Tower Records - Life in America
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- čas přidán 2. 04. 2021
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#recollectionroad #nostalgia - Zábava
I remember spending hours at the record shop flipping through albums… Buying one and then going home for hours listening and looking at the cover!
I did the very same thing. We were so easy to please back then.
Same here. I even read along the lyrics as the music played. 😺
Yeh...I did that too.😁
Those was goodtimes
I remember going to Scripture Book Store and flipping through the latest Contemporary Christian records, then found one and took it home to listen to it until I wore the grooves off the record.
I love how absolutely massive these stores were.. It was like entering a giant toy store.. A different era with different rent prices..
Very. Steven. Cta. Yes. Thanks. Pretty. Bye
I would spend hours walking around listening to cds and reading magazines
The NYC store had 3 or 4 floors!
@@stellarocquie7957 there was one in times Square and another I believe in Union Square correct me if I am wrong..but I grew up in Long Island so my Tower Record store was in Massapequa Park
There has yet to be Recollection Road videos regarding the toy stores Toys R Us/Children's Bargain Town, Child World/Children's Palace, Lionel Play World/Lionel Kiddie City, Kay Bee Toys, Circus World, and K&K Toys.
Back when life was a visceral experience. Any excuse to get out of the house, get in your first, beater car and hang out with your friends. You had to save up your money just to buy a $5.00 album and a new release was crowd worthy. You went outside and lived life. Now 25 year old "kids" sit on their parents couch and get short lived instant gratification by tapping a screen. So sad that this generation is missing out on the most simple, rewarding things in life. The pics of crowds of young people just hanging together having fun seems to be a nearly distant memory. Thanks so much for this one. Keep up the awesome work. You're on a roll lately. Loving it!
_“Now 25 year old "kids" sit on their parents couch and get short lived instant gratification by tapping a screen.”_
They can’t appreciate anything because they don’t have to earn anything. Everything’s just handed to them and they feel entitled to it.
If I wanted to hear my favorite songs I either had to wait until they were played on the radio or go out and buy the Albums with money I had to work for.
@@libtardgunlover762 - Which is also why it was so much more impressive when artists sold millions of records back in the old days; people had to earn the money, then go to the store and buy the records in person. No computers/internet, click, click, click, millions of dorks buying songs on a whim that they listen to once and the file rots.
Two words: ok boomer.
I couldn't agree more.
@@libtardgunlover762 If you think that's a new phenomenon, you didn't look around back "then". As a child of the 60's, I very well remember "25 year old kids" in basements as well!
There was nothing like ripping off the cellophane on your new album :)
For me it was the artwork and liner notes.
I remember ripping the cellophane off a new album only to find a blank 12 inch disc inside. No grooves, no label and no spindle hole in the center. It was supposed to be an LP by the Baja Marimba Band. I took it back to the store and they exchanged it for a good one. They had trouble believing it themselves. 😱
You didn't have to rip the film. You just quickly ran the side with the opening from left to right on your jeans and it would make a slit
@@glennso47 Imagine if you kept it what it would be worth today!
Out of all the business’ that has closed, Tower Records is #1 on list. I bought so many LP’s there and I bought my first VSH video there. (I paid $99. It was the Beatles “A Hard Days Night”. ) I cried when the doors were locked. ✌🏻💖🎶
Tower Records, The Wherehouse, Camelot Music, Musicland and Sam Goody. Miss them all!
The what house? Oh, Wherehouse! One location I remember in Phoenix was at 939 West Camelback. It is now a Cabinets to Go. Just a few doors down to the east, there's a Charlie's (that little bitty pissant country place). There used to be a Taco Bell next door with its classic architecture.
@@shawnbegay4966 The Wherehouse near me is now an Autozone auto parts store.
Licorice Pizza too.
What about Record Town, Record World, Wall to Wall, Listening Booth, Tape World, Sam the Record Man, Peaches, and Coconuts? The only music CD store left is F.Y.E., and most Barnes and Noble book stores cell music CD's.
Where ? At The Wherehouse ! 😂
Most of my vinyl collection is from years of going to Tower. I grew up in the Valley, but I met Russ at Sunset when I was about seventeen, it was a wondrous time to be young.
We never had a Tower Records in my hometown but I sure spent a lot of money on records during those days. Too bad these stores are gone.
