How about fond memories of great record stores

[TommyTunes]

Apparently we all like to reminisce about those great records we bought at one time or another, so how about the stores that we bought them at? When my time machine comes the two stores that I want to go back to are, The Music Stop a small mom and pop store in Brooklyn and E.J. Korvettes. The Music Stop for some reason specialized mostly in cutout MONO lp’s, I remember picking up the Stones Satanic Majesties and Beatle Mono’s for $1.99. They had a great selection of OOP 45’s for 3 for a $1 with picture sleeves the store only existed from 68 till 72 but what finds. E.J. Korvettes was a great NY department store chain that specialized in lower end goods except for two things, they had what is now called , a high-end audio department and the most outstanding Record department, rivaling Sam Goodies in there prime. As early as 70 they had bins of great imports, when quad came along they carried all the titles. Like Goodies, they carried the entire catalog of a label not just the hot 100 and best of all they discounted heavily. Every Sunday they would run special Label sales in the NY Times. One more store that is fondly remembered was called Jamies also in Brooklyn, originally (68/69) you could get any two albums for $4.98

[Andrew]

My first store patronized on a regular basis was the Record Rack in Goleta, California. One-man operation, stuff that had been in the racks for years (i.e. reel to reel tapes, 8-tracks long after their heyday), and lots of nifty old 45s and LPs. Fun to ride my bike over there and buy a whole record with my dollar! Going to BestBuy just ain't the same.

[Lorin]

Pipe Dreams and Beggar's Tune in Appleton, WI. Beggar's was run by a guy who used to do set design for the Dead. Also,
Opus 1 in Oshkosh, WI. Stores that were originally staffed by music lovers who loved to talk about it, had great wood floors and featured some very appealing aromas...but I digress.:cool:

[MikeT]

EJ Korvettes - YES SIR. If it wasn't for them I probably would have saved all my allowance in the 70's. Their prices were great and their selection was fantastic for a store that is akin to what WalMart or KMart is today. They also had fantastic sales every week.

I grew up in West Orange, NJ and there was a Korvettes in town, that a 20 minute bicycle ride could take care of. I remember getting special saddle bags for my bike just so I could hold the LPs I would purchase at Korvettes - since before that I would ride while holding the LPs in one hand and the other hand on the bike handles. Not the best way to ride a bike at 11 years old in traffic.

Also Korvettes was the only game in town when it came to buying tickets for the GREAT Scheafer Music Festival in Central Park. Tickets were announced - and you would go to Korvettes Customer Service Dept. where they sold tickets for this great concert series for, if I remember correctly, $3.00 per ticket. I can't even recount how many Scheafter Music Festival concerts I attended. They later changed it to the Dr. Pepper Music Festival - and then it sort of dissappeared when they wanted to reconstruct the Wolman Skating Rink which served as the venue.

Ah - the good old days.

Later, when import LPs became a priority for me I used to go to a great store called Vintage Vinyl - which opened it's first store in Irvington, NJ (very close to Seton Hall University - where I was then attending college). Vintage Vinyl grew from a small hole in the wall, where the owner used a cigar box to hold the money, to a very respectable store. For obvious reasons he grew too big for the Irvington location (plus the area was not the best for a store of his kind) so he moved his store to Route 1 in the Edison/Menlo Park area - where I think he still is today. I haven't been there in quite some time.

I should probably see what is going on down there.

[JohnnyK]

Well, I have two great memories.

When I was a kid in the early 60’s, there was a great mom and pop record store on Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago. This place had small listening rooms where you could listen to a record before you purchased it. They always had the latest records.

My other memory is of a record store called Rolling Stone Records in Norridge, Illinois. This place was a combination record store and head shop. When you walked into the store, you were almost knocked over by the overpowering smell of incense and the very LOUD music. They had great prices on records. They also had a huge supply of papers, clips, hookahs, bongs, etc., etc., etc. They had a pipe with an electric pump that was hooked up to an old army gas mask. Not that I ever did any of that stuff.
;)

[pigmode]

Records Hawaii at 404 Piikoi. I also used to buy a lot of records at Sears.

