[Randy]

Rocky Mountain Records & Tapes, Pearl Street Mall, Boulder CO.

jcarney

I used to go to a store (CD era) in a mall in Boulder. I think the entire mall has disappeared now, but it was a nice store and mall, two levels with a big food court. Any idea where that might have been?  When I went back to Boulder two years ago after many years not visiting, I couldn't find the mall but so much had changed I wasn't sure I was even on the right street. Also used to buy CDs in a store on Arapaho, I think, forget it's name, too.  (Classical.)

The store in the mall I was thinking of may have been a "Sound Warehouse."  Good classical selection.

[OTM]

In London Ontario
The Madrigal - great classical & Jazz
Dr. Disc. - cd’s and at the back of store and basement vinyl
And once a year trips to Sams in Toronto

[Randy]

I went to college a U or Mich, Ann Arbor. The most popular record store was Discount Records, corner of State and Liberty. Great classical selection and good prices. Down the street on Liberty St. was Liberty Music Shop, a legendary store of the time, strictly classical. I didn't go there as often since the prices were higher than at Discount Records, but you could get "imports" there. In my senior year (68' - '69) a store opened up on the ground floor of the apartment building I was living in, University Towers, a 20-story high rise. That was too convenient.   

Many years later after I had left Ann Arbor a Tower Records opened up across the street from University Towers, but I only went there a couple of times when visiting the town.   Most of the rest of my life I've lived in small towns where record stores were nonexistent. However, I remember when Best Buy got going. In the store I went to in the northern suburbs of Chicago (suppose it was in Skokie or Glenview) they had an entire room devoted to classical. It was a paradise, but it didn't last long, maybe three or four years, tops.

How could I have forgotten Rose Records in Chicago. Their main store was on Wabash but at some point they had two locations in Evanston, one on Sherman Ave, the other a few block away on Davis!

In later years I would drive down to the Cherry Creek Mall in Denver and stock up at the Tower Records there. It wasn't actually in the mall but was a half block away, on the other side of an Italian restaurant.

[iowa]

Uncle John’s on Sioux City, IA’s west side. - They always said that Tommy Bolin’s childhood home was nearby. No idea if that was true.

[syzygy]

National Record Mart(s) Pittsburgh, PA

[mr_bill]

Budget Tapes and Records.
Bismarck.

[DrJ-10]

I'm pleased that someone else valued Rose Records (Chicago) and Liberty Records (Ann Arbor).  I'll add the Tower Records in Berkeley and San Francisco, which always had a great staff and a separate room for classical music.  Also A Musical Offering/University Press Books in Berkeley.

This isn't the topic of this thread, but I'll also mention Tupper and Reed in Berkeley, who back in the day had an astounding amount and variety of sheet musical available.

[Spyman]

The very first record store I remember was Jenkins Music Store on West Main St. in downtown Oklahoma City. I’m showing my age here, but I remember asking the sales clerk to give me certain records and I would go play them in a sound booth! They were 78’s! The store carried instruments and pianos too. A real music store!

A few years later I started buying 45’s and l.p.s at Criterion Records next to the old Criterion Theater on East Main in OKC. It was a really small store, but “cool.”

In the late 60’s and early 70’s I was music director at a Top 40 station in Indianapolis. We printed a weekly Top Hits list and distributed it to 50 places all over town. That’s FIFTY places! Of course, that included Woolworth’s, department stores, record stores and any place that sold records. My favorite store was Lyric Records on the west side.

I later lived in Lexington, Kentucky and shopped at MusicLand, Camelot and Disc Jockey Records. My wife and I would drive to Cincinnati, Ohio from time to time to shop for classical records at Swallen’s, a great place that also sold equipment.

Then it was back to Oklahoma City in 1982 (from town to town, up and down the dial 😁) where I rediscovered Wilcox Records on N.W. 10th. That was the same store where my mother used to buy square dance records in the 50’s! They were a great independent store where you could go in and talk music with the guys there. I really hated to see that store close! When they did, I shopped at Sound Warehouse. Their main store on North May was a converted movie theater.

Now we live in Colorado and mainly shop for used records at Twist ‘N’ Shout on Colfax and Wax Trax.

This topic has sure brought back a lot of memories!

[charmerci]

Books, Strings and Things in Blacksburg, VA

I bought quite a few records there for $4.37 in the 70's.

I used to buy all my albums and books there in college!
The old Penguin Feather shop in Annandale (northern VA) too!

[Spyman]

The very first record store I remember was Jenkins Music Store on West Main St. in downtown Oklahoma City. I’m showing my age here, but I remember asking the sales clerk to give me certain records and I would go play them in a sound booth! They were 78’s! The store carried instruments and pianos too. A real music store!

A few years later I started buying 45’s and l.p.s at Criterion Records next to the old Criterion Theater on East Main in OKC. It was a really small store, but “cool.”

In the late 60’s and early 70’s I was music director at a Top 40 station in Indianapolis. We printed a weekly Top Hits list and distributed it to 50 places all over town. That’s FIFTY places! Of course, that included Woolworth’s, department stores, record stores and any place that sold records. My favorite store was Lyric Records on the west side.

I later lived in Lexington, Kentucky and shopped at MusicLand, Camelot and Disc Jockey Records. My wife and I would drive to Cincinnati, Ohio from time to time to shop for classical records at Swallen’s, a great place that also sold equipment.