Me too still have all my albums from 70's-80's😊
I do as well...well...most of them. :)
Record Town and Sam Goody were our main stores. Still wish we had had a Tower...
Can you imagine how high the overhead would be today?
potownrob Sam Goody was at Monmouth Mall & Jack's was in Red Bank
The first actual Tower Records was on Watt Avenue in Sacramento. Felt like a second home.
Colin Hanks' movie "All Things Must Pass" is an excellent documentary of the rise an fall of Tower Records. It's available for free in full length on youtube.
I actually saw the movie at the Tower Theater in Sacramento, across the street from the location of the first Tower Records store.
Yeah. Brilliant flick👍👍 As a Canadian living in western Canada, Kelly’s Stereo Mart and A&B Sound were kings of the hard copy. So glad I grew up in those days!!!
Yup. Basically write off 2 hrs and love flipping through a store and going home with my prizes.
I know who some of you are. 😂
A visit to Tower Records was part of the best birthday I've yet to have...
@Damon Wadyko I'm an optimist. There could always be better. Even at my age!
I miss Tower Records. Awesome video.
I grew up in Sacramento......I remember the original store. Such fun to go in and spend time...
The original neon sign is at the Golden One arena--along with Shakey's and many other iconic business signs.
Me too, did you ever go to the Tower Theater on Broadway for the Midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show ?
K Street, Broadway, Watt Avenue, and, in Citrus Heights (CH),:Macy Plaza Drive. CH even had a Java City kiosk where I’d order a mocha to sip while I spent hours browsing the store.
@@jamessimpson5452 I remember the theater on Broadway, but never made it to the Rocky Horror show...
Sunset without Tower is inconceivable, and yet here we are.
Horrible :(
The Tower signage is still up just in case !
There is still one left that I know of in Tokyo. I went there a few years ago, and people were going through vinyl records. I bought myself a vinyl of Abbey Road.
My best friend and I used to hitchhike from Marin to SF to visit Tower Records. What fun we had to look back on.
Growing up in Sacramento cruising J St, Broadway, and going to Tower was a rite of passage. I also remember in the late 70's ,80's, and 90's in a strip mall on El Camino and Watt Avenues there was a Tower Books, Tower Movies, and Tower Records. In 1989 while listening to 97.3 on my way home from work the DJ announced that Metallica was performing a free concert at Tower Records to promote their Damaged Justice Tour and of course they perfored "One", great times.
I bought a lot of my records and CD's at that store as well as the store in Concord when I lived there. The Watt Ave. store was the first store Solomon opened away from his father's drug store on Broadway. I grew up just miles away from that store and lived in the area from the time I started 6th Grade until I graduated from Sacramento State in 1969. I moved the the Bay Area in 1970 and got a transfer back to Sacramento in1987, and now live just about 2 miles north, just about 1/2 mile west of Watt. I remember coming up the Sacramento on weekends to see my parents and making the short trip to Tower Records. If they didn't have what I was looking for, it probably didn't exist anywhere. There were other record stores but none, either in Sacramento or the Bay area had any where near the selection that Tower did. After Tower closed, the best music selection way at Fry's Electronics and now that's gone too.
I recall lining up at the Tower Records on Watt Ave. to get concert tickets. Located next to the Candlerock Bowling Alley and on the other side, the Hoffbrau. Good times.
@@barryf5479 The Hof Brau is still there. It had changed hands several times over the years but Sam Gordon's family bought it back several years ago. I eat there quite often and I especially like their roast beef sandwich on a Kaiser roll for lunch. Sam's Hof Brau was a chain with restaurants around Sacramento and Northern California. The Watt Avenue location is the original, and now, the only still operating location. When I was in college at Sacramento State in the late 1960's, a friend of mine and I would often go the location on J street for lunch when we had a long lunch break between classes.
How I miss them!
Tower Records NYC West 4th & Broadway!!! My secret addiction during the '80s and '90s. My heart broke when it closed.
Same here! I used to work near City Hall and about once a month (when the office was empty) would take the long walk up Broadway to Tower during my "lunch break"! LOVED that store!!! Whenever I pass that corner, I will forever think of Tower!!
I’ve literally been waiting on this one since subscribing to the page.
