I am very proud to say that was my uncle Paul that started Stark Record and Tape/Camelot Records out of the back of his 57 Chevy. It sounds cliche but it's real. He started by peddling 45's to small drugstores. Thank you for this video, it really made me smile and I've sent it to all my relatives. Great channel, keep up the stellar content.
I worked at Camelot Music for 4 years in the late 90’s early 00’s and it was the best experience of my life. Learned a ton about A&R and I miss the way the music industry used to be so terribly 💯
I grew up in South Florida and practically lived at Peaches. Whoever was the buyer of imports for the branches at the Broward Mall, 163rd St Mall, and the Galleria mall did a phenomenal job. 7” and 12” singles and LPs from UK and Europe as well as music magazines and occasionally even T-shirts and posters. I used to spend my hard earned money buying the latest singles, all of which I still own! So thank you, Peaches buyers, whoever you are. You helped to make me the person I am today. ❤
wow, I remember the Peaches on 167th. Always smelled amazing. Still remember picking up Cheap Trick next position please on cassette, I think back in 1983. NMB class of '84 here.
@@fleamarketfunkyjunky hey, you’re right. It was a few blocks away on 167th. Good memory! Nova High class of ‘85. Do you remember Deco Dermot, a cool vintage clothing store right on 163rd?
@@davidserlin8097 Deco Dermot had cool vintage gear and it had a vibe that I imagined at the time to be similar to McClaren's & Westwood's London shops. Got a few cool shirts there even though I was dead broke most of the time.
Tower Records had an immense selection. They even had a separate room devoted exclusively to opera! I told my aunt, who was a huge opera buff, about that.
We had Tower in Fresno CA then they closed up and was replaced by Rasputin Music from the bay area. There was also a Record Factory if I remember correctly.
Record world was the only chain that carried an amazing selection of imports in the 80s. They literally had a separate divider that would say " Depeche Mode IMPORTS", In addition to the reg divider for many bands. Their Duran Duran and Iron Maiden sections were massive
Sam Goody’s flagship store was initially in Manhattan near Grand Central Station, followed with an equally popular one on 52nd Street near 6th Avenue. (After a few decades, it became an FYE store.). The one on 49th Street, mentioned in the video, was actually one of Sam Goody’s last stores and didn’t last as long as earlier ones.
I'm surprised The Warehouse only got a small mention - they were everywhere in the 90's. I used to live near San Diego State and we had a Music Trader, Tower, Record Heaven, Record City, Off The Record and a Warehouse all within about 6 blocks! Spent the summers on that circuit when I was in high school, but they're all gone now. Tower and Warehouse also had short-lived outlet stores and I remember some of the stuff that I could have got for cheap back then that sells for big bucks now!
Yeah, I'm surprised Wherehouse didn't get more mention either. That was as big as Sam Goody in the mall near us. Licorice Pizza was in our area but it wasn't as big.
Yeah I remember them they were all over our city here in Fresno California too there is one across from Fresno city college and they used to be one in Manchester mall too I remember one time me and my cousin went in the early 90s to Manchester mall warehouse you looked across the food court which they shut down very recently and we noticed that the lights appeared have been off for the warehouse so that's so we went and walked across and looked and sad it was closed down. All there was the few neon lights on in the building
I spent the late 80', all of the 90's, and the 1st half of the 2000's rummaging through a lot of these stores. Sam Goody's, The Wall, Tower, Strawberries, Coconuts, were all so much fun. The same goes for Suncoast, one of my absolute favorite video stores. It remains the only store where I managed to purchase videos, a book on Humphrey Bogart's films, and a Rocky and Bullwinkle t-shirt in the same trip.
For all the positive experiences I had at Tower and Licorice Pizza, local stores like Big Ben's (Lakewood, CA) and Wenzel's Music Town (Downey, CA) had a Better selection of new and used/oldies respectively. Tom and Maxine Wenzel were awesome people, who I miss to this day.
I worked for Sam Goody for 13 years and best job I ever had. I paid half of my house off with Sam Goody funds, so I have fond memories. Ah, the days of doing "pulldowns"
@AngelHoll-pr8fz 1993-2006. I would have stayed, but 2006 was pretty much the end in my area, we were the only store that lasted till 2006. Most remaining Sam Goodys were eventually turned into FYE
I would spend hours in record stores and not even buy anything. Just to get the experience. One of my favorites was a place called Record Theater on Liberty Rd in Randallstown, MD. Biggest record store I’ve ever been in
I used to go to FYE and before that Sam Goody. Those were great record stores where I used to buy blank VHS tapes and Disney VHS tapes as well. These bring back memories. There are two defunct record stores that I give it as a honorable mention, Crazy Eddie, a local record store based in New York City, and they were best known for the TV commercials with its famous line “His prices are INSANE!!!” I remember the Crazy Eddie commercials where they shown on TV for years. And then, there was The Wiz, another defunct record stores in the NYC area back in the 1980’s and 1990’s and it was a great record store that I used to go to all the time.
I used to work at a Camelot Music. 1985-87...great memories! Was there when cd's were coming into the scene. I used to shop at that Spec's music that Camelot bought out. Living in Miami in those days, it was all about Spec's, Peaches, Q Records & Tapes, Camelot, and Musicland. Cool video!!! Thanx for the memories!
Our mall had Record Bar. It was kind of small, but I could browse the albums from A-Z in about an hour and a half. The cool manager was this foxy girl who always seemed to wear high fashion 70's outfits. All the guys use to come in just to check out what she was wearing. One of her outfits was this gold shiny backless mini dress that made her look like a Bond babe. But less I digress the store also had a punch card so when you bought a record, they would punch the card with a diamond shaped hole puncher. After about 10 punches or so you could get a free 45.
I'm 68 and didn't know there were record stores anywhere else except NYC. This is shocking to me😮. Tower at Broadway and 4th was the center of the world... right down the block from The Bottom Line... near enough to CBGB... hanging and shopping with Patti Smith, Joey Ramone... And I won't tell you... You won't believe me anyway… I would've worked there for free. going to NYU and working at Tower and seeing my heroes one night though Dylan walked in with 10 people maybe more and he bought records for everyone in the place it was incredible I don't know how he got in and In a couple of minutes he was gone like vanished… It was magical. That was like in 1982. Only in the city.❤
I’m 54 and I loved Tower Records on 4th Street and the one uptown. I would spend hours there. I also loved The Wiz, Sam Goody, Crazy Eddie, Virgin, Circuit City and the many small mom and pop record stores in the West Village! Those were awesome and fun times! Most of the smaller stores starting closing, once the influx of young professionals from the Midwest, starting to move in. The landlords started increasing rents, to drive them out. Some landlords sold the properties that were then demolished, in order to build huge expensive apartment buildings. NYC is not as cool anymore.
I was talking to a guy yesterday in Clearwater, FL who works at Kingfish Record store. He said he used to work at Tower Records in either New York or New Jersey. He had a photo of him with the band The Alarm. One of my all time favorite bands. His name was Rick, I believe.
I fondly remember record stores like Sam Goody, FYE and The Wall (which morphed into FYE). I loved shopping at The Wall in the 90's during my college years. At The Wall, they'd give you this sticker with their logo on it to put on your CD or tape case, and if your CD or tape ever became faulty or broken, they would replace it free of charge. They also had a deal where you'd get 1 free CD for every 10 you'd purchase. However, my fondest memory of The Wall was rummaging through the cut-out bin to find great deals on VHS home videos from my favorite 80's metal bands. Nowadays, there's only 1 mom-and-pop music store that I go to, because all the big chains are gone. Even the local Best Buy reduced their CD inventory from 3 aisles to 1 before eventually getting rid of CD's altogether. Streaming services are ruining the physical format experience. What kids today are giving up for the sake of convenience is distressing.
Growing up in the 80’s in the DC area I was so lucky because there were so many record stores to go to. Tower Records had a bunch of locations in Maryland, Virginia and DC. Tons of imports and huge selection. And also great independent stores like Vinyl Ink, Phantasmagoria, Olssons, Second Story Books, Y&T, Smash!, Record & Tape Exchange, Penguin Feather, and probably more I’ve forgotten. Great video here!
