where did you buy your records as a kid

I didn't start buying them for myself until I was about 14-15 by 1980. So, in Baton Rouge then I frequently went to...

New Generation Superstore on Florida Blvd.
New Generation in the Tiger Town Mall by LSU.
Record Bar in Cortana Mall.
Musicland in Cortana Mall.
Paradise Records by LSU.

Only Record Bar and Musicland were national or regional chains. The others were locally owned.

Only the Musicland location still exists as a music store, but I think the name's been changed.

Joel

 

Hi Joel, I didn't know Paradise Records was around as early as 1980. Such a shame that they went under. I have fond memories of buying Duran Duran 12 inches in the mid 80's at the Record Bar in Cortana. After reading your post I have the music from the mid 80's New Generation radio spot in my head


Chris

 

Woolworths
Niesner's
The Boston Store
Macy's = when I went to Brooklyn to visit my Relatives and also went to
Korvette's

I joined this record club that was very cool I don't even remember the name but this was the deal they had going. If I got a friend to join up just to buy one 45, I believe I got four free 45's. This club was like no other where you were forced to buy so many records or had to send in a card so you didn't get the record of the month. They sent out a top 100 list of 45's about every 2 weeks for you to choose from and they were really very cheap like the stores and not much to ship either. I got many a 45 at the time through them because it wasn't being sold in my area or it wasn't being played yet on my top 40 local radio station.

Plus a few small record shops when my friends and I went to Syracuse, NY when we had a few bucks in our pockets back then!

 

There were a lot of independent stores.
I remember riding my bike to get a Surfer Girl and Little Duece Coupe LP.
I think Tower Records in Campbell CA was build around 70?

 

Lechmere
Strawberries
Record World (?)

 

As a kid in Portland, it was Music Millenium and Django's. Then a bunch of smallish shops in the early 80s I can't remember...

In Rochester, it was Record Archive on Monroe Ave and House of Guitars, and Lakeshore Records.

 

I remember Record World. What a great chain and they always had the new Genesis albums as imports. I remember getting Duke and Abacab before they were released in the US.

Anyone remember W.T. Grants. That is where I did most of my record shopping. Also Zayres and Mammoth Mart. I grew up in Maine so there were about the only places to find records.

 

As a kid in and around DC:

Variety Records
Waxie Maxies
Korvettes

It was at Korvettes where I had my biggest and best record buying day as I purchased both Layla and Allmans Live at Fillmore in, I believe the summer of '71. Pretty heavy for a sixteen year old kid

Soon thereafter I started going to what was the first of soon to be many Kemp Mill Records. Not sure if they are still out there. Also Joes which still is. At eighteen I started to work in record stores and that covered me for the next few years.

I still go to Tower. Best Buy kind of gives me the ass. I enjoy Red Trumpet, Music Direct and Acoustic Sounds. And eBay of course

Cheers-
Norm

 

Other DC stores

Empire Music-Bethesda, MD Good for HTF stuff.

Sabins-DC, good soul selection

Giant Music-Rockville, MD, cutouts of Reprise Kinks stuff in early 70's.

Sommers Records- Alexandria, VA, owned by my dad's cousin.

GEM- Rockville, MD, Seemed to always have picture sleeves I never saw elsewhere.

Roadhouse Oldies-Silver Spring, Baltimore, High doo wop and rockabilly prices, low 60's pop prices.

 

Gee, I still am a kid.........Red Trumpet......ooops.

Jack's Records in Red Bank, NJ.....it's still there; still sells vinyl; and is always one of Springsteen's first stops when he has a new release...he stays for hours and signs autographs.

Bill

 

Does this bring back memories?

 

I worked in a Record World store (in West Orange's Essex Green Mall) for 6 years (from 1983 to 1989). The most fun I ever had working at any job, even if the pay was low. I got a ton of promo's (cassettes, LPs and CDs), free tickets to concerts, and when CD's starting hitting it big I started getting special (one of a kind) promo CD's - like the "Cloud Nine" George Harrison album, which had a silk-screened disc (way before that was the norm), but no booklet. I also got the George Michael "Faith" CD which has a special holographic 3-D cover, and a special promo label CD inside. I also got promo CD's of the Grateful Dead "In the Dark", New Order, and others I forget at the moment - which were promo only and different from their regular release counterparts.

