2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records

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On Friday, August 9th, Charles R. Cross passed away from natural causes. For those who knew Charley in the Pacific Northwest music community, the Springsteen community and in real life, it was a shock. Charley was only 67 years old and was in the middle of working on his 10th book. 

Back in October 2023 Charley sat down with us and discussed Tower, Seattle, Music and a ton of other subjects. 

I first met Charley in 1984, the old fashioned way...by writing him a letter. I had seen his fanzine "Backstreets Magazine" and was stunned at the quality of the publication. I was going into my Senior year of college and I sent along articles I had written. He encouraged me to contribute whatever I wanted. Surprisingly he began printing my articles and photographs. 

When I moved to Seattle in 1990 I knew two people; my boss Rob Bruce and Charley. Both showed me the lay of the land in Seattle. While I knew Charley as the Publisher and Editor of "Backstreets" what I quickly found out was the influence of his "day job" publisher and editor of "The Rocket" an incredible chronicle of the Northwest Music scene long before I got there and after I left. As Springsteen's popularity ebbed and Seattle's was on the rise, Charley had a front row seat and shared it with his readers. 

We're rerunning our Episode with Charles R. Cross today. Give it a listen. 

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When Greg Wallis was hired at Tower Tacoma by Dave Coker, Greg had never heard of Tower Records. It was simply the big, new record store to move into his town. When Coker left to open and run the Seattle U District store, Rob Bruce came up from Anaheim CA to be General Manager. By this time, Greg was the buyer for all sections of music except for Classical Music. Soon after, Assistant Manger Bob Akin went to Sacramento to join the Advertising Department and Greg was promoted to Assistant Manager. 

Stints in Hawaii, the opening of the Boston store, working countless A-Teams until Clark Street Chicago opened and his promotion to Midwest/Southeast Regional Manager were all a part of Greg’s Tower experiences. 

Greg touches on the excitement of the Blues scene in Chicago as well as the challenges of running a record store off the mainland where timely deliveries are essential to success.

But something about his time in Boston made for some memorable stories. On this episode, Greg recounts the tales of Morris Levy, whom he and his crew dealt with around the opening and first year of operations in Boston. Also, if you’ve never heard the story of Greg’s instore with Robyn Hitchcock and Hitchcock’s ridiculous behavior beforehand, Greg recounts it from his perspective. The fact that Hitchcock continues to write about it on his Facebook page, decades later, proves Greg acted appropriately at such childish shenanigans. 

And….this is our 100th episode. Following our conversation with Greg Wallis, we take a moment to celebrate this occasion!

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Melissa Greene-Anderson grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Since high school she was a part of her family’s music business; Gotham Distribution, Collectables Records, and the direct-to-consumer website Oldies.com. Melissa’s father started in a record store in Times Square NYC. At a very young age, Jerry Greene bought the rights to The Capri’s “There’s A Moon Out Tonight” which was released in 1959 and didn’t chart. He re-released it in 1961 and it went to #3 on the Billboard Charts. 

With that money, Jerry Greene moved to Philadelphia and opened up a chain of record stores called The Record Museum. As straight as they come, he knew the business and made a killing on selling paraphernalia in the Philadelphia area, which often led to visits from Grace Slick and Jerry Garcia. After spending thousands of dollars on one visit, Jerry Garcia got busted crossing a bridge from Philadelphia to New Jersey with his haul. 

Melissa was the Executive Vice President of Gotham Distribution and started selling to Tower Records. At one point, she even hired the singles buyer from the brand new Washington DC store to help run their singles business. Licensing songs from labels and making albums and eventually CDs in conjunction with Oldies radio stations helped launch the Collectables album and CD part of the business. 

Eventually, Melissa got the go-ahead to rack the Tower stores with vinyl singles as cassingles and CD singles were taking over. Remember those bright gold 45 sleeves that got shipped back to send new product? Melissa worked with each store on an individual basis to make sure the program worked. She talks about a humiliating experience with a Tower Manager who refused to deal with her on their rollout. 

But most of her memories are good ones. Join us for a wide-ranging conversation about music, family, Philadelphia restaurants, and Tower Records. 

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“Son, never trust us lawyers because we’re going to fuck you every time.” 

In 1991, how did Freddi Szilagi find himself face to face, hand-delivering a $10,000 check to Edwin Edwards at the Hotel Monteleone? In short, because of Russ Solomon and Tower Records. For a more detailed explanation, you can hear our guest this week break it all down for you. 

Before he was enmeshed in the world of state politics, Freddi Szilagi grew up poor on the Upper East Side of New York City. His mother was an aspiring Opera singer who moved from one bedroom apartment to another with four kids, two dogs, and a grand piano. Having a father who was a piano prodigy, who blew off his scholarship to Julliard, you could safely say that Freddi grew up with music in the house. 