I shopped Licorice Pizza and worked at Tower Records in CA. Good times! People would just hang out and talk about music. It was great. Thank you Napster for messing it up.
Growing up in the Maryland suburbs of D.C. my favorite record stores were Waxie Maxies, Kemp Mill Records and Peaches Records & Tapes. A couple of legendary independent stores were Yesterday and Today in Rockville and the still in business today Joe's Record Paradise in Silver Spring.
Hey there, I used to visit my brother in Silver Spring, Maryland all the time. There was an independent record store not far from the Silver Spring metro stop. It had ton of rare punk and new wave records along with a good general assortment of stuff. Do you happen to remember what it was? I think I went there around 1988.
@@davidserlin8097 That almost had to be Joe's Record Paradise. But I don't know where they were located at that time. The store bounced around all over Montgomery County over the years. Were the walls painted pink? Joe's has had several locations over the decades, but I'm pretty sure every location has the walls painted pink.
@@Frank_nwobhm I can’t remember the name, and I don’t remember the walls painted pink. I just remember it was stuffed to the gills. When you walked in, the 7 inch singles were on your right, and the rest of the store was jampacked.
Totally forgot about Waxie Maxies! Definitely bought plenty of records and tapes at Kemp Mill's original location - "Nobody breaks their own record!!". Joe's - man I dropped a lot of cash at that place. The last place I remember them being was in Aspen Hill. Good old Y&T. Is it possible that Dischord would even exist if it weren't for Skip?
@@davidserlin8097 Was it slightly below ground level? Phantasmagoria was in Wheaton, just a couple miles from Silver Spring. It was one of the larger and better places for what you mention. Anybody else remember that space before it was Phantas.? It was an arcade. I'd blow thru my $5 dollar allowance in 2 hrs playing Pac Man.
Here in Canada we had Sam The Record Man. Its iconic flagship store was located at 259 Yonge Street (Toronto) in 1959 and moved to 347 Yonge Street two years later, remaining there from 1961 until it closed in 2007. At one point there were over 140 Sam The Record Man stores across Canada.
Sam the Record Man ruled creation! I'm from Buffalo and we had a few good stores, but none that size with that kind of selection. I remember once in the summer of 1989 I had a list of seven hard to find albums that I simply had to own. I got up early one Saturday morning and drove solo to Toronto to visit STRM on Yonge. The staff there helped me find 6 of the seven! I drove back to Buffalo with an ear to ear smile!
My only recollection of STRM on Younge was seeing The Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers when I was a kid and thinking, "Hey, that's pretty cool a zipper on an album cover" with no idea of the real intention behind it. Personally, when I was a little older I spend more time at Vortex.
An obscure music store in Baltimore was "Harmony Hut" with its only location I know of & frequented being in Security Square Mall. The biggest, most famous & best record store in Baltimore was "Record & Tape Collectors" in Rotunda Mall. If you couldn't find a rare record, tape or video from Rotunda Mall, Record & Tape Collectors it likely never existed. Another Baltimore music store was Reisterstown Road Plaza's "Sound Waves" where I brought Joselyn Brown's Somebody Else's Guy 12" Disco version. Harmony Hut \ Security Square became a Sam Goody which had many Metro Baltimore stores. Best ghetto record store was in Northwood Shopping Center.
My go to record stores were HMV, Music World, CD Plus (all which have closed down). We also had a store called Future Shop (it was the Canadian equivalent to Best Buy). They had a huge music section with listening stations where you could listen to all the new releases.
Same here along with CD Warehouse and Sam the Record Man and briefly Tower when I visited Toronto. I did go to a Sam Goody once on a school trip to Boston.
Opus69 in Winnipeg back in 69. They were upstairs in a 2 storey old building I think on Kennedy St. Bought Hendrix Electric Lady Land and Rolling Stone papers back then it was a fold out 4 page paper. Wow things have sure changed.
Grew up in Omaha, NE in the 70's and 80's. Peaches and Homers Records in the Old Market were the places to go. Peaches is gone but Homers is still rocking! I don't know if Homers is just a local thing or national? Love walking in there because it always smells like incense. I still have my Peaches records crate full of albums. There was a Camelot Music and Music Land at the two large malls, Westroads and Crossroads. I could walk into anyone of these stores and spend hours flipping through vinyl and not wanting to leave until I had found at least one new album. Washed a lot of cars and mowed yard to feed my music addiction! Back it the day, you could get a brand new album for under $7.00! In the 70's, I also went to JC Penney's often to buy all my 45's. I remember them being .45 cents/each. Once I started listening to the two local rock stations, Z92 and KQKQ 98.5, album rock took over my passions instead of just top 40 songs on 45's.
In western PA in the 90's we had Record Den and in the late 90's and early 2000's there was Waves. Also at the local outlet mall we had Music For A Song which eventually become Music For Less. The 90's was an era when an a bands' back catalog was readily available. And imports were expensive but worth it.
Back in the 70's me and a friend use to take a monthly mini road trip from Glendale to Tower Records on Sunset and then hang out on Hollyweird Blvd. It was always packed. Good times.
I grew up in Phoenix. I remember hearing about Zia Records from my friend Robb and his older brothers. Well, in 1988 at 14, I finally got to go to one with my friend James. We took the bus LOL! I bought some Iron Maiden vinyl ep's and man, just had a great time there. I went to most locations in and around Phoenix in the years after when I started driving. They were the best place (back then) to get new and used music, games, and movies. I live in Southern Nevada now and there are two Zia locations in Vegas. Great stores, they have a lot more than just music now but you get that music/record store vibe. Like stepping into a time capsule.
I love these audio history lessons! I remember most of these stores. I remember buying my first albums at the local downtown JC Penny store. I would ride my bike, (a sting ray with high rise handle bars and banana seat) three miles to get there. When my ship was in Long Beach for a year in 1977, I used to go to Tower Records. When I came home on leave, my future wife and I used to go to Music Land constantly. They put stickers on their vinyl at Christmas in the 80s that said "This Christmas give the gift of music'". Some metal records would say "This Christmas give the gift of metal". In the 70s and 80s I spent a lot of money at Music Land for sure. Our local FYE store was great later on too.
I rode my bike in the late 70s to buy 45 rpms of my favorite songs. It was a small record store about a mile or so from my house. I wish I still had those 45s!
Best record store I've EVER been to - Capitol Record Shop -Hartford Connecticut. Weren't around very long, closed in 85, but lived there in the early 80s. Connecticut was awesome - we had Rhymes and Cutlers, IntegrityNMusic, RecordBreaker, Belmont, Uncle Jim's ( the cleanest ever indie record store)
Great video! In Pittsburgh we had NRM - National Record Mart. They were stand-alone shops that didn’t quite work as mall stores, although they did have a few. It’s where you’d go and camp out for concert tickets back in the day.
My all time favorite job was Harmony House. I was at the one in Berkley on Woodward for years. Amongst the employees, it was a very family vibe. To this day, I’m still in contact with most of my coworkers throughout the company. Not just my store.
Incredible amount of research you’ve done here Lenny, great video. I fondly remembered Musicland growing up in the Midwest, when I moved to Oregon it remained Musicland a few years, then turned into a Sam Goody. Incredible Universe later turned into Fry’s Electronics. FYE is still in existence, but I try to support what local record stores are available to me.
I was surprised to hear you mention two record stores that I worked at. From 1982 to 1986 I worked at RecordLand. Then in 1986 RecordTown bought RecordLand! I had a great time working in both locations, so much fun! I still talk to my past co-workers almost 40 years later!!!
Did you by chance work at RecordLand in the Hollywood Fashion Center in Hollywood, Florida? That was a massive store. It’s where I bought the first two singles that I ever paid for with my own money: Fox on the Run by The Sweet and You Sexy Thing by Hot Chocolate.
@@davidserlin8097 no, I didn’t. I worked at the store in Akron, Ohio. Before I worked there I bought my first ever 45rpm, the Ballad of the Green Bret’s.