I am a fan of classical music, and Tower always had a good selection of that genre.
We had a tower records in Glasgow.Bon Jovi brought Glasgow to a standstill by playing on the roof,that was in1995.
Omg. This was the place to go for albums, Earth wind and fire
Plus, they had a HUGE mail order/catalog business.
Earth Wind and Fire- the best!
In Sacramento, where it started, our tower was small and stayed small. Even the larger one downtown didn’t come close to how big these stores were when they expanded. I miss both versions.
Great music, great generation, great time at Tower ❤
I'm fortunate to have been around several of them growing up! One in San Jose CA and then three here in San Francisco when I moved up here! There was also a store in Berkeley toward the end of their run! Loved all of them individually! I also got to meet Nancy Sinatra at an appearance she was doing at one of them in the 90s!
Greatest music store of all-time. I frequently visited the Campbell, Palo Alto, and the San Francisco stores from the age of 11 until the stores closed in 2006. Russ was the Walt Disney of the music world. God bless him.
For years I lived about a mile from the Campbell store; I bought lots of CDs there. The first music store I ever knew was Stevens Music on Lincoln in Willow Glen; we could go into a booth and listen to 45s... really cool.
@@Bhakti-rider. Great times. I grew up in North San Jose/Milpitas boarder then later moved 25-miles outside of SJ. I also visited Willow Glen very often, but I am not familiar with that store. There was a music store near Stevens Creek Blvd. in San Jose in the mid-70's called Discount Records, and that was another great store for LP's.
Fortunately, my job for the last 30-years has allowed me to travel throughout the Bay Area and to Southern California so I would often visit all of the records stores in the cities that I had worked. The best record store after Tower had closed is Rasputin Music in Hollywood, CA. They have millions of CD, LP's, and DVD's. On one occasion, I bought about 90 LP's, too much for the airline flight home, so I rented a car and drove from Hollywood to the Bay Area with my treasures.
@@operadog2000 I wonder that no one has mentioned Banana Records; I don't know if that was a chain or not, but they had a pretty large store on El Camino in Palo Alto.
@@Bhakti-rider it sounds familiar, but I had never seen one.
I got emotional just watching this video! Miss the old times! Miss Tower Records! Just going into a physical store, seeing and hearing the music! Picking through the albums and the CDs! Gotta love that! Too bad those days are gone!
When I was at ASU I went there all the time then moved to LA to finish at UCLA and went to the Sunset store, saw many rock stars there!
Great memories for YEARS!! They were open late so my friend and I would head out to the Sunrise Mall or Watt Ave stores in Sacramento and spend hours sifting.
NYC might have been open 24/7 . . .can't remember back that far, lol!
Those pictures bright back strong memories! I could only afford 45's, no albums! When I turned sixteen I could by LP's. I still have some little and big vinyls.
Little vinyls, lol.
Yes, same here, I bought one LP each month, could listen to the record inside the store before, 45's when a Top-Hit came out.
I treated the records with great care, most of the time recorded on cassette tapes like great mixes for playing in my car. Many weekends with friends making tapes, listening to records, drink beer and have a good time.
So different now...every one is sitting staring on the freaking phone...
Things have changed and not to the better in my opinion.... The good old days are gone !
I never bought vinyl from them, but I used to browse the CDs and cassettes for hours back in the early 2000s. There was something very satisfying about actually handling something instead of just clicking an icon on a screen. I still have all my CDs and cassettes after all these years. And I'm keeping them.
I loved tower records...we also had a few record stores in Memphis called pop tunes. Napster is really what indirectly killed most record stores because of the downloading. But people(including me) start buying computers and CD/DVD burners too. Now everything is digital. Now you can convert EVERYTHING digitally(albums, records, tapes, CD, etc).
And it all sounds like shit because digital instead for analog...
You are correct the Napster and digital media made most record stores go bankrupt or huge loss. When CD's came in the picture, the profit was huge compared with vinyl production. But internet and pirate downloading of music even if quality sucked became popular.
Personally I prefer a good reel to reel machine, nice quality turntable and stereo system "old school" for enjoying music.
Tower Records on Saturdays with Gina buying new extended play remixes. Take me back to the '80's.
