it was Salzers

College it was Boo Boo Records and Cheap Thrills

They are all still there

Harmony House in the Detroit area. They had practically every genre of music, and often obscure stuff you couldn't find anywhere else. They had some classical music specialty stores, but those closed too.

[quote] I remember the Virgin Megastore on Michigan avenue in Chicago.

I remember it too. It was a cool store. I think a rapid succession of other places have been in that spot since, sadly.

Michigan Ave is now a weird place.

Sorry, I just realized that the store in Downtown Disney was a Virgin Megastore, not a Tower. I loved the Virgin store in Union Square in New York, too.

It's been amusing to see most of the independent record stores open now. They're almost all owned by middle age men and most of them are less "stores" and more "old dude basically has a basement where he's selling stuff."

I used to go to so many independent record stores in New York in the 80s - I liked 60s music, which seemed so long ago. 20 years when you're 22 is LONG ago. A lot of the famous ones were the worst. Run by creeps with attitude and very high prices. The bigger the better.

I also used to buy a lot of records on the street - 6th Ave in the West Village, around St. Mark's Place.