Growing up in Houston, TX during the '60's we had H & H music store in Gulfgate Mall & Downtown Houston. One could go in and play 45's in their booths, I often purchased sheet music. Later on during my college years, I worked for Soundwarehouse while attending U of H during my College days as a part time Christmas temp.
I worked at Sound Warehouse on Berry St in Ft Worth in 77 and 78 and Sound Town in Ridgmar Mall 78-79. Always hated the "newcomer" Peaches on Camp Bowie.
I would've liked to have heard more of a backstory on Trans World Entertainment, but overall, great video. Trans World Entertainment (now known as Kaspien) was founded by Robert J. Higgins in 1972. Record Town was the first retail music chain opened by Trans World Entertainment before they started acquiring other retail music chains. Trans World Entertainment would go on to open its first FYE store in 1993. In 2001, Trans World Entertainment rebranded the majority of its other retail music stores to FYE. Higgins stepped down as CEO of Trans World Entertainment in 2014, but remained on board as chairman until his death in 2017. Sunrise Records acquired the FYE chain from Trans World Entertainment in 2020. I spent most of my childhood in Bay Shore, New York (Long Island) and my remember my local shopping mall having a Record Town store before it was rebranded to FYE.
Sound warehouse in denver. Spent alot of money there in the late 80s early 90s. The best memories are from standing in line to get concert tickets, back when that was a thing. Good times.
I was telling the guys yesterday about how I used to go to Record and Tape Traders in Towson, MD to get all my wrestling event tickets back when you couldn't get tickets online.
I was born & raised in Saginaw, Michigan. Our local mall had Camelot Music, which is where I bought my records and tapes (it is now FYE). Our mall also had Tape World AND Suncoast at one time. Media Play was located in a plaza across the street. I had no idea that these stores were owned by the same company. This was an awesome trip down memory lane.
Love The Empire Records reference 👌 - April 8th is Rex Manning day. Torrance , CA based The Wherehouse ( Where ? .. At The Wherehouse ! ) had the best 📺 adds. FYE absorbed the remnants. I worked at Tower .. lousy pay but you got promos of any record you wanted & free concert tickets & got to go label listening parties with open bars & free food. No dress code either. Good Times !
Great video. I worked at no.2 Musicland in Indiana for several months in '84-'85. We had to take a music knowledge test to get the job. We had to name a few artists from each genre the interviewer would mention. we would have to wear a tie to work, that sucked but overall not a problem. Back then CDs came in long boxes wrapped in shrink and we only had one bin of them. It was dream job for me back then being musically obsessed. Despite working there I'd buy my music from Camelot Music in the next town over (because a girl I liked worked there). Thanks for posting!
The two best record stores for me growing up were: Sounds on St.Marks Place (home of the just released promotional pressings - still mad at myself for selling 3 Feet High and Rising by De La Soul) and Our Music in the Hylan Blvd shopping plaza where K-Mart used to be in Staten Island. really were top notch, and at Our Music, they sold freshly pressed 45's as well.
Back in the late 70s, you were the coolest kid if you worked at Camelot Music in the mall. Thank god there are the mom & pop record stores of today. I live in Memphis, and you hit one or two of them on your traveling series.
I worked for several record store chains from 1980-1998. I started out at Camelot Music in Kansas and then Warehouse Records and Licorice Pizza in California. I later worked at Music Plus in retail and then for their parent company, Show Industries, doing remodels and setting up new stores. Finally I worked for Sam Goody in Tennessee. I loved the old age of record stores and miss the great customers and co-workers. It was a great era!!
I remember going to Goodys on the gulf coast, at night. It was out in the middle of an empty space, a glowing eerie storefront full of amazing music. Surrounded by darkness and mystery, it seemed. Roulette records was mob? They had some huge famous jazz type acts on their label. I just bought a double record set by Roulette from 1966 and the sound is fantastic(on vinyl).
A hug record store in my area was National Record Mart later shortened to NRM. They were in my town from the 1970’s to early/mid 90’s. We also had a Tape World for a decade or less, and the last National store in our mall was FYE which closed probably 10 years ago. We still have a local store that buys and sell used music as well as new. My favorite place to get albums, tapes and CDs when growing up in the 70s and 80s and continued using as an adult until they went out of business was the Columbia House Record club and RCA/BMG club. I would get my free ones, then buy the number I needed to fulfill in a few months cancel then continue the cycle over and over. I miss those two clubs more than anything.
@@DrScaryTNC I enjoyed the video but most of those stores I had never heard of till this video. I think there was a Camelot in Charleston WV. I heard of Tower Records but the majority I hadn’t.
This was super fun. 👍. If you ever do a Part 2, please include Crazy Eddie. His television advertising was absurdist theater. The C.E. store in CT to which I went had inexpensive vinyl. Our local Gramophone Shoppe was tailored to the well-heeled music fan. My older brother went on a college visit with my parents and, when he returned, he turned green with envy to see my massive collection of Kinks albums. I think that I spent around $50.00 and got 10 records. These were obviously new catalog reissues back in the day. I was so happy with my purchase and my brother's response. 😄. - Heather
Thanks for the video. I worked at Record World '89-90. Low pay but fun job as a high school senior. Still have my nametag/badge and a Record World duffle bag.
Last I checked there's still an FYE in Gurnee Mills mall in Illinois - I used to go there to grab boxset DVD's and the occasional shirt or trinket. They had everything, honestly. Been a while since I've been in there though since streaming and my Apple Music subscription which made collecting physical media more of a novelty than a necessity to me. This is such a nostlagia trip, I can remember as a kid of the late 90s/2000s kinda witnessing these big changes in how we get our media... I remember DVD's coming into popularity, swapping out all our VHS's with DVD's and then getting my mind blown once Netflix became a thing. There's a definite charm to collecting physical media, though. If I had the money to do so, I still find record-collecting a fun hobby. I've been on such a nostalgia trip lately! Wish I could've been around to see these stores at their peaks!
The Wiz was a small record store in downtown Washington DC on F Street NW where I used to buy cassette tapes and vinyl before CDs. It was most popular in the late eighties and ninenties. The guys that worked there were like big brothers to me and the store was always jumping with the latest music, they also had celebs show up from time to time for autographs. Butch and his partner always made everyone feel welcome and at home, like a real place especially for music lovers. If I remember correctly the Wiz moved from downtow to a suburb like location in Maryland- Iverson Mall in Temple Hills Maryland. I actually met JaRule there in the nineties when he was promoting his music. Record stores definetly had a huge impact in our daily lives and was a great pillar in the community. I also remember something about Kemp Mill Record store in the DMV area.
Every vintage audio you show, RecordThestre sold new along with vinyl,cassettes and all other medium. It was in Buffalo across from Canisus College. It was enormous. The audio room was a dream. Thanks great memories.
Growing up Metro Detroit, I was fortunate enough to visit several of the stores mentioned in malls or freestanding locations like Tower in Ann Arbor. We also had local retailers like Harmony House, Desirable Discs, Sam’s Jams and Dearborn Music. Even though most of the above are no longer (exception being Dearborn Music), the area is thankfully, still rich with a number of incredible Independent Record Stores (Street Corner/Peoples/Hello Records/Solo Records). Love seeing videos like this. Well done.
Very cool ! Nice seeing The Record Factory mentioned here. I went to the Colma store alot. The Tower in SF was great, too. I remember going there in '69 when i was 12 with family. I said "You should buy Santana". They'd never heard of it,,,"This had better be good !" It was :) One store i was looking for here was The Music Box. I saw one at Serramonte when it opened in '68 or so. I heard Black Sabbath ST there for the first time. I was 13. I'd never seen or heard of it. Bought it quick as i could. Good selection and prices, $2.99 for new releases on sale (White Front $2.66 but it was further away). Once the gas crisis hit prices went up. I think it became The Record Bar which was mentioned here. Cool memories, though. Thanx for the 'trip' :)
Great video!!! Some I had never heard of. Some I knew of, but there weren't any in my area. The record stores that were in my area on your list when I was a kid in the 80's were Musicland and Record Town. Both were in the Fox Valley Mall in Aurora IL. Hell, there were two Musiclands in that mall, one upstairs and one downstairs! I bought a lot of records at those stores. As I got older and could either drive or had friends who could drive, I got to try other locations, like Tower Records, Crow's Nest, Rose Records, Rolling Stone Records and many more. Crow's Nest in Crest Hill, IL was my all time favorite. They had everything you could possibly think of, and lots of imports. They were the last store I knew of that sold vinyl records, and I bought them there until they went out of business sometime in the 90's. This video brought back a lot of memories!