The Buena Park store was where I’d stop by after payday. It was fun going through all the vinyls from A to Z. After doing that, I’d head over to the International section and do the same there too.
I used to shop there too when I was a teenager
My best friend worked at the Buena Park store. Art.
I lived right around corner from there on it was on Beach Blvd & Lincoln Ave then they moved to Buena Park Mall for minute before they closed 😢
Tower Records was very popular here in San Diego County. Other popular music store chains were The Wherehouse, Licorice Pizza and Musicianland/Sam Goody's.
Hell Yeah!
Wherehouse rocked!!
And Licorice Pizza?!
How old are you? J/K
😜🤣
God bless USA.
I remember the Tower Records store in Schaumburg, Illinois (Chicago area), opened in 1994 and closed in 2006.
The Tower Records store on West End Avenue in Nashville used to be in a building that was a beautiful Packard dealership in the 30s. It was demolished about a decade ago but you can still find pictures online.
Didn't know it used to be a Packard dealership! Shopped there late 80s-early 90s for hours at a time. Knew a couple of people who worked there, and they liked it, got to get creative on displays. Loved the Books section, too.
Reminds me of the Peaches store I used to go in all of the time in the late 70's thru mid 80"s
Peaches was the place to hang out back in the day. A dj buddy of mine still has all his Peaches albums and crates in mint collectable condition to this day.
Tower Records... Sam Goody... Where House... Cymbaline... All gone now in the forms we were so fond of -mostly due to the digital age. Back in the 80s and 90s, these were the stores to be if you were under 30...lol. Best places to get the latest songs upon release, and also to get concert tickets😄 Sometime over the last year, with all the world's chaos, I've stopped listening to the radio or even the music I once cherished...😐
Towards the end, the Tower Records in Marina del Rey, CA was doing some shady stuff. I purchased several CDs, and found they had charged me sales tax double the local rate. This was done automatically by the register. When I went back later that day with my receipt, the level of shady behavior quickly escalated with the manager trying to dismiss me as wrong. I stood my ground and threatened to call the police. The manager then quickly returned my money.
Evidently, they had rigged the registers to overcharge the sales tax, and then pocketed the difference.
I reported them to the state, but never found out what happened.
They closed soon after.
Oh the hours I spent at the Greenwich Village and Sunset Strip stores. Back when music shopping and book shopping was a pleasure. Now of course it easy to find most things instantly online, but boy do I miss the thrill of discovery we had back then. Nothing like that excitement now.
You hit a nerve with this video. Man, how I miss Tower records on Broadway in Manhattan, New York, it was right across the street from the Juilliard school and J&R in lower Manhattan, one block away from the old World Trade Center. I spent hours in both locations and saw a lot of recording star's there.
There's a great documentary movie about Tower records on FREE CZcams movies titled "All Things Must Pass" EXCELLENT MOVIE. 👍👍👍👌👌👌 The movie is around a hour and a half long.. A definite must see for all us Tower Record junkies .
I JUST mentioned the movie in a previous comment. Thanks for stating the name. Really great, nostalgic documentary.
@@stellarocquie7957 ....yes, it's a great documentary and it is available for free on CZcams if you can put up with all the commercials but hay, beggars can't be choosy. Thanks for the comment.
@@jpolar394 When I saw it a few weeks ago, there weren't any commercials. I guess that's how quickly stuff changes nowadays. Still a great doc, though.
Always had a dream of making records. Had no idea that my records would one day be sold there, and a painting of the cover would end up on the side of the building.
Tower Records helped this young kid's dream come true.
Back in the day, there was a record store named Harmony House. Harmony House went out of business in the late 1970's or the early 1980's,I can't remember when they went out of business.
P.S.,
I really miss Harmony House.
They had a terrific store on Route 22 eastbound in Springfield, NJ. I found many treasures there, but they were gone by the mid-1980s. In fact the building housing them was torn down, I have no idea what's there now.
I remember Harmony House very well.They went out of business in the early eighties.I used to shop at the Springfield store.Wonderful memories!.
Looking through all the liner notes and artwork was amazing. The generation of today has no interest in the CREATIVE part of an album.
This Video RULES & so did Tower Records !!!
Thanks for the memories. 👍🏻
I remember Tower Records in Rockville Maryland on Route 355 Rockville Pike was always a great experience
We had some other favorite Record stores like Waxie Maxie's & The Wiz
Kemp Mill Records was also a big local chain in MD.
