Tower Records, 721-725 Fifth Avenue, between 56th and 57th Streets
Tower Records, Broadway at 66th Street (closed 12/06)
Tower Records, Broadway at East Fourth Street (opened 1983, closed 12/06)

Virgin Megastore, Times Square, 1540 Broadway, at 45th Street
Virgin Megastore, Union Square, Broadway and 14th Street

These are the ones that were most painful to me, the whole reason to visit NYC. J@R had become a shell of itself quite awhile ago and being way downtown, I rarely went there anymore.

Particularly loved the Tower Records at Broadway at 66th Street. A movie and dinner at Lincoln Plaza (the IMAX screen in NYC) and then a stop over at Tower.

I was a regular at all of those stores too John, depending on where I was going in Manhattan. I loved them all.

"What's in the bag dude?"

I actually dealt with similar once when I was bringing a local customer some cd's they'd bought. The transaction took place at a Starbucks. Several police followed my car when I left & we had a very unpleasant (for me) encounter.

Don't think we didn't have the same thought!

Gloria couldn't make it today, but she's got another bag of goodies for next week, including Chuck Berry.

NYCD was one of my favorite stores, and the only reason for me to travel to the Yupper West Side. It was the only place that I knew of that sold Sinatra boots, and I got some good stuff there, stuff that even today I'm really glad I have (not just from a collector's standpoint, but as something I actually like listening to).

Can't believe it's been over ten years since they closed.

Vintage records sleeves, did you have any of these in your vinyl collection years ago?

Always liked the orange EPIC Records sleeves and the classic red POLYDOR.

I vaguely remember a Capitol one that some Beatles 45's came in.

I had tons of 45s with the Columbia label. When I see one I think of Chicago or Paul Simon.

What I remember most vividly is the feeling of exasperation when I discovered that import singles often had picture sleeves while my domestic 45s were mostly in those generic label sleeves.

I remember that!

Several of my later Stones 45s come with their own generic tongue sleeve, a rather hideous take-off on the group's famous logo.

"Plays good." That must be from the Long Island store (forget the name but you'll remember them) where they stapled 45 sleeves to keep the discs from being taken out.

By the 80's just before the dawn of the CD, New Wave artists would have interesting 45 sleeves like Thompson Twins or Cyndi Lauper.

I'd feel better if you'd just change Avenue of the Americas to 6th Avenue.

Tower Records Broadway @ E4st July 1983 after it had just opened that Summer. Photo just showed up on my Facebook feed.

Tower. You know, this thread is a good all-purpose one for departed record stores, so I've closed our older (and far more "morbid") threads for Tower and J&R.

I remember that summer of 1983 after Tower opened. I drove into Manhattan every Friday evening after school and work to check out their import section. Until Virgin came along, I thought that Tower had the absolute greatest import department.

I had forgotten that it opened in 1983. I moved to Greenwich Village in June '83, and I'm still there (though not the same building). Lived amongst all the record stores for a third of a century! (until now.... they are mostly gone )

Morbid? All that means is that I can post updated photos of the J&R site in this thread instead of the other one.

I always loved the Casablanca 45 sleeves.

Look, if you want to post pictures of New York City, post the food!