There is a Record Bar in Wilmington, NC, which I buy from. I have brought from most of these stores and some of the others mentioned. I worked at Wall to Wall one Christmas season. ❤️
We had a small store here in Rhode Island called Soundarama. It sold nothing but middle to high end stereo equipment. It was a great place to find and listen to the newest equipment on the market. It did sell some reel to reel tapes, good quality blank cassette tapes and some vinyl. It had a repair area, and would also ell used equipment it would take in trade when someone wanted to upgrade their system. They sold Nakamichi, McIntosh, Bozak, JBL, Jensen, Sony, Nikko, Tandberg, AR speakers, Akai, and much more in a small store.
I remember a record store called PLAYING BY EAR located on Belair Rd in Baltimore City. Owned by David Hodgson, it specialized in prog rock and electronica.
In the Baltimore area, I frequented Record and Tape Traders because they would “rent” a record to you for a couple days so you could record it onto cassette. They were told to cease and desist that practice, but modified it to a “liberal return” policy with a restocking fee of sorts. With the resurgence of LPs a bunch of record shops have popped up around Maryland and Delaware as of late in Waverly, Bel Air, Havre de Grace, and Ellicott City. Every thrift/consignment shop have some as well, with used CDs being snatched up for next to nothing.
In the 80's, Camelot was my store of last-resort. I remember them having a huge selection and being punishingly expensive. Streetside was a great local St. Louis chain. Great selection, knowledgable employees, in-store concerts and the best place to pickup concert tix.
Streetside Records in The Loop had a perfect location. That was my go to store whose employees turned me on to a lot of new music. On Saturdays I would 1-2 hours just browsing the bins and talking to people about music. Good times, good memories. Since they closed, now Vintage Vinyl has nicely filled that void. Same general location, much larger volume.
I used to shop at Camelot here in NE Florida in the 90s because they stocked LaserDiscs. We had an f.y.e and Camelot in the same mall. The f.y.e also carried LaserDiscs but not as many. Our local Camelot Super Store had a HUGE selection of LDs. They kept an order book near the main LD section so that you could look up current and future releases. They would special order any LD title without obligation to purchase it. Their LD discount bin was huge as well. I remember when Camelot started greatly discounting LDs around 1999 or so, because they were not going to be carrying the format anymore. A sad day. The last U.S. released LD was in October of 2000. I remember when the format launched in 1978.
Camelot Music was a great place to find fantastic cutouts. I can’t begin to describe how many great artists I discovered, courtesy of the cutout bin at Camelot. Best time was buying a Gene Clark and Gram Parsons cassettes for $2.99 each.
great video. thank you for all the research you did on this. my favorite record store wasn't a chain. Toones Records in Allentown, PA. The albums they sold were mostly 12 inch singles. I live here in Maryland and we have the CD Depot that has you guess it CDs, vinyl.
I found alot of great music that I still listen to till this day at Sam Goody and The Wall, growing up in south Jersey. D.R I., The Rezillos, Napalm Death, Faith No More. What a time it was to walk into a physical wonderland of music ... and just discover things.
In the late '80s, I worked at Sam Goody and even with employee discount, their prices weren't that good. I also worked at a Suncoast years later. We can't forget the chain The Wherehouse and Music Plus, both of which along with Tower Records (and The Broadway department stores) were Ticketmaster or Ticketron outlets. The memories of having to get up super early just to get in line for concert tickets, waiting in line, paying in cash only and just accepting the best seats they gave you and then running to check the seating map to see where your seats are. The last Tower Records I've been in is on Dawson Street in Dublin, Ireland. Not the same store it once was.
The La Jolla Tower Records was the best! They had free concerts and stayed open late! ...I discovered so much music from their sticky headphone listening stations! One rainy midnight, I remember leaving with an eclectic mix of genres: The Shins, Anggun, Dead Can Dance, and Jessie Cook CDs...
I worked for Suncoast from 1999 to 2003 and actually helped close down my Suncoast and the sam goody store in one of our malls. It was a sad moment. Then in 2006 i had moved to los Angeles and was thrilled to have such huge record stores to shop at only to have both close down which included Tower records mentioned and Virgin Megastore. I got some great deals though. I do miss having these but im glad i grew up with such stores . Now back in arizona and we have an FYE, but its just full of funko pop's and other toys. With the cd and vinyl selection so small there really isnt any reason to shop there.
Yup, one of the first casualties when the internet/iphones took off.....My faves were two independents in cleveland: Shattered Records and Perrys Rockpile Records. I was into death metal and grindcore back in the early 90s.
The one place I visited was J&R music world in lower Manhattan in NYC and saw a live performance from Air Supply back in 2009.... It was an experience I'll never forget..... I miss that place too...... I honestly don't know when they closed, but I bought a few items back then from headphones to turntable and a couple of Walkman and cds.......... Hard to find a place that sells cds, vinyls, cassette tapes......... Those were the days........ I been to HMV as well..... Not too many places I can think of that had various collections of records and tapes......... I visited a few back the,but those were my two favorite stores back then...........
There is actually one Record Bar that is open in Wilmington, NC! It isn’t the original but was reopened a few years ago and the owner bought the name and rights to call it Record Bar. Has the same logo and everything just a smaller scale store.
I am very proud to say that was my uncle Paul that started Stark Record and Tape/Camelot Records out of the back of his 57 Chevy. It sounds cliche but it's real. He started by peddling 45's to small drugstores.
Thank you for this video, it really made me smile and I've sent it to all my relatives. Great channel, keep up the stellar content.
WOW!!!! So very cool, glad you enjoyed this and hopefully we got things right!
I worked at Record Bar
Duhhhhh I worked at Record Bar 😆
Just found this channel. Camelot Records and Musicland were my go to stores when I was a teenager.
Nothing like flipping through the records then CD’s. Such a time killer, loved it.
I worked at Camelot Music for 4 years in the late 90’s early 00’s and it was the best experience of my life. Learned a ton about A&R and I miss the way the music industry used to be so terribly 💯
I grew up in South Florida and practically lived at Peaches. Whoever was the buyer of imports for the branches at the Broward Mall, 163rd St Mall, and the Galleria mall did a phenomenal job. 7” and 12” singles and LPs from UK and Europe as well as music magazines and occasionally even T-shirts and posters. I used to spend my hard earned money buying the latest singles, all of which I still own! So thank you, Peaches buyers, whoever you are. You helped to make me the person I am today. ❤
wow, I remember the Peaches on 167th. Always smelled amazing. Still remember picking up Cheap Trick next position please on cassette, I think back in 1983. NMB class of '84 here.
@@fleamarketfunkyjunky hey, you’re right. It was a few blocks away on 167th. Good memory! Nova High class of ‘85. Do you remember Deco Dermot, a cool vintage clothing store right on 163rd?
I loved peaches I camped out for many concert tickets at the one on sunrise Blvd near the beach
@@davidserlin8097 Deco Dermot had cool vintage gear and it had a vibe that I imagined at the time to be similar to McClaren's & Westwood's London shops. Got a few cool shirts there even though I was dead broke most of the time.
Tower Records had an immense selection. They even had a separate room devoted exclusively to opera! I told my aunt, who was a huge opera buff, about that.
We had Tower in Fresno CA then they closed up and was replaced by Rasputin Music from the bay area. There was also a Record Factory if I remember correctly.