@@dankerr6914 Oh yeah I remember Kemp Mill Records I even remember working at Strosnider's Hardware part time in Kemp Mill Shopping Center
I miss the days of searching out my music. Times you take a chance on an artist or band and either good or bad. Everyday Music in Portland is pretty special and offers that feeling.
In the ‘60s in LA County we had Wallach’s Music City. My friends and I spent many an hour hanging out in the store on Lakewood Boulevard across the street from Lakewood Center. They had listening booths and sold records, sheet music, and musical instruments, plus there as a bulletin board where bands would post ads for musicians wanted.
One came to my town in the 90s and I went there all the time. A couple of years ago I went into a used record shop run by a guy who used to manage that Tower. I think I spoke with him close to two hours while he told me stories about running the store and the different artists who came by to promote their records. He said Cher was one of the nicest people he ever met.
Spent many, many hours in those stores. Great times, great music....sure miss that. Licorice Pizza, The Warehouse loved them all.
Looking forward to watching this video. Some of my fondest memories of my youth are of browsing (and frequently purchasing) in Tower Records. Primarily, I shopped at the one in Mt. View (which had a book section and a larger Classical selection) and the one in Campbell (which was a little closer, & therefore less driving.) But I sadly never had the opportunity to shop at the original one on Telegraph Ave.
Was reflecting on the good ol' days in the Sunset store, shoulder to shoulder with others flipping through albums. Then had the grim reminder that if it were still like that corona would have snuffed them out like a candle. Happy memories, harsh reality. Really love your channel and commend your research, you hit on a good gameplan.
I realize now that I've lived during the best of times and the worst of times.
Tower Records was a State of Mind, a destination for teenagers and twentysomethings.
Tower Records and The Warehouse were my go to places to buy cassettes and CD's. Fantastic memories!
Wow Tower Records! I remember this and I remember actually going inside to buy stuff. Now it’s just a click in the iTunes Store. I miss browsing the store and seeing all the new albums and talking with the clerk. Kinda like the Video rental stores which are gone too.
We had a great store in Dallas, in Oak Lawn, the gayborhood. I loved it for having the best selection of classical music in DFW. Once inside, you walked downstairs. Classical shared the space with the equally impressive Jazz section. I'd peruse my green paperback Penguin Guide to Classical Music. Most of the time, I would find at least one or two CDs in the paperback and on the shelves. I bought many CDs over the years from that book, many with the rare "rosette" designation.
I’m from Philly. Tower was a landmark on downtown South St. Had a separate annex just for classical music.
They just demolished the Tower Records building on Broadway in Sacramento---so sad. I remember in the 70's, the Tower Books on Watt ave sold drug paraphernalia!
I remember spending hours exploring the different sections of the West Covina store which had giant displays of the various album artwork. A very cool place to get lost any day of the week.
I used to stop there between la/Vegas when I was commuting weekly for work
I spent a lot of Saturday and Sunday nights at the Tower Records in the Buckhead area of Atlanta. It was a great place to hang out and listen to music. I loved looking for various albums there. I miss that. Great times and memories.
Back in the day, late 60's and 70's, E. J. Korvettes was our Place to Go for records. Huge department with massive selection and the best prices in town. East Coast and Midwest. Bad management, went bankrupt in 1980 and all stores closed. Still have all the vinyl I got there.
I worked in the record department at Korvettes from 1973-1974 in Moorestown, NJ. What great memories! Loved seeing all of the new releases and we even got some free tickets ...I really don't remember how our manager got us tickets for free to see The Who's Quadrophenia tour but several of us went to see it in Philly!
Tower Records was my go to place FOR YEARS!! I used to go to the store on South St. in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, and the store in Cherry Hill New Jersey! It was always a great experience and I could always find what I was looking for, plus extra suprises while I was there!
It was a sad day when they closed! Those were turely the best of times!! Wish they were still here!!
When I bought a record, I would transfer the music to a cassette tape and then store the Album in a specially built, felt lined box. I still have the box with all my pristine records. 👍
Wow impressive!.Hang on to them because if they are in pristine condition they are worth a fortune to collectors.
