As with the locations in San Francisco, L.A., and throughout Japan, the New York City Tower was an enormous success.īy 1999, Tower was operating more than 150 stores in almost two-dozen countries, generating annual revenues of a billion dollars. The first of a string of immensely profitable stores in Japan followed in 1979, and then, in 1983, the company opened a four-story temple to music in one of the most run-down sections of New York City. In 19, Tower opened larger locations in San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively. In 1961, the younger Solomon opened the first official Tower Records, complete with its famous red-on-yellow signage, on Sacramento’s Watt Avenue. Hanks’ subject is his favorite hometown record store, Tower Records, which began its climb to global dominance in 1941, when a Sacramento teenager named Russ Solomon and his druggist father, Clayton, sold used 3-cent jukebox 78s to their soda-fountain customers for a dime.įrom these humble roots grew the international empire of Tower Records. Turns out that working in a record store was equally personal for the folks behind the counter, in the stock room, or out at corporate HQ, as the 2015 documentary, All Things Must Pass, directed by Sacramento, California, native Colin Hanks, so movingly explains. If you were an asshole, then you got treated like an asshole.” Physical effort was required, as well as time and-ahem-money. Incredible as it may seem today, the mundane act of acquiring music also used to be personal, or at least required a personal investment: You’d hear a song on the radio or see a band at a local dive, decide you want more, and then make your way to your favorite record store to buy an LP or 45. Some songs will always make certain people happy, while those same tunes will just as reliably make other people cry. Listening to music is a deeply personal experience.
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