RECORD FIRSTS: A Pre-History of My Career in Record Stores

Many of the first records I bought as a kid were purchased at the Gold Circle department store in Cassinelli Square across the street from Tri-County Mall in Springdale, Ohio, just 15 minutes north of Cincinnati. At the time I was pulling down a hefty allowance of 25 cents a week, as was my sister. Albums in the Gold Circle record department were $3.99. This meant that I had to save my allowance for 4 months to buy one record. Or my sister and I could pool our allowance and purchase a record that we both wanted every two months. We also had the occasional opportunity to take on some additional chores to earn a little extra cheddar. Example: vacuum the whole house for 50 cents. Eyes on the prize, we knew this could radically accelerate our record buying schedule. Every single trip to Gold Circle in those days was fraught with great excitement and anticipation, as well as some serious deliberation over what our ultimate selection would be.

My sister and I couldn't always agree on an album to purchase together. It was rare, but sometimes we went home empty-handed. Or each of us might buy a 45 of the latest hit song to strike our fancy. The first 7" single I ever bought was Alice Cooper's "No More Mr Nice Guy". Years later I was able to get a copy of the record autographed by the man himself.

In spite of the preponderance of Disco, I maintain the mid- to late-'70s was a golden era for Rock n Roll. Even the Top 40 station played good shit back then.

Some of my more memorable childhood purchases included the following classics:

Steve Miller Band - Book Of Dreams, May 1977

Best of the Doobies, October 1976

Boston's debut album, August 1976

Heatwave - Too Hot To Handle, May 1977

Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life, September 1976

Frampton Comes Alive, January 1976

Aunt Annette came in from California for a visit in 1976. We did some shopping together in Tri-County Mall where she decided it was only appropriate to buy me a copy of the Eagles' Hotel California at Record Bar. We had no way of knowing at the time that I would be working there eight years later.

I discovered KISS in 1976 but it was another two years before my mother would allow their records in our house. Bless him, my Dad grew weary of this bullshit ban and simply put the Double Platinum cassette in my Christmas stocking in 1978. Outlawing KISS records only made me more determined to get them. Elsewhere on this blog I have written about dubbing my friends' KISS LPs on dirt cheap blank tapes and intentionally mislabeling them to further forestall getting found out. No radio station in Cincinnati was playing KISS back then. Only Q-102 relented for their nightly Top 10 at 10:00 when they were forced to admit that a small army of their listeners were indeed blowing up the request line with demands to hear "Calling Dr. Love".

Our so-called Rock station WEBN wouldn't touch KISS with a ten-foot antenna. These factors only compounded my resolve to procure the forbidden records by any means necessary. Ace Frehley inspired me to get my first guitar. The rest is KISStory.