Same here...still have all records from teenage years and added the collection of course to about 1500 LP and probably same in 45's records... + reel to reel tapes and even 8-tracks in a huge box stuck inside a closet.... "Music makes the world go around"
I remember Tower Records in San Jose, CA...current awesome records on the wall, were $2.88, back in '69, etc. during the wave of album music that hit the charts on alternative stations, such as WBCN, KSAN, SF, etc. Thanks. Subscribed.
Every payday in 1975 I went here to score the latest sounds. I worked at the gas station in Beverly Hills and lived in a Roach infested unit on Whitney @ Franklin. Best days of my life!
I remember going to Tower Records, Licorice Pizza, Warehouse Records and Blue Meanie every weekend looking for something new. I miss the 80s!
I bought my first opera recording at a Tower Records in VA in 1997. I was 20 years old and remember that walled off classical music section so well. My favorite Tower Records was probably the one in Washington, DC. Good times.
I met the band Megadeth at a Tower Records in San Diego. Waited 5 hours for the release of the Metallica Black album. Many good times there.
Here in Kansas City we had of course the various department stores that sold records as well as Music Land, 7th Heaven and Tiger Records. In the later years we had various stores such as Peaches (on the Kansas side) and a few others but they didn't seem to last long. There was one in the Truman Corners shopping center which I cannot remember the name of but I loved to go in there and flip through the albums and remember even buying a couple there. It was a great time to be young!
I worked at the Tower Records in Mountain View, California, from 1978 to '79. It was a crazy and bizarre place with regards to the staffing, I could write an adult novel with what I can recall from that year about that place; as some of the staffers and situations could be "R" rated.
The inventory Tower carried was stupendous; the retailing hours were extremely convenient for customers: 9 AM to Midnight, 365 days a year. The one downside was with its customer service in the store: Tower store managers would primarily hire young adults that had musical knowledge and awareness of the commercial music scene; but many of those that were hired lacked social skills to tactfully deal with the public. Which meant that many of the Tower employees were not robust with helpfulness to customers; and at times, be downright rude and sarcastic towards the customers. But then, with the minimum wage Tower paid its non-management employees, what could one expect with regards to quality employees.
Many-a-times when the local Bay Area publications had their *_Best of_* lists, Tower came out on top when it came to records/tapes retailing, but, it was also written that Tower got the _Best of_ despite the surly attitudes of its employees.
My time at Tower also exposed me to the practice of influence peddling at that time. The payola, that had been curtailed with radio stations in the 1960s, was alive and well with record retailing in the 1970s. It was the era prior to bar-coding merchandise that kept accurate sales counts; so that meant that during the era prior to keeping digital count with sales among music retailers, the record labels representatives had free-reign to influence peddling with record stores; where record store management could inflate the sales numbers of the records when making reports to the music trade magazines and local radio stations.
Even after I left Tower in 1979, due to the outrageously long hours put in quarterly for store inventory, along with the abysmally low wages and next-to-nothing with employee benefits; I shopped at Tower regularly as it was a block away from the laundromat I frequented a couple of times a month. After the wash, I'd place my clothes in drying, feed it several coins for a half-hour to 45 minute dry cycle, walk the block to Tower and browse around, and buy, the records in the store. At first it was vinyl, then transitioning to CDs. The Tower location also had a book section with magazines, where I bought issues of Billboard if the content was interesting.
It was the amazing level of knowledge the staff had about artists and music,as well as a huge stock of obscure and rare music.. One of my favorite places.
I loved this record store! My favorite was the one on 66th street; they had cassettes three for ten dollars, and I would head down there every month from the Bronx!
I spent plenty at the Campbell store (San Jose, CA).
... and Taco Bravo!😛
In the 80’s I used to buy Laser Discs ($20) from them shipped to Australia. Was great. Got them before movies were even released in Au.
I grew up and still reside in Sacramento. Tower Records was an icon here in town and I remember spending many days walking around the stores listening to the newest music. The sad part is, I rarely purchased anything from Tower as their CDs were close to 20 dollars unless they were new releases, but down the street at Best Buy they were selling all of their CDs for under 15 dollars. Those few dollars made a big difference to a kid in the 90s.