Record world was the only chain that carried an amazing selection of imports in the 80s. They literally had a separate divider that would say " Depeche Mode IMPORTS", In addition to the reg divider for many bands. Their Duran Duran and Iron Maiden sections were massive
You've obviously never been to a Disc-O-Mat
Sam Goody’s flagship store was initially in Manhattan near Grand Central Station, followed with an equally popular one on 52nd Street near 6th Avenue. (After a few decades, it became an FYE store.). The one on 49th Street, mentioned in the video, was actually one of Sam Goody’s last stores and didn’t last as long as earlier ones.
There’s still one in my town of St Clairsville, Ohio. Im there regularly. 🤘🏼
I'm surprised The Warehouse only got a small mention - they were everywhere in the 90's. I used to live near San Diego State and we had a Music Trader, Tower, Record Heaven, Record City, Off The Record and a Warehouse all within about 6 blocks! Spent the summers on that circuit when I was in high school, but they're all gone now. Tower and Warehouse also had short-lived outlet stores and I remember some of the stuff that I could have got for cheap back then that sells for big bucks now!
It was Wherehouse, not Warehouse. I worked there for ten years while playing music at night
. Lol
Yeah, I'm surprised Wherehouse didn't get more mention either. That was as big as Sam Goody in the mall near us. Licorice Pizza was in our area but it wasn't as big.
Yeah I remember them they were all over our city here in Fresno California too there is one across from Fresno city college and they used to be one in Manchester mall too I remember one time me and my cousin went in the early 90s to Manchester mall warehouse you looked across the food court which they shut down very recently and we noticed that the lights appeared have been off for the warehouse so that's so we went and walked across and looked and sad it was closed down. All there was the few neon lights on in the building
A blast from the past! I miss the good 'ol days!
It sure was, had some fun with this one!
I bought Lateralus the day of release at my local Sam Goody in 2001 when I was 13. One of the best days of my life.
I spent the late 80', all of the 90's, and the 1st half of the 2000's rummaging through a lot of these stores. Sam Goody's, The Wall, Tower, Strawberries, Coconuts, were all so much fun. The same goes for Suncoast, one of my absolute favorite video stores. It remains the only store where I managed to purchase videos, a book on Humphrey Bogart's films, and a Rocky and Bullwinkle t-shirt in the same trip.
I still have strawberries's inner sleeves on my old vinyl records 🙂
For all the positive experiences I had at Tower and Licorice Pizza, local stores like Big Ben's (Lakewood, CA) and Wenzel's Music Town (Downey, CA) had a Better selection of new and used/oldies respectively.
Tom and Maxine Wenzel were awesome people, who I miss to this day.
Do you remember Middle Earth records in Downey CA ?
I worked for Sam Goody for 13 years and best job I ever had. I paid half of my house off with Sam Goody funds, so I have fond memories. Ah, the days of doing "pulldowns"
What year did you start and when did u stop
@AngelHoll-pr8fz 1993-2006. I would have stayed, but 2006 was pretty much the end in my area, we were the only store that lasted till 2006. Most remaining Sam Goodys were eventually turned into FYE
@@dawnpatrol700 wow when 2pac died in 1996 sad day huh!!! I know people were buying his records before he pass!!! I was only 6 in 1996
I would spend hours in record stores and not even buy anything. Just to get the experience. One of my favorites was a place called Record Theater on Liberty Rd in Randallstown, MD. Biggest record store I’ve ever been in
I used to go to FYE and before that Sam Goody. Those were great record stores where I used to buy blank VHS tapes and Disney VHS tapes as well. These bring back memories.
There are two defunct record stores that I give it as a honorable mention, Crazy Eddie, a local record store based in New York City, and they were best known for the TV commercials with its famous line “His prices are INSANE!!!” I remember the Crazy Eddie commercials where they shown on TV for years.
And then, there was The Wiz, another defunct record stores in the NYC area back in the 1980’s and 1990’s and it was a great record store that I used to go to all the time.
I used to work at a Camelot Music. 1985-87...great memories! Was there when cd's were coming into the scene. I used to shop at that Spec's music that Camelot bought out. Living in Miami in those days, it was all about Spec's, Peaches, Q Records & Tapes, Camelot, and Musicland. Cool video!!! Thanx for the memories!
An important part of our lives. 👍
Very True!
Our mall had Record Bar. It was kind of small, but I could browse the albums from A-Z in about an hour and a half. The cool manager was this foxy girl who always seemed to wear high fashion 70's outfits. All the guys use to come in just to check out what she was wearing. One of her outfits was this gold shiny backless mini dress that made her look like a Bond babe. But less I digress the store also had a punch card so when you bought a record, they would punch the card with a diamond shaped hole puncher. After about 10 punches or so you could get a free 45.
I'm 68 and didn't know there were record stores anywhere else except NYC. This is shocking to me😮. Tower at Broadway and 4th was the center of the world... right down the block from The Bottom Line... near enough to CBGB... hanging and shopping with Patti Smith, Joey Ramone... And I won't tell you... You won't believe me anyway… I would've worked there for free. going to NYU and working at Tower and seeing my heroes one night though Dylan walked in with 10 people maybe more and he bought records for everyone in the place it was incredible I don't know how he got in and In a couple of minutes he was gone like vanished… It was magical. That was like in 1982. Only in the city.❤
I’m 54 and I loved Tower Records on 4th Street and the one uptown. I would spend hours there. I also loved The Wiz, Sam Goody, Crazy Eddie, Virgin, Circuit City and the many small mom and pop record stores in the West Village! Those were awesome and fun times! Most of the smaller stores starting closing, once the influx of young professionals from the Midwest, starting to move in. The landlords started increasing rents, to drive them out. Some landlords sold the properties that were then demolished, in order to build huge expensive apartment buildings. NYC is not as cool anymore.
I was talking to a guy yesterday in Clearwater, FL who works at Kingfish Record store. He said he used to work at Tower Records in either New York or New Jersey. He had a photo of him with the band The Alarm. One of my all time favorite bands. His name was Rick, I believe.
yup uptown by lincoln center... You can spend all day talking about what used to be in New York City…😥😥
@@ellenr3292 rich ex hippies and hipsters from God knows where ruined it
@@pgroove163 What are you implying?
I fondly remember record stores like Sam Goody, FYE and The Wall (which morphed into FYE). I loved shopping at The Wall in the 90's during my college years. At The Wall, they'd give you this sticker with their logo on it to put on your CD or tape case, and if your CD or tape ever became faulty or broken, they would replace it free of charge. They also had a deal where you'd get 1 free CD for every 10 you'd purchase. However, my fondest memory of The Wall was rummaging through the cut-out bin to find great deals on VHS home videos from my favorite 80's metal bands. Nowadays, there's only 1 mom-and-pop music store that I go to, because all the big chains are gone. Even the local Best Buy reduced their CD inventory from 3 aisles to 1 before eventually getting rid of CD's altogether. Streaming services are ruining the physical format experience. What kids today are giving up for the sake of convenience is distressing.
Growing up in the 80’s in the DC area I was so lucky because there were so many record stores to go to. Tower Records had a bunch of locations in Maryland, Virginia and DC. Tons of imports and huge selection. And also great independent stores like Vinyl Ink, Phantasmagoria, Olssons, Second Story Books, Y&T, Smash!, Record & Tape Exchange, Penguin Feather, and probably more I’ve forgotten. Great video here!
I shopped Licorice Pizza and worked at Tower Records in CA. Good times! People would just hang out and talk about music. It was great. Thank you Napster for messing it up.
So many hours in Tower Records
Growing up in the Maryland suburbs of D.C. my favorite record stores were Waxie Maxies, Kemp Mill Records and Peaches Records & Tapes. A couple of legendary independent stores were Yesterday and Today in Rockville and the still in business today Joe's Record Paradise in Silver Spring.
Hey there, I used to visit my brother in Silver Spring, Maryland all the time. There was an independent record store not far from the Silver Spring metro stop. It had ton of rare punk and new wave records along with a good general assortment of stuff. Do you happen to remember what it was? I think I went there around 1988.
@@davidserlin8097 That almost had to be Joe's Record Paradise. But I don't know where they were located at that time. The store bounced around all over Montgomery County over the years. Were the walls painted pink? Joe's has had several locations over the decades, but I'm pretty sure every location has the walls painted pink.
