Goodbye Mr. Solomon, it was nice shopping in Tower Records!

Last weekend we lost a man who had dedicated himself to selling records all over the world for more than 6 decades. It is said that he died of a sudden heart attack, while drinking whiskey and watching the Academy Awards, after having commented negatively on someone's dress choice during the ceremony. I wonder who he was picking to pieces...

Tower Records shops were definitely the first places I wanted to go whenever I visited London and New York. The San Francisco shop was a mecca for me when I was a student there and most probably the only place where I was spending most of my pocket money.

Russ SOLOMON:

Mr. Solomon was born in Sacramento, California in 1925.  He quit high school and worked in his father's drug store called the "Tower Cut Rate". He never had a formal education but learned the tools of the trade from his dad. His interest in record selling dates back to 1940s where he sold used juke box records from his father's shop. He went bankrupt a couple of times during the 1950s. The turning point in his life was maybe opening a business called MTS Inc. (named after his son) with the $ 5,000 loan he received from his father. This business was going to be the foundation of Tower Records.

"Remembering Tower Records"

He opened the first store in San Francisco in 1960,  followed by the Los Angeles branch. By the beginning of the 1980s, Tower Records had reached 26 stores all over the USA and a huge branch in Tokyo, Japan. Unfortunately, with the internet boom, download issues and the listeners' disengagement with the vinyl records, the profits of the stores could not fund the fast international expansion and the company was forced to liquidate and close in 2006.

Russell Solomon

Today, as far as I know, the only Tower Records still open are the Japanese stores where they went independent of the mother company by a management buy-out in 2005. There are almost 85 branches all over Japan. Currently the Tokyo store is the world's biggest music retail shop.
I hope they remain open at least till the day I find a chance to visit them.

Russ Solomon worked hard to be in the business trying with other retail opportunities, but could not succeed until his retirement.

It wouldn't be fair not to mention the great Tower Records documentary "All Things Must Pass" by Colin Hanks when writing a post on Russ Solomon. You can watch the whole story behind the Tower empire along with some footage of great artists/shoppers like Chris Cornell, Dave Grohl, Bruce Springsteen and Elton John.

If you can, watch the documentary. It explains well the situation of the music retail business after the digital download craze.

And one last word, please support your local record store and don't forget that it is "Record Store Day" on the 21st of April!