[BradOlson]

In my area, I have memories of The Melody Shop which was a combination of a record shop and a music store selling sheet music/song folio books, musical instruments, plus they serviced any electronic or musical instrument and also offered private lessons for learning how to play many musical instruments. The staff were all friends of my family's including myself and they helped me with whatever I wanted. The owners retired and closed down the shop because there was no one else in the owners family interested in keeping the store in business although it had been around for many years. Later on, one of the co-owners died. Now when I buy music, I mainly go to the CD Warehouse a few blocks away from my house in a strip plaza across the street from my local bowling alley, look at the bargain bins in mass merchandisers, Goodwill and the other downtown secondhand shops including an antique shop downtown and most of the pawn shops, especially the Pawn USA which is also located in the downtown area.

[reidc]

In my neck of the woods- we used to have a small chain called Capital Toy. For a kid my age back then- they had all I wanted for records.

In the early '80's, when I started buying Japanese imported vinyl, I would frequent some of the little record shops outside of Harvard Square in Cambridge. I also used to frequent a chain of used shops out of the Worcester area called AL-BUMS. They had a store on Pleasant Street that had many Japanese imports. They also had stores in Amherst(near UMASS), and then opened up one near me in Leominster.

Another little place that had imports was a little place in Westminster called Stop & COP. He ended up moving to Gardner, and then retired, but over the last few years had become more mainstream carrying only current stuff.

A GREAT place I used to go to buy CD's was in Framingham on rt 9 called Rock 'n Mania owned by a guy called Tom Salem. He had all kinds of imported vinyl and CD's. He ended up closing in the late '80's sometime.

I used to buy all my MFSL vinyl from a place called Natural Sound, also on rt 9 in Framingham. I haven't been there in 10 years, so I do not know if they even carry any media at this point.
Chris

[lennonfan]

My fave store was a small mom and pop located 4 blocks from my home called Mayfield Music. They sold great records and were run by a jazz musician who stocked only the coolest stuff. In 1964, they had Beatle bobbing heads just behind the cash register and when it became known I was a Beatles nut, they would actually call me at home when the latest release came in! If certain 45's didn't sell, they tossed 'em in a box and would haul 'em out for me at the backbreaking price of 5 cents each! Man, I loved that store. I remember they wouldn't sell me 2 Virgins because of the cover:) They would also turn me on to the coolest new stuff too, I remember very vividly when they handed me Honky Tonk Women by The Stones and said 'you better get this...it's a really good one!' Another great store was the GEM department store which had reasonable prices and quite a large stock. I remember getting Satanic Majesties at Christmas of '67 in that store...I must have spent hours staring at that cover, and today, She's A Rainbow remains my fave Stones track of all time. Korvettes was really great during the 70's and had tons of imports to choose from. I find that today's music stores have zero personality and if they do have any, it's aimed at today's teens with a heavy tattoo and pierced bent. yuck. It seems to have gone from a business that was done for both love and money to a business with only $ in mind.
What a shame.

[Kayaker]

E.J. Korvettes (Eight Jewish Korean Veterans). Great record store. They had new albums for $2.99!! Alexander's Department Store in the Bronx had some good album sales too. Remember Jimmy's Music World? Also a good source of $2.99 albums and $.99 cent cut-outs.

[Gary]

Vortex was a place that sold or traded used records. Bert was actually in the St Lawrence Market area (real close to Chinatown). I learned later that he used to sleep on the floor, not being able to afford both an apartment and a store!

He moved to Dundas St, near Yonge St (which is the main drag around here) and made a fortune! The place was so old, the wooden steps leading downstairs were warped from long years of use. Don't know how those floors took the weight of all that vinyl. I even found four (4) copies of Zagar and Evans / 2525 - all sealed at his place once!

The place was torn down ( for a roller skating rink :rolleyes: ) which, in turn, was torn down for apartments.