@@Frank_nwobhm I can’t remember the name, and I don’t remember the walls painted pink. I just remember it was stuffed to the gills. When you walked in, the 7 inch singles were on your right, and the rest of the store was jampacked.
Totally forgot about Waxie Maxies! Definitely bought plenty of records and tapes at Kemp Mill's original location - "Nobody breaks their own record!!". Joe's - man I dropped a lot of cash at that place. The last place I remember them being was in Aspen Hill. Good old Y&T. Is it possible that Dischord would even exist if it weren't for Skip?
@@davidserlin8097 Was it slightly below ground level? Phantasmagoria was in Wheaton, just a couple miles from Silver Spring. It was one of the larger and better places for what you mention. Anybody else remember that space before it was Phantas.? It was an arcade. I'd blow thru my $5 dollar allowance in 2 hrs playing Pac Man.
Here in Canada we had Sam The Record Man. Its iconic flagship store was located at 259 Yonge Street (Toronto) in 1959 and moved to 347 Yonge Street two years later, remaining there from 1961 until it closed in 2007. At one point there were over 140 Sam The Record Man stores across Canada.
Sam the Record Man ruled creation! I'm from Buffalo and we had a few good stores, but none that size with that kind of selection. I remember once in the summer of 1989 I had a list of seven hard to find albums that I simply had to own. I got up early one Saturday morning and drove solo to Toronto to visit STRM on Yonge. The staff there helped me find 6 of the seven! I drove back to Buffalo with an ear to ear smile!
My only recollection of STRM on Younge was seeing The Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers when I was a kid and thinking, "Hey, that's pretty cool a zipper on an album cover" with no idea of the real intention behind it. Personally, when I was a little older I spend more time at Vortex.
I can’t believe you didn’t mention The Wherehouse Music store. That place was booming back in the 80’s and 90’s. Plus I worked there😎👍🏽
An obscure music store in Baltimore was "Harmony Hut" with its only location I know of & frequented being in Security Square Mall. The biggest, most famous & best record store in Baltimore was "Record & Tape Collectors" in Rotunda Mall. If you couldn't find a rare record, tape or video from Rotunda Mall, Record & Tape Collectors it likely never existed. Another Baltimore music store was Reisterstown Road Plaza's "Sound Waves" where I brought Joselyn Brown's Somebody Else's Guy 12" Disco version. Harmony Hut \ Security Square became a Sam Goody which had many Metro Baltimore stores. Best ghetto record store was in Northwood Shopping Center.
I feel like Harmony Hut was over in the D.C. area too. Definitely remember that name.
There was a Harmony Hut in Wayne NJ in the 70's. Bought my first records there, aside from flea market purchases.
I worked at Licorice Pizza when I was going to college. They would give us four free albums a week to have. This was so cool.
My go to record stores were HMV, Music World, CD Plus (all which have closed down). We also had a store called Future Shop (it was the Canadian equivalent to Best Buy). They had a huge music section with listening stations where you could listen to all the new releases.
Same here along with CD Warehouse and Sam the Record Man and briefly Tower when I visited Toronto. I did go to a Sam Goody once on a school trip to Boston.
Opus69 in Winnipeg back in 69. They were upstairs in a 2 storey old building I think on Kennedy St. Bought Hendrix Electric Lady Land and Rolling Stone papers back then it was a fold out 4 page paper. Wow things have sure changed.
Grew up in Omaha, NE in the 70's and 80's. Peaches and Homers Records in the Old Market were the places to go. Peaches is gone but Homers is still rocking! I don't know
if Homers is just a local thing or national? Love walking in there because it always smells like incense.
I still have my Peaches records crate full of albums. There was a Camelot Music and Music Land at the two large malls, Westroads and Crossroads. I could walk into anyone of
these stores and spend hours flipping through vinyl and not wanting to leave until I had found at least one new album. Washed a lot of cars and mowed yard to feed my music
addiction! Back it the day, you could get a brand new album for under $7.00!
In the 70's, I also went to JC Penney's often to buy all my 45's. I remember them being .45 cents/each. Once I started listening to the two local rock stations, Z92 and KQKQ 98.5,
album rock took over my passions instead of just top 40 songs on 45's.
So many great memories!!! Thanks for the video.
In western PA in the 90's we had Record Den and in the late 90's and early 2000's there was Waves. Also at the local outlet mall we had Music For A Song which eventually become Music For Less. The 90's was an era when an a bands' back catalog was readily available. And imports were expensive but worth it.
Back in the 70's me and a friend use to take a monthly mini road trip from Glendale to Tower Records on Sunset and then hang out on Hollyweird Blvd. It was always packed. Good times.
I grew up in Phoenix. I remember hearing about Zia Records from my friend Robb and his older brothers. Well, in 1988 at 14, I finally got to go to one with my friend James. We took the bus LOL! I bought some Iron Maiden vinyl ep's and man, just had a great time there. I went to most locations in and around Phoenix in the years after when I started driving. They were the best place (back then) to get new and used music, games, and movies. I live in Southern Nevada now and there are two Zia locations in Vegas. Great stores, they have a lot more than just music now but you get that music/record store vibe. Like stepping into a time capsule.
Sound Warehouse should definitely be on the list.
I love these audio history lessons! I remember most of these stores. I remember buying my first albums at the local downtown JC Penny store. I would ride my bike, (a sting ray with high rise handle bars and banana seat) three miles to get there. When my ship was in Long Beach for a year in 1977, I used to go to Tower Records. When I came home on leave, my future wife and I used to go to Music Land constantly. They put stickers on their vinyl at Christmas in the 80s that said "This Christmas give the gift of music'". Some metal records would say "This Christmas give the gift of metal". In the 70s and 80s I spent a lot of money at Music Land for sure. Our local FYE store was great later on too.
I rode my bike in the late 70s to buy 45 rpms of my favorite songs. It was a small record store about a mile or so from my house. I wish I still had those 45s!
Best record store I've EVER been to - Capitol Record Shop -Hartford Connecticut. Weren't around very long, closed in 85, but lived there in the early 80s. Connecticut was awesome - we had Rhymes and Cutlers, IntegrityNMusic, RecordBreaker, Belmont, Uncle Jim's ( the cleanest ever indie record store)
A year or two ago I purchased a copy of "Sports" (Huey Lewis and the News) and it had a Licorice Pizza inner sleeve. I had never heard of them before.
Don't believe I ever went in a Peaches store without finding something I fell in love with and still enjoy playing today.
I spent lots of time at the Record Bar. Wrote the date on every 45 bought there, still have them.
I shopped at 8 of the 10 and worked at two of them (Record Bar '86 and Peaches '87). Loved my years working in record stores.
Great video! In Pittsburgh we had NRM - National Record Mart. They were stand-alone shops that didn’t quite work as mall stores, although they did have a few. It’s where you’d go and camp out for concert tickets back in the day.
Go Penguins!
Harmony House, that was my go to for all the albums and 45s I bought as a teen. Still have them to this day
My all time favorite job was Harmony House. I was at the one in Berkley on Woodward for years. Amongst the employees, it was a very family vibe. To this day, I’m still in contact with most of my coworkers throughout the company. Not just my store.
Great Vid. You just can't beat a video that pulls on your heart strings & triggers happy memories at the same time
Incredible amount of research you’ve done here Lenny, great video. I fondly remembered Musicland growing up in the Midwest, when I moved to Oregon it remained Musicland a few years, then turned into a Sam Goody. Incredible Universe later turned into Fry’s Electronics. FYE is still in existence, but I try to support what local record stores are available to me.
I was surprised to hear you mention two record stores that I worked at. From 1982 to 1986 I worked at RecordLand. Then in 1986 RecordTown bought RecordLand! I had a great time working in both locations, so much fun! I still talk to my past co-workers almost 40 years later!!!
Did you by chance work at RecordLand in the Hollywood Fashion Center in Hollywood, Florida? That was a massive store. It’s where I bought the first two singles that I ever paid for with my own money: Fox on the Run by The Sweet and You Sexy Thing by Hot Chocolate.