Memphis had Pop/Poplar Tunes, a favorite respite for Elvis. Stax Records also had a storefront to its studios. Personally, I’d enjoy seeing more music recollections, particularly the different recording studios across the U.S. over the years. These videos are quality time capsules. Thank you, Recollection Road.
I used to work at the mall and after work go to Tower Records and listen to albums in their sound booths. This was in West Covina, Ca. Bought a lot of albums there. Back then our parents expected us to earn money and buy them ourselves.
I remember tower records I went to San Francisco December ‘92 awesome music store
I was a Tower Records aficionado. I sold more than half of my vinyl collection, but the 150 or so titles I have left I mostly bought at Tower. Being an Orange County dude, I frequented the stores at Beach Boulevard and Lincoln in Anaheim, Imperial and Arovista in Brea (before they moved downtown) and Newport and 17th in Costa Mesa. Been to the sunset store a few times. I remember in October of 1989, I walked into the Brea store and a notice was posted stating that starting November most of their titles were going to be on CD. The vinyl bins were limited. Things went downhill from there....
I remember going to the Tower's in Boston decades ago with my friend. It was such a trip. Also all the other independent music outlets we had here, Strawberries, Coconuts, City Hall Music. Sure do miss those days.
Strawberries was a New England regional chain.
There was a big, multi-floored Tower in downtown Boston. I was a regular, there, throughout the 90s. Even got to know some of the awesome guys who worked there! Today, it's a Best Buy.
When I would visit Boston, I always went there! Have lots of import goodies from there! 😺
I still can't believe these stores are gone. I worked there during college in the early 90s. I met the strangest and most interesting group of people ever. The store always prided itself at closing at 12am. The celebrities would come in just before closing because the store would be mostly empty and no one would bother them.
Thanks for sharing 😊
That was my go to joint for videos and CDs from 1995 to 2006.
We had a Tower Records in Denver, and I visited two of their stores in New York. Mind-boggling selection!
From left field . I'm Canadian , I saw the Burger Chef video here the other day . I could not believe that I had never heard of Burger Chef . They had the first Star Wars cast do commercials for them , Happy Meal was there idea , Star Wars cups etc ...Just saying .
DON'T WORRY! Every place has its' RECOLLECTION ROAD where MEMORIES WERE MADE and LIVES WERE FASHIONED.
You probably had in your town "up there" a record store or two where people went to buy their recorded music. In my hometown in Puerto Rico there was at least a record store in every downtown (Petty Shop was THE store in mine).
Right now, for the same reasons our narrator put forward, music stores are few and far between (my hometown still got a SUCCESFUL one: MUSIC STOP in a mall near our downtown). The difference is that today's music stores have reinvented themselves; the larger chains like FYE sell a lot of "pop culture" stuff along with the music, my hometown store has turned into a CONSUMER ELECTRONICS STORE dealing with products and brands that the big box stores wouldn't even touch.
I believe there is one physical store remaining, in Japan.
Used to spend hours there at the one on the GWU campus. If there was some esoteric record or CD I couldn't find anywhere, they would likely have it. Flipping through web pages just doesn't feel the same as being in the store. Great memories.
I knew him well grew up in Sacramento and my favorite record store bar none. Best place to buy music 🎼🎶
My all-time favorite store !!!
Tower records on Sunset in West Hollywood has reopened! So excited
Well thank goodneas.
The “All Things Must Pass” documentary is really great and detailed
You might want to look into Peaches Records which were big in the South!
I remember Tower Drugs in Sacramento long before Tower Records. I used to shop the Tower Records store on Sunset. I watched them transition from LPs to CDs.
I had heard of them , but had never seen one until now !!!!
When I was in my early 20's in the late 80's, it was the payday Friday evening ritual to head to Mike Kwan's Golden Coin Buffet at 32nd St and Thomas in Phoenix. Once we got stuffed on the cheap, good and filling Chinese food, we headed a mile east to 40th St. and Thomas to Tower Records. We would burn up an hour looking over the record racks and burn off the food we ate. That location is now a WSS Shoes. Another favorite location to while away the evening was the Tower Records at Chris-Town Mall. Sometimes, we would start or finish the evening at the Peter Piper Pizza just a few doors down. The Chris-Town location is now a Park & Ride lot.
As a teenager I would frequently go to the store on Market Street in Philadelphia, cool days!