Vortex is alive and well, on Yonge St. So is good 'ol Bert. He deals with CDs, LP's, VHS tapes, DVD's etc. All used and in great shape.

I've found MFSL UD1's & UD2's, DCC gold discs, Mastersound gold discs and all sorts of treasures. I'm not sure why, but luckily he does not do any eBay transactions. I've never asked him - why dry up a source?

:D

[Andrew]

My greatest regret was Wallich's(sp?) Music City closing before I ever got the chance to shop there. A legendary Hollywood record store still mentioned in books about the "good old days." But by the time I was old enough to drive myself to SoCal, it was gone.

:(

[Ronflugelguy]

Yeah I remember that one , only from the radio ads I would hear on the LA station I could get at night in No cal.

[feinstein]

How about Laurie's Records in Evanston, Illinois? I remember buying my first bootleg LP there (Kum Back by the Beatles) in 1969. I also remember being amazed to see that they had a British import of the "Let It Be" album in a box with a color (colour?) picture book. I saved up my lawn mowing money until I had the $7.00 necessary to buy this expensive U.K. import. Still have it today!

During the '70's they used to directly import Decca classical LP's from the U.K. since they believed that they were superior to the London classical LP's (which were also pressed in the U.K.). They were the first "audiophile" record store!!!

Later on, Laurie's sold out and became a branch of Rose Records.

[ED in NY]

The 2 Greatest Music stores in Seattle:

Soundwaves-Burien, WA. Even though no longer in business this was the greatest store in Seattle for those hard to find imports. They had great service and great prices. Half of my collection came from these guys. Scott, Eric & Jim were the best. A music store ran by guys who knew music.

Silver Platters-Tukwila,WA Currently the best place to buy CD's in Seattle. Great prices, great selection and a very friendly crew. You can ask their sales associates a question and get an intelligent answer. Light years better than the Tower Records in Seattle which is & always will be the hub of complete retardom & price gouging for the northwest. Only an interesting place to go to watch their associates beat up defenseless homeless people in their parking lot, if your a sick enough person to be entertained by that.

As far as great music stores in upstate NY goes...the internet.

Best - ED

[Dave B]

I grew up in Maryland just north or D.C. at that time there were two local chains Waxie Maxies and Variety Records. Variety was cool because at most of thier stores they had a listening bar. A line of built in 45 turntables with a small, fixed volume, pillow type speaker attached. Behind this were the 45's. You could select a 45, place it on the 'table hold the speaker to your ear and check it out. I spent a lot of time in there but since I was a kid with little actual buying potential the staff would sometimes suggest that I move a long.
The problem with the smaller stores was the same as today, they just couldn't do the volume to compete with bigger retailers so even though I'd listen at Variety or puruse the LP's at Waxie Maxies when I finally scrapped enough together to buy something I usually went to Korvettes or even Murphy's. Some times the staff in the 5 and 10 type stores were pretty clueless and would misprice stuff - double LPs at single prices etc. Those were my bonus days! I also used to find alot of cool stuff in cutout bins. I bought alot of things for .79 or $1.00 that I would never have bothered with at full price. Oh, if I only had one day in the past with my present paycheck!

[AudioGirl]

When I was a kid, we mainly went to the mall... Somethings never change. :rolleyes:

But later, when I really got into buying lots of stuff...

Somone's got to say it....

Tower on Sunset in Hollywood.

Remember when they still had vinyl.... *SIGH* :(

[Uncle Al]

Jamaica, Queens, NY. Late 60's. A combination record store/head shop under the 'el on Jamaica Ave. Place was run by hippies. They had an awesome sound system always pumping. The back room was "black light heaven" with Jimi and Janis beaming at ya in day glo against the black velvet background. Phi Zappa Krappa had a prominent place on the wall. Lotsa imports (they cost a buck more). They must have burned a pound of insense a day in that place, you could smell it on the lp covers months after you brought it home. Like Winston O' Boogie said - "you shoulda been there".