 

Yeah, and the price for a "G" was probably only $3.49.

 

DC Area:

Penguin Feather
Waxie Maxies
Harmony Hut

Anyone remember grocery stores stocking vinyl? The Safeway near my house carried the Top 40 singles and a good number of LPs as well. I remember while parents would shop, I'd go look thru the records. I was always mesmerized by one particular cover with a nude woman riding a horse (anyone remember this cover??) -- totally blew my 12 year-old mind to be seeing this in a grocery store!

Steve

 

Alexanders Department store on Fordham Road in the Bronx, and Spinning Disc, around the corner on the Grand Concourse. Later on, EJ Korvettes.

Jeff

 

Hmmm...

Goldblatt's
Woolworth's
Korvette's
Sears
Hillside Music Center (where I finally got a job in high school)

Allied audio (I got my Cosmo's Factory there... it later became Radio Shack)

 

Two Guys - I would walk there or ride my bike back then.
K-mart - my first two Beatles albums
Harmony Hut (later taken over by Sam Goody's...later Record Town now renamed FYE)

Now the employees at Best Buy don't know who Ringo Starr or even Pat Benatar are.


Prefer to shop online...

 

G.C. Murphy's Department Store (local Central Ohio company, folded), Penny's (yes, they sold LPs for awhile in the sixties, Buckeye Mart (an Ohio chain, no longer around), Magnolia Thunderpussy (inde store on Ohio State University campus no longer around), Bingham Drug Store (no longer around).

 

TG&Y

 

On Long Island in the 70's we had:
Korvette's
Mays
Grants
Great Eastern
Masters
Modells
Record World
Two Guys
Woolco(lots of great 8track cutouts)
Sam Goodys
Woolworth's
McCorys(only for cutouts,not that there's anything wrong with that...)
And in Febuary,1981,I discovered Record Stop in Lake Ronkonkma.It's been there since '73 & still rocks!!! With my very limited income,I lived for the $1 lps.Always in good shape & at a time when everyone was tradeing in their 60s & early 70s stuff......

 

Drawer L,

How about TSS and White Department Stores? What was the name of that store (on Nesconsett Hwy, I think...memory fading!) that had TONS of 8 tracks and original label lps for $1-2 bucks...was that Record Stop? In the LATE 80s I found a SEALED McCartney- Family Way/8 Track tape, MONO Syndicate Of Sound- Little Girl, etc.

How about Roosevelt Raceway flea market? OOOOH...Now I'm missin' the good-Ole-days!

 

WoW! Reading these posts have brought back some memories. I haven't thought about Rather Ripped Records in Berkeley for years! I grew up in the SF Bay Area, mostly in the southeast area, in the 1960s and early '70s. I rode my bike from Fremont to Newark every week to the White Front store. New LPs were priced so low as to be ridiculous. $2.49 or something like that. I can still remember bringing home Led Zeppelin II, throwing it on whatever passed for a record player, and having it blow my mind! I recall listening to Country Honk by the Stones, and getting fooled by the car horn the first few times, and running to the window to see who was there. No one of course! I felt like an idiot when I finally figured it out. I bought my 45s at Montgomery Wards in Fremont. Later, when I got slightly more mobile, I traveled to Fly's in Hayward, and Underground Records in San Jose. It really was underground! It was in a basement. Later, it moved to an above ground location, but the selection and attitude went wrong, and it was gone soon after.
Regards,
Ralph

 

Ahh,yes forgot about those.If you were local,there was also the Bay Shore Farmer's Market,the Flea Markets at Bay Shore/Valley Stream & Huntington(Rt.110)Drive Ins.
Record Stop is on Portion Road.The store on Nesconsett Highway may have been Music Den in East Setaulket(there was another in Commack,right next to S.Kleins/Korvettes)they closed last year.Always had cutout 8tracks & a great place for out of print cds at regular prices,as they never sent anything back.