RIP.
Ah yes, I also have so many wonderful memories of roaming the aisles of Tower Records. For those that don't know, the very first Tower Records started in my parents' home town of Sacramento, CA. I went there several times when I was in Sacramento visiting relatives. It was just a local record shop that was located right near Tower Theater, hence the name - Tower Records. It expanded over the years and they added Tower Books next door. Here's a picture of the original Sacramento Tower Records:
Tower Records is still in business - in Japan. Here's the the big one in the Shibuya district of Tokyo:
I saw a sign for the one in Osaka on my most recent trip to Japan but unfortunately I didn't have enough time to go look for it. Here's the outside of that store:
As I'm finding out more often, if you want to see cool stuff, you have to go to Japan. Here's the Tower Records that I spent my youth at, the one in Campbell, CA:
That location was notorious for having a way too small parking lot so it was always impossible to find a place to park. It was so busy there in its hey-day, that the small housing development behind the store required its residents to have parking permits in order to park on the streets in front of their homes.
I bought so many records (later CDs) there over the years. Van Halen, The Police, Rush, AC/DC, Metallica...I bought them all from Tower Records. Every once in a while they'd mark down the older albums for $5.99 and that's when I would blow my hard earned allowance in the aisles of Tower Records. I still have those albums and CDs and I still spin them on my stereo from time to time. (Whenever I have the time to listen to music, which isn't too often any more.)
*sigh* Those were the good old days. Thank you Russ Solomon for starting an institution of my youth in little Sacramento.
For the Bay Area folks out there, now reminisce about the good old days of Bay Area rock radio when KRQR, KSJO, and KOME were ruling the airwaves.
I'm a South Bay guy so KSJO and KOME were on my radio dial. Both stations hosted listening parties at the Tower Records in Campbell many times over the years.
Good times!