@@davidserlin8097 no, I didn’t. I worked at the store in Akron, Ohio. Before I worked there I bought my first ever 45rpm, the Ballad of the Green Bret’s.
@@MarkLee-wr2ir thanks. 😎
Growing up in Houston, TX during the '60's we had H & H music store in Gulfgate Mall & Downtown Houston. One could go in and play 45's in their booths, I often purchased sheet music. Later on during my college years, I worked for Soundwarehouse while attending U of H during my College days as a part time Christmas temp.
I worked at Sound Warehouse on Berry St in Ft Worth in 77 and 78 and Sound Town in Ridgmar Mall 78-79. Always hated the "newcomer" Peaches on Camp Bowie.
I would've liked to have heard more of a backstory on Trans World Entertainment, but overall, great video.
Trans World Entertainment (now known as Kaspien) was founded by Robert J. Higgins in 1972. Record Town was the first retail music chain opened by Trans World Entertainment before they started acquiring other retail music chains. Trans World Entertainment would go on to open its first FYE store in 1993. In 2001, Trans World Entertainment rebranded the majority of its other retail music stores to FYE. Higgins stepped down as CEO of Trans World Entertainment in 2014, but remained on board as chairman until his death in 2017. Sunrise Records acquired the FYE chain from Trans World Entertainment in 2020.
I spent most of my childhood in Bay Shore, New York (Long Island) and my remember my local shopping mall having a Record Town store before it was rebranded to FYE.
I LIVED at Musicland in the 1990s, in St. Paul, MN. Got most of my music from there….Good memories
Sound warehouse in denver. Spent alot of money there in the late 80s early 90s. The best memories are from standing in line to get concert tickets, back when that was a thing. Good times.
I was telling the guys yesterday about how I used to go to Record and Tape Traders in Towson, MD to get all my wrestling event tickets back when you couldn't get tickets online.
@@LennyFlorentine I guess that dates us. Way better back in the day. Let me guess, you have to be dissapointed in our Raiders.
I was born & raised in Saginaw, Michigan. Our local mall had Camelot Music, which is where I bought my records and tapes (it is now FYE). Our mall also had Tape World AND Suncoast at one time. Media Play was located in a plaza across the street. I had no idea that these stores were owned by the same company. This was an awesome trip down memory lane.
Love The Empire Records reference 👌 - April 8th is Rex Manning day. Torrance , CA based The Wherehouse ( Where ? .. At The Wherehouse ! ) had the best 📺 adds. FYE absorbed the remnants. I worked at Tower .. lousy pay but you got promos of any record you wanted & free concert tickets & got to go label listening parties with open bars & free food. No dress code either. Good Times !
Sounds like fun, yeah Rex Manning Day!
Great video. I worked at no.2 Musicland in Indiana for several months in '84-'85. We had to take a music knowledge test to get the job. We had to name a few artists from each genre the interviewer would mention. we would have to wear a tie to work, that sucked but overall not a problem. Back then CDs came in long boxes wrapped in shrink and we only had one bin of them. It was dream job for me back then being musically obsessed. Despite working there I'd buy my music from Camelot Music in the next town over (because a girl I liked worked there). Thanks for posting!
The two best record stores for me growing up were: Sounds on St.Marks Place (home of the just released promotional pressings - still mad at myself for selling 3 Feet High and Rising by De La Soul) and Our Music in the Hylan Blvd shopping plaza where K-Mart used to be in Staten Island. really were top notch, and at Our Music, they sold freshly pressed 45's as well.
Back in the late 70s, you were the coolest kid if you worked at Camelot Music in the mall. Thank god there are the mom & pop record stores of today. I live in Memphis, and you hit one or two of them on your traveling series.
I worked for several record store chains from 1980-1998. I started out at Camelot Music in Kansas and then Warehouse Records and Licorice Pizza in California. I later worked at Music Plus in retail and then for their parent company, Show Industries, doing remodels and setting up new stores. Finally I worked for Sam Goody in Tennessee. I loved the old age of record stores and miss the great customers and co-workers. It was a great era!!
I remember going to Goodys on the gulf coast, at night. It was out in the middle of an empty space, a glowing eerie storefront full of amazing music. Surrounded by darkness and mystery, it seemed. Roulette records was mob? They had some huge famous jazz type acts on their label. I just bought a double record set by Roulette from 1966 and the sound is fantastic(on vinyl).
Musicland. That's the store I shopped back late 70's.
A hug record store in my area was National Record Mart later shortened to NRM. They were in my town from the 1970’s to early/mid 90’s. We also had a Tape World for a decade or less, and the last National store in our mall was FYE which closed probably 10 years ago. We still have a local store that buys and sell used music as well as new.
My favorite place to get albums, tapes and CDs when growing up in the 70s and 80s and continued using as an adult until they went out of business was the Columbia House Record club and RCA/BMG club. I would get my free ones, then buy the number I needed to fulfill in a few months cancel then continue the cycle over and over. I miss those two clubs more than anything.
I wonder why he never mentioned NRM. It was the biggest here in the Ohio valley.
@@DrScaryTNC I enjoyed the video but most of those stores I had never heard of till this video. I think there was a Camelot in Charleston WV. I heard of Tower Records but the majority I hadn’t.
Sound Warehouse, TEXAS' biggest record store......Worked there and also Sound Town (Ridgmar Mall) And Sound City (Daytona Beach Fl) all great places!
Nice job!!! I really enjoyed this
Man I miss all the Record Store Chains. First one I started shopping at was National Record Mart.
Sacramento California Tower Records concert tickets and Records do my whole teenage years and beyond . Miss it !
This was super fun. 👍. If you ever do a Part 2, please include Crazy Eddie. His television advertising was absurdist theater. The C.E. store in CT to which I went had inexpensive vinyl. Our local Gramophone Shoppe was tailored to the well-heeled music fan. My older brother went on a college visit with my parents and, when he returned, he turned green with envy to see my massive collection of Kinks albums. I think that I spent around $50.00 and got 10 records. These were obviously new catalog reissues back in the day. I was so happy with my purchase and my brother's response. 😄.
- Heather
And Crazy Eddie's bought out Disc-O-Mat, which was the greatest record store up to that time in NY and NJ
love love love all the clips and info, great job!
Record Bar is back in Wilmington, NC. Their catchphrase is " Old name, new spin" lol.
Thanks for the video. I worked at Record World '89-90. Low pay but fun job as a high school senior. Still have my nametag/badge and a Record World duffle bag.
Last I checked there's still an FYE in Gurnee Mills mall in Illinois - I used to go there to grab boxset DVD's and the occasional shirt or trinket. They had everything, honestly. Been a while since I've been in there though since streaming and my Apple Music subscription which made collecting physical media more of a novelty than a necessity to me. This is such a nostlagia trip, I can remember as a kid of the late 90s/2000s kinda witnessing these big changes in how we get our media... I remember DVD's coming into popularity, swapping out all our VHS's with DVD's and then getting my mind blown once Netflix became a thing. There's a definite charm to collecting physical media, though. If I had the money to do so, I still find record-collecting a fun hobby. I've been on such a nostalgia trip lately! Wish I could've been around to see these stores at their peaks!
The Wiz was a small record store in downtown Washington DC on F Street NW where I used to buy cassette tapes and vinyl before CDs. It was most popular in the late eighties and ninenties. The guys that worked there were like big brothers to me and the store was always jumping with the latest music, they also had celebs show up from time to time for autographs. Butch and his partner always made everyone feel welcome and at home, like a real place especially for music lovers. If I remember correctly the Wiz moved from downtow to a suburb like location in Maryland- Iverson Mall in Temple Hills Maryland. I actually met JaRule there in the nineties when he was promoting his music. Record stores definetly had a huge impact in our daily lives and was a great pillar in the community. I also remember something about Kemp Mill Record store in the DMV area.
I fully expected The Wherehouse to be on this list.. They had well over 100 locations in the West.