Then it was back to Oklahoma City in 1982 (from town to town, up and down the dial 😁) where I rediscovered Wilcox Records on N.W. 10th. That was the same store where my mother used to buy square dance records in the 50’s! They were a great independent store where you could go in and talk music with the guys there. I really hated to see that store close! When they did, I shopped at Sound Warehouse. Their main store on North May was a converted movie theater.

Now we live in Colorado and mainly shop for used records at Twist ‘N’ Shout on Colfax and Wax Trax.

This topic has sure brought back a lot of memories!

[Spyman]

The very first record store I remember was Jenkins Music Store on West Main St. in downtown Oklahoma City. I’m showing my age here, but I remember asking the sales clerk to give me certain records and I would go play them in a sound booth! They were 78’s! The store carried instruments and pianos too. A real music store!

A few years later I started buying 45’s and l.p.s at Criterion Records next to the old Criterion Theater on East Main in OKC. It was a really small store, but “cool.”

In the late 60’s and early 70’s I was music director at a Top 40 station in Indianapolis. We printed a weekly Top Hits list and distributed it to 50 places all over town. That’s FIFTY places! Of course, that included Woolworth’s, department stores, record stores and any place that sold records. My favorite store was Lyric Records on the west side.

I later lived in Lexington, Kentucky and shopped at MusicLand, Camelot and Disc Jockey Records. My wife and I would drive to Cincinnati, Ohio from time to time to shop for classical records at Swallen’s, a great place that also sold equipment.

Then it was back to Oklahoma City in 1982 (from town to town, up and down the dial 😁) where I rediscovered Wilcox Records on N.W. 10th. That was the same store where my mother used to buy square dance records in the 50’s! They were a great independent store where you could go in and talk music with the guys there. I really hated to see that store close! When they did, I shopped at Sound Warehouse. Their main store on North May was a converted movie theater.

Now we live in Colorado and mainly shop for used records at Twist ‘N’ Shout on Colfax and Wax Trax.

This topic has sure brought back a lot of memories!

[DrJ-10]

You can say that again, Spyman!   

[Spyman]

Sorry this was posted more than once. I can’t figure out how to delete the extras!

[Randy]

I'm pleased that someone else valued Rose Records (Chicago) and Liberty Records (Ann Arbor).  I'll add the Tower Records in Berkeley and San Francisco, which always had a great staff and a separate room for classical music.  Also A Musical Offering/University Press Books in Berkeley.

This isn't the topic of this thread, but I'll also mention Tupper and Reed in Berkeley, who back in the day had an astounding amount and variety of sheet musical available.

Rose Records had a national reputation back in the day - before Tower Records was around.   Tower moved into the downtown Rose location when Rose gave up the ghost, but Tower's big Chicago store was on the northside on Clark St.

[Joe Frances]

Old, but maybe not forgotten entirely by NYC music lovers: J&R Music World on Park Row,  down by City Hall.

When most people went to Tower Records, the real place to go was J&R especially for their fabulous classical and jazz departments.

[SET Man]

Old, but maybe not forgotten entirely by NYC music lovers: J&R Music World on Park Row,  down by City Hall.

When most people went to Tower Records, the real place to go was J&R especially for their fabulous classical and jazz departments.

Hey!

    Man! How could I forget about the J&R Music World! Yes, loved going there browsing around the stuff, I remembered drooling over some of the audio stuffs there back than

     Yes, I remembered they have a separate store for classical and jazz music. It was a great store. Thanks for reminding me 

Buddy

[Joe Frances]

Hey!

    Man! How could I forget about the J&R Music World! Yes, loved going there browsing around the stuff, I remembered drooling over some of the audio stuffs there back than

     Yes, I remembered they have a separate store for classical and jazz music. It was a great store. Thanks for reminding me 

Buddy

Buddy:  Remember the narrow stairs up to Classical and Jazz; and you could hardly get two people by if they were going in opposite directions?  And the stairs will steep, but the posters along the way were great...I can't think of Maurizio Pollini without thinking of his much younger (than today) face on the poster on the way up to J&R...And the staff...gosh, I wish I could remember the name of that young skinny guy with the frenetic movements always dealing with three customers at once, but boy did he know his stuff about recordings.

[CanadianMaestro]

Buddy:  Remember the narrow stairs up to Classical and Jazz; and you could hardly get two people by if they were going in opposite directions?  And the stairs will steep, but the posters along the way were great...I can't think of Maurizio Pollini without thinking of his much younger (than today) face on the poster on the way up to J&R...And the staff...gosh, I wish I could remember the name of that young skinny guy with the frenetic movements always dealing with three customers at once, but boy did he know his stuff about recordings.

Yup.

There was an HMV at the corner of Broadway and 72nd, it was King for Classical CDs. Lots of stars like Pollini, Mutter, and Dutoit, went there to chat and buy discs while in town to perform. I miss that place, and Towers at 67th/B'way too. Whole floor there of classical, like downtown at J & R.

[Joe Frances]

One other thing about this fun topic:

Back in the late 70s there was a wonderful record store in downtown Hartford where I first heard some incredible music that changed my life.  I didn't have a stereo system then, couldn't afford one while in school, but I went to this store to listen to music, and even bought LPs when I couldn't play them back, how about "them apples?" as my father used to say.  Does anyone remember that store?  I am not talking about Al Franklin's in the Civic Center (actually that's an oldie and a goodie too); but the other stand-alone record store.  It's like a phantom memory...