When a friend set up an interview for Freddi to work at the new Tower Records at 4th and Broadway, it set in motion a 17-year career taking him from NYC to working an A-Team project at the new store that had opened in New Orleans. Meeting the woman who would become his wife while opening the store, Freddi moved down to New Orleans working under Dan Shepard. Eventually, Dan left New Orleans, Freddi became the General Manager and he immediately set about highlighting the tremendous music that was coming out of the city of New Orleans. A large part of that was becoming a part of the fabric of the New Orleans Jazzfest. 

Freddi finished his Tower career at the Washington DC store, leaving after receiving an offer from a member of his kid’s school PTA, who worked for Time-Life music. 

Make sure to check out this week’s episode with Freddi recalling buying kid’s music from the Mafia, profanity-filled conversations with Dr. John, and a whole lot more. 

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Just a quick check in with everybody on this hot & beautiful 4th of July week. Find out about some upcoming events and episodes, including an "Ask Me Anything" episode where you can ask any question about the Tower Records Podcast by sending an email to . 

We'd love to hear from you

Cheers!

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When Kat Gavin was born, her mother was only 18 years old. And as a result, Kat’s crib was right next to the stereo. So to say Kat grew up “with music” would be an understatement. 

After a stint working record retail in the malls of Northeast Philadelphia, Kat made her way into Center City Philadelphia and got a job at Tower Records South Street. It was there she met, worked, and bonded with so many of “her people”. It was there she met her former husband, Geoff Gavin, and raised a family with him. 

At South Street Kat did it all; sales clerk, cashier, buyer, Supervisor, Key Holder, Administrative Assistant…

And then there were the In Stores; The Cramps, G Love & Special Sauce, The Roots, Morrissey, and a host of others. Kat especially remembers the South Street store’s 10th Anniversary Party when she had to help the Phillie Phanatic get dressed and Hall & Oates took over the staff break room for hours, not letting anybody in. 

When the Tower Avenue of the Arts store opened up in 1999, Kat moved to the new digs and proved to be an invaluable part of the team. A completely new group of people and yet it was still Tower Records. 

But being in Center City, there were always odd goings on. The morning Kat opened the door at 7:30am to be met near the front of the store by a homeless man who had been locked in overnight, begging her not to call the Police. Kat also recollects the John Mayer in-store when, after an acoustic performance, Mayer stopped signing autographs and walked out of the store to the consternation of hundreds of girls and their mothers. 

Kat wraps things up by telling us about visiting the Ave of the Arts store a couple of years ago, the weird feelings she felt, and the need to get the hell out of there. 

Join us for this jawn. You’ll be glad you did. 

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“A month before my 12th birthday, I turned on the TV on a Sunday night and there were these guys calling themselves The Beatles…And after that, everything was different for people of my age. After that, music was our art form.”

Like many of that time and after, Paul asked his mother to buy him a guitar. He started with an acoustic. And then he got a cheap Japanese electric guitar. But it was a friend in his building playing records by Classical guitarists that really caught Paul’s attention. Paul went back to college as a music major and studied music theory at Brooklyn College.

Riding on the subway one day, a customer across from Paul was reading the New York Times. The side Paul could see had a full-page ad that said “World’s Largest Record Store”. Intrigued Paul ended up visiting 4th & Broadway and checked out the brand-new Tower Records. A couple of months later, looking for a job, Paul applied at Tower, got interviewed and got the job. 

Starting as a clerk in #125’s Classical Department to being promoted to Supervisor and then Classical cassette buyer, Paul was on his way to a Tower career. He recounts his unforgettable “new employee” meeting with Store Manager Matthew Koenig and Matthew’s parting advice to the assembled group. 

Lincoln Center, Nanuet and Yonkers came next and then Paul called it a day for his Tower career. He ended up doing all of the Classical buying for the 3 Virgin Megastores in New York City before leaving music retail altogether and working on the label side at New World Records. 

Before wrapping up with us, Paul recounts three of his favorite Tower Record stories of all time. 

Join us for a lively, fun conversation with Paul Herzman. 

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Richard Leibowitz grew up in the Hudson Valley of New York to a father who listened to pre-1960s jazz and a mother who was more into folk music. Neither held much sway for young Richard, so he set out on his own and like a million other kids his age, KISS was the starting point for his music obsessions. 

Before working at Tower Records, Richard started working for Musicland while in college. Talking to a former bandmate who had signed on with Tower, Richard applied for and got the position of Store Artist in the Nanuet Store. Richard eventually moved up to the position of Record Sales Manager, a position he held both in Nanuet and in Carle Place. 