Every vintage audio you show, RecordThestre sold new along with vinyl,cassettes and all other medium. It was in Buffalo across from Canisus College. It was enormous. The audio room was a dream. Thanks great memories.
Growing up Metro Detroit, I was fortunate enough to visit several of the stores mentioned in malls or freestanding locations like Tower in Ann Arbor.
We also had local retailers like Harmony House, Desirable Discs, Sam’s Jams and Dearborn Music.
Even though most of the above are no longer (exception being Dearborn Music), the area is thankfully, still rich with a number of incredible Independent Record Stores (Street Corner/Peoples/Hello Records/Solo Records).
Love seeing videos like this. Well done.
Yes kids, we had to go to a store to actually buy a record. No downloading back then.
Very cool !
Nice seeing The Record Factory mentioned here. I went to the Colma store alot.
The Tower in SF was great, too. I remember going there in '69 when i was 12 with family. I said "You should buy Santana". They'd never heard of it,,,"This had better be good !"
It was :)
One store i was looking for here was The Music Box. I saw one at Serramonte when it opened in '68 or so. I heard Black Sabbath ST there for the first time. I was 13. I'd never seen or heard of it.
Bought it quick as i could.
Good selection and prices, $2.99 for new releases on sale (White Front $2.66 but it was further away). Once the gas crisis hit prices went up. I think it became The Record Bar which was mentioned here.
Cool memories, though.
Thanx for the 'trip' :)
Thank you for your insight and energy for the post on historical monuments in music history. Keep it coming 😎
I remember standing in line outside Coconuts for the Black Album. :-) Good times....
Great video!!! Some I had never heard of. Some I knew of, but there weren't any in my area. The record stores that were in my area on your list when I was a kid in the 80's were Musicland and Record Town. Both were in the Fox Valley Mall in Aurora IL. Hell, there were two Musiclands in that mall, one upstairs and one downstairs! I bought a lot of records at those stores. As I got older and could either drive or had friends who could drive, I got to try other locations, like Tower Records, Crow's Nest, Rose Records, Rolling Stone Records and many more. Crow's Nest in Crest Hill, IL was my all time favorite. They had everything you could possibly think of, and lots of imports. They were the last store I knew of that sold vinyl records, and I bought them there until they went out of business sometime in the 90's. This video brought back a lot of memories!
There is a Record Bar in Wilmington, NC, which I buy from. I have brought from most of these stores and some of the others mentioned. I worked at Wall to Wall one Christmas season. ❤️
We had a small store here in Rhode Island called Soundarama. It sold nothing but middle to high end stereo equipment. It was a great place to find and listen to the newest equipment on the market. It did sell some reel to reel tapes, good quality blank cassette tapes and some vinyl. It had a repair area, and would also ell used equipment it would take in trade when someone wanted to upgrade their system. They sold Nakamichi, McIntosh, Bozak, JBL, Jensen, Sony, Nikko, Tandberg, AR speakers, Akai, and much more in a small store.
I remember a record store called PLAYING BY EAR located on Belair Rd in Baltimore City. Owned by David Hodgson, it specialized in prog rock and electronica.
Very Cool! Thanks for contributing that!
I have the feelling that the past times were really the better times.
In the Baltimore area, I frequented Record and Tape Traders because they would “rent” a record to you for a couple days so you could record it onto cassette. They were told to cease and desist that practice, but modified it to a “liberal return” policy with a restocking fee of sorts. With the resurgence of LPs a bunch of record shops have popped up around Maryland and Delaware as of late in Waverly, Bel Air, Havre de Grace, and Ellicott City. Every thrift/consignment shop have some as well, with used CDs being snatched up for next to nothing.
In the 80's, Camelot was my store of last-resort. I remember them having a huge selection and being punishingly expensive. Streetside was a great local St. Louis chain. Great selection, knowledgable employees, in-store concerts and the best place to pickup concert tix.
Streetside Records in The Loop had a perfect location. That was my go to store whose employees turned me on to a lot of new music. On Saturdays I would 1-2 hours just browsing the bins and talking to people about music. Good times, good memories. Since they closed, now Vintage Vinyl has nicely filled that void. Same general location, much larger volume.
I sure do miss these wonderful stores. ☹☹☹
I used to shop at Camelot here in NE Florida in the 90s because they stocked LaserDiscs. We had an f.y.e and Camelot in the same mall. The f.y.e also carried LaserDiscs but not as many. Our local Camelot Super Store had a HUGE selection of LDs. They kept an order book near the main LD section so that you could look up current and future releases. They would special order any LD title without obligation to purchase it. Their LD discount bin was huge as well. I remember when Camelot started greatly discounting LDs around 1999 or so, because they were not going to be carrying the format anymore. A sad day. The last U.S. released LD was in October of 2000. I remember when the format launched in 1978.
1:58 Chicago 17 one of the best albums of Chicago and the last with Peter cetera
Camelot Music was a great place to find fantastic cutouts. I can’t begin to describe how many great artists I discovered, courtesy of the cutout bin at Camelot.
Best time was buying a Gene Clark and Gram Parsons cassettes for $2.99 each.
Growing up in Albuquerque, we had Sound Warehouse, Flip Side Records, Music Land, and the Record Bar. Later on Hastings opened up.
Video brought back memories as I used to work part time at "Record Bar" ( a Florida chain ) and DJ'ed at a Disco at night.
great video. thank you for all the research you did on this. my favorite record store wasn't a chain. Toones Records in Allentown, PA. The albums they sold were mostly 12 inch singles. I live here in Maryland and we have the CD Depot that has you guess it CDs, vinyl.
I found alot of great music that I still listen to till this day at Sam Goody and The Wall, growing up in south Jersey. D.R I., The Rezillos, Napalm Death, Faith No More. What a time it was to walk into a physical wonderland of music ... and just discover things.
In the late '80s, I worked at Sam Goody and even with employee discount, their prices weren't that good. I also worked at a Suncoast years later.
We can't forget the chain The Wherehouse and Music Plus, both of which along with Tower Records (and The Broadway department stores) were Ticketmaster or Ticketron outlets. The memories of having to get up super early just to get in line for concert tickets, waiting in line, paying in cash only and just accepting the best seats they gave you and then running to check the seating map to see where your seats are.
The last Tower Records I've been in is on Dawson Street in Dublin, Ireland. Not the same store it once was.
The La Jolla Tower Records was the best! They had free concerts and stayed open late! ...I discovered so much music from their sticky headphone listening stations! One rainy midnight, I remember leaving with an eclectic mix of genres: The Shins, Anggun, Dead Can Dance, and Jessie Cook CDs...
I worked for Suncoast from 1999 to 2003 and actually helped close down my Suncoast and the sam goody store in one of our malls. It was a sad moment. Then in 2006 i had moved to los Angeles and was thrilled to have such huge record stores to shop at only to have both close down which included Tower records mentioned and Virgin Megastore. I got some great deals though. I do miss having these but im glad i grew up with such stores . Now back in arizona and we have an FYE, but its just full of funko pop's and other toys. With the cd and vinyl selection so small there really isnt any reason to shop there.
Yup, one of the first casualties when the internet/iphones took off.....My faves were two independents in cleveland: Shattered Records and Perrys Rockpile Records. I was into death metal and grindcore back in the early 90s.
The one place I visited was J&R music world in lower Manhattan in NYC and saw a live performance from Air Supply back in 2009.... It was an experience I'll never forget..... I miss that place too...... I honestly don't know when they closed, but I bought a few items back then from headphones to turntable and a couple of Walkman and cds.......... Hard to find a place that sells cds, vinyls, cassette tapes......... Those were the days........ I been to HMV as well..... Not too many places I can think of that had various collections of records and tapes......... I visited a few back the,but those were my two favorite stores back then...........
There is actually one Record Bar that is open in Wilmington, NC! It isn’t the original but was reopened a few years ago and the owner bought the name and rights to call it Record Bar. Has the same logo and everything just a smaller scale store.
So many memories at my local mall browsing through CD's at FYE! I can remember spending so much money on new music and still own all those CD's!
Omg i remember for Camelot music in the late 90's. I loved working there😁