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Georgetown University students looking through racks of records at a record store, Washington, D.C. Photo by Thomas O'Halloran, 14 November 1979. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.56629

Vinyl Memories

Posted by: Jan Grenci

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I miss record stores. I know there are still some out there, but they aren’t as ubiquitous as they were when I was growing up in the 1970s and 80s. The main stores I shopped in were National Record Mart and Camelot Music. I recall getting some good albums in the bargain bin at G.C. Murphy’s as well.

I’m taking this walk down memory lane because my latest Flickr album – Let’s Go Shopping – features two photos of record stores. I think I’ve mentioned before that I enjoy looking closely at the details of images. The high-resolution files made by the Prints & Photographs Division lend themselves to close-up study. In one record store photo, taken in November of 1979 by Thomas O’Halloran for U.S. News and World Report Magazine, I (with a little help from some of my colleagues) was able to identify 33 of the albums for sale!

Here is the photo:

Georgetown University students looking through racks of records at a record store, Washington, D.C. Photo by Thomas O’Halloran, 14 November 1979. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.56629

In no particular order, though I’m listing my favorite first:

  • Saturday Night Fiedler
  • Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Rust Never Sleeps
  • Cheap Trick – Dream Police
  • The Alan Parsons Project – Eve
  • Led Zeppelin – In Through the Out Door
  • Foreigner – Head Games
  • Journey – Evolution
  • Jethro Tull – Stormwatch
  • Barbra Streisand – Wet
  • Barry Manilow – One Voice
  • Cheap Trick – In Color
  • Bob Dylan – Slow Train Coming
  • David Bromberg – Wanted Dead or Alive
  • Jefferson Starship – Freedom at Point Zero
  • Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run
  • Jimmy Buffett – Volcano
  • Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – So Far
  • Emerson, Lake & Palmer – In Concert
  • AKB- Stand Up Sit Down
  • The Main Event
  • The Billie Holiday Story
  • Jean-Luc Ponty – Live
  • Pat Metheny Group – American Garage
  • Christa Ludwig & Leonard Bernstein – An Evening of Brahms Songs
  • Claudja Barry – Boogie Woogie Dancin’ Shoes
  • Taka Boom – Taka Boom
  • Commodores – Midnight Magic
  • Michael Jackson – Off the Wall
  • David Ruffin – So Soon We Change
  • Bobbi Humphrey – Freestyle
  • Angela Bofill – Angie
  • Rufus & Chaka – Masterjam
  • Lou Rawls – When You Hear Lou, You’ve Heard it All

There is one album that I haven’t been able to place. Do you know what it is?

Detail from Georgetown University students looking through racks of records at a record store, Washington, D.C. Photo by Thomas O’Halloran, 14 November 1979. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.56629

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Comments (4)

  1. Peter Bochan says:

    Bob Seger?

  2. Scott says:

    Nice post! I always enjoy trying to identify album covers in photos/movies. The mystery cover is Cannonball Adderley’s “Soul Zodiac.”

  3. Bob says:

    Thank you Scott!

  4. Georgina says:

    I thought it was Smokey Robinsons’ Where There’s Smoke. but it doesn’t match the cover. So I’m going with my second pick, Kool and the Gang.

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