[Andrew]

Originally posted by AudioGirl
When I was a kid, we mainly went to the mall... Somethings never change. :rolleyes:

But later, when I really got into buying lots of stuff...

Somone's got to say it....

Tower on Sunset in Hollywood.

Remember when they still had vinyl.... *SIGH* :(

First ever visit there (c. 1975) thought I'd died and gone to heaven!:cool:

[Jeff H.]

My favorite record store was Leopold's Records in Berkeley, CA. This store was located about a block away from the Cal Berkeley campus. I'll never forget the first time I visited this store. It was a small store front with an upstairs and downstairs, records absolutely everywhere!!! I used pester the hell out of my father to go all the time which wasn't that often since we lived 30 miles away. Leopold's was "THE INDIE" store in the Bay Area for many years. Run by people extremely knowledgeable and passionate about all kinds of music. Then in the late 80's they were bought out by The Wherehouse chain who for a while took a hands off approach and let them do their thing. Then came the sales crash of the mid '90's when CD sales flattened out and lots of chains went bankrupt including The Wherehouse. They were forced to re-organize and that meant closing lots of stores, including Leopold's in 1996. It felt like the end of an era for me and a lot of other people that frequented that store. Fortunately the soul of Leopold's Record's lives on in the spirit of stores here like Amoeba Music in SF and the new one in L.A.!!!!

[Sckott]

Originally posted by Jeff H.
My favorite record store was Leopold's Records in Berkeley, CA. This store was located about a block away from the Cal Berkeley campus. I'll never forget the first time I visited this store.

Yep yep, Jeff. I wish I was a Californian during its heyday. In one of DCC's most popular rock complilations, "Golden Age Of Underground Radio" the ads for Leopolds Steve and DCC left intact. Course, this was the late 60's, and these commercials sounded beyond primitive! The DJ the compilation was based on was Tom Donahue for KSAN, when the station was "underground", indipendent and possibly their best days ever. Thank you Ronnie Raygun. He had sealed the deal against anything surviving like that ever again....

The ads seem to mark a calling to people who wanted to spend money on a record store that brought the money BACK into the community, instead of a Hype-wridden corporate entitiy that "pocketed" the profits into outside corporate backing. Leopold's had their hype by calling it "X-69", almost like selling a product themselves. Those days are pretty much gone.

What was ironic, Leopold's brought attention to their local responsiveness by calling it a "product" just like "new and improved". I thought that was interesting... A semi-corporate mentality to a non-corporate shop. Hey, and albums were $3.98 and $4.98!

[remaster]

One I remember is House of Guitars in Rochester, New York. That place had albums and cds in huge piles, all over the place and you had to sift through them. Sometimes a rare out of print title would pop up. But the fun of it was going through piles and piles of stock, never knowing what you would find.

[Mitch Kaufman]

Originally posted by Kayaker
E.J. Korvettes (Eight Jewish Korean Veterans)
It's an urban legend.

http://makeashorterlink.com/?G6DA62A5

BTW, I loved Korvettes too. Not only was there the huge Scarsdale store, but they were scattered around Midtown as well, including one on East 45th between Lex and Third (IIRC) and one on the corner of 47th and Fifth.

My favorite, though, was Sam Goody and the Sunday Times "with this ad" ad.

Ah, sweet memories...:)

MK

[Jeff H.]

Originally posted by Sckott
=A semi-corporate mentality to a non-corporate shop. Hey, and albums were $3.98 and $4.98! [/B]


Sometimes the albums were on sale for even cheaper! I remember on my first visit to Leopold's I bought The Commodores self titled album and The Brothers Johnson's "Right On Time" albums new for $2.99!!!! Oh man, to be nine years old again....

[AudioGirl]

Originally posted by Jeff H.



Sometimes the albums were on sale for even cheaper! I remember on my first visit to Leopold's I bought The Commodores self titled album and The Brothers Johnson's "Right On Time" albums new for $2.99!!!! Oh man, to be nine years old again....

Oh, to be nine years old again with $6 bucks and change!! :p