But Richard’s time at Tower was something of a mixed bag. He got to attend one of the Tower Annual Conferences but what he remembers most is getting busted by Stan Goman for not attending a mandatory Human Resources meeting because he was hungover. He held the position of Record Sales Manager, but when he applied for that position in other, larger stores he didn’t land those gigs. He eventually left the company, sick of 3-hour commutes and all that came with it. 

But thinking back on it, Richard met some. pretty cool people. He met Neil Young in a zombie-like state from smoking David Crosby’s weed. He had lunch with the classic YES lineup complete with Rick Wakeman bowing down to him and other Tower employees. And do you want to know the connection a white guy from the suburbs has to Biggie and Tupac? You’ll have to listen to this week’s episode to find out. 

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Serge Bielanko was one of the leading forces behind the Philadelphia-based rock & roll band Marah. Part Replacements, part Van Morrison, part Phil Spector, part Rod Stewart & The Faces, part Philly & Motown soul, for years they were poised for success as the “next big rock & roll band”. Marah was a critic’s darling and counted some famous folks (Jason Isbell, Steve Earle, Bruce Springsteen, and several authors)as part of their fan base. Another fan, many listeners of this podcast know, is the late Kevin Cassidy who caught on to them late, but made up for lost time with a real passion for the band. 

Nick Hornby, author of “High Fidelity” in the NY Times March 2004“ '20,000 Streets Under the Sky'' is [Marah’s] fourth album, and they're by no means famous yet, as the passing of the hat in the Fiddler's Elbow indicates. But what I love about them is that I can hear everything I ever loved about rock music in their recordings and in their live shows. Indeed, in the shows you can often hear their love for the rock canon uninflected -- they play covers of the Replacements' ''Can't Hardly Wait,'' or the Jam's ''In the City,'' and they usually end with a riffed-up version of the O'Jays' ''Love Train.'' They play an original called ''The Catfisherman'' with a great big Bo Diddley beat, and they quote the Beatles' ''Tomorrow Never Knows'' and the Who's ''Magic Bus.'' And they do this not because they're a bar band and people expect cover versions, but because they are unafraid of showing where their music comes from, and unafraid of the comparisons that will ensue -- just as Bruce Springsteen (who really did play ''Little Latin Lupe Lu'' for an encore, sometimes) was unafraid.” 

Stephen King, author of a million great horror novels, Entertainment Weekly 2006

“If You Didn’t Laugh, You’d Cry-Marah. An apt enough title, when you consider that this is probably the best rock band in America that nobody knows. Am I being an elitist here, trying to one-up my audience? Nope. Marah is great in the scat, bop, and jive way Springsteen was great on The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. One listen to songs like ”The Closer” and ”Fat Boy” on this amazing record and I think you’ll agree. These guys are either the American U2 or close enough for government work.” 

In March 2000, shortly after the opening of Tower Records on the Ave of the Arts in Philadelphia, they dropped their magnum opus “Kids In Philly”. Opening with a blaring foghorn, sounding an alarm, “Kids in Philly” quickly sets about a musical tour de force of their city, Philadelphia, complete with the sounds of present and past. Tower Records Avenue of the Arts hosted Marah for their “Kids in Philly” day-of-release in-store. As the years passed Tower Philadelphia and Lincoln Center hosted Marah for 4 in-stores in 5 years. 

With their follow-up album, Marah took a sharp left turn with an album produced by Owen Morris, best known for his work with Oasis, The Verve, and Kaiser Chiefs. The album landed with a thud, leaving Marah’s base of supporters befuddled and not picking up any new fans. From there the band went back to a more familiar style and continued to work their way back. Despite releasing a total of 9 albums, drama never seemed too far from the band. Throughout the years various musicians rotated in and out of Marah until Serge ultimately quit the band to pursue other interests including writing a weekly column called “Thunder Pie” https://sergebielanko.substack.com.

Join us for an epic conversation about the ups, downs, ins & outs of rock and roll in the 20th & 21st century with Serge Bielanko. 

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Growing up in a small town 50 miles outside of Los Angeles, Denise McDonald has a very clear memory of getting her first library card at the age of five. For most of her life, Denise has been a dedicated bibliophile. 

In this week’s episode, Denise tells us all about working book product at Tower. 

From friends at Sacramento State helping her to secure the job at the Sunrise bookstore, the various positions she held there, the move to Tower Advertising and chasing publishers for co-op advertising funds, the big personalities in the Advertising department she encountered, and her eventual move to the Tower Product Team the last three years of the company. 

Almost 22 years with Tower, Denise had some pretty cool face time with some of the country’s most celebrated authors as well as some of her personal favorites. And thanks to the Linda Hoffman Make-A-Wish Foundation, Denise was able to meet Paul McCartney whom she had seen in concert 8 times. 

Join us for an interesting look at another side of the company with Denise McDonald.