Retro Roundup’s favourite record stores, past and present

By Joel Goldenberg, October 5th, 2012

In memory of Sam “the Record Man” Sniderman, who passed away recently at 92, here’s Retro Roundup’s list of its all-time favourite records stores, those that still exist (a vastly shrinking lot, unfortunately) and the many that have closed down. These are in no particular order of preference:
• Sam the Record Man, on Ste. Catherine: In its day, the best and most comprehensive store with new records and CDs. The design of the store was not top notch, but that sort of added to its charm. I got some great Who records there, as well as my first Otis Redding best-of and my first DVD-Audio surround sound disc, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. I’m not much of a jazz fan, but the jazz section on the second floor still had me salivating at the amount of releases available of great artists. The closing of this place was a real tragedy.
• Beatnick, at St. Denis Street and Pine Avenue: At a time when so many record stores have closed, this place is a godsend, with — to my knowledge — the most comprehensive collection in the city of soul, rock, country and oldies on both CD and vinyl. The place is also a sort of museum, as there are a lot of collector’s items on vinyl. This place really deserves a visit from any music fan.
• A & A at Ste. Catherine and Guy: Also far from a well-designed store, but with lots of good product. This was the place I saw some of the first CDs. One of the first stores to close.
• Cheap Thrills on McTavish: Still a great place for vinyl and CDs available nowhere else, but I really miss the original store on Bishop Street, where I once found a treasure trove of original Otis Redding LPs at a very reasonable price.
• Tower Records around 72nd and Broadway in New York City: The loss of this store was another big tragedy for me. It had a huge variety of CDs in general, and an especially big oldies section — where I was capable of spending hours poring over their stock. The group of Tower stores much much further south were also comprehensive.
• Virgin Megastore on Times Square in New York City: Another place, now closed, with huge stock (although a lot of it was overpriced), especially imports from the UK. They also had an excellent bookstore with books I had not seen anywhere else. I also have a sentimental memory of the place, as I met and spoke to Joe Strummer (formerly of the Clash) there about a year before his very untimely death.
• Discus at Place Vertu in St. Laurent: The opening not long ago of the Toys R Us Express store at the shopping centre brought back bittersweet memories, as this was the first time the old Discus space was open again. The place had a lot of good product, as well as a lot of bargain junk. But I loved the place anyway, and I didn’t like the fact it moved to a more swanky locale at Place Vertu not long before all the stores closed for good. Another cool Discus was the underground (literally) store next to Chapters at Ste. Catherine and Stanley.
• Music World at Cavendish Mall in Côte St. Luc: The stock there was okay, and the prices were frequently pretty good, but it makes the list because of the very friendly sales person with whom I used to discuss music. Of course, the downtown flagship location at Complexe Desjardins had even more stock, but the whole place is sadly gone.
• Archambault at Ste. Catherine and Berri. One of, if not the, oldest music stores in Montreal. Very good stock, but very pricey for some material.
• Tower Records at Piccadilly Circus in London: Very good stock,with some nice bargains, and surprisingly more interesting than the Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street. Unfortunately Tower closed all over the world.
• HMV on Oxford Street in London: Not only a historic record store, having been around nearly a century, but blindingly good in terms of stock, including many bargains, at least as of 2007 — the last time I was in London. I wonder if their stock has tripled, owing to the very numerous oldies recordings available thanks to looser European copyright laws that have rendered recordings more than 50 years old public domain. That place alone would be an incentive to make a return trip to England.
And last but not least:
• HMV at Ste. Catherine and Peel: It’s the one big store we have for CDs these days in the downtown area. I just wish the stock was better, but the store is quite dominated these days by DVDs, Blu-rays, books and knick-knacks.
Unfortunately, with some exceptions, the excitement generated at places like Sam the Record Man for the musically hip are largely gone, and I don’t anticipate their return in our age of downloading and streaming.