What? The guy had 3 MILLION records for sale?
Thats a hell of a lot of vinyl and he must have spent some real scratch to collect that much stuff over a long period of time, let alone find a place to store 3,000,000 anythings.
Think about how long it would take you to collect 3 million of anything.
I had crabs once
Pound the hell out of an unopened Doritos bag with your fists and I'm sure you'll have 3 million pieces by the end of the day.
Sam Brylawski, head of the recorded sound section at the Library of Congress, said its holdings of popular music recordings now total 1 million, while Recordrama’s is more than 2 million. Along with selling music, Recordrama has established a comprehensive discography called Music Master, which offers detailed information on hundreds of thousands of music recordings. Music Master was originally sold as a bound volume in the early 1980s. While it garnered praise from such pop music luminaries as Dick Clark, who referred to it as a required reference, it took a while to sell.
Today, Music Master is an Internet database with more than 600,000 listings, which they expect to market again in bound volumes this year. Recordrama always relishes being challenged by music lovers throughout the world who call seeking a hard-to-find recording. “The most valuable thing wasn’t the records but the information,” said Paul Mawhinney, owner of Recordrama. “The history was key. Without it, you can’t do anything.” Not to be satisfied to just have hit records, Paul boasts that he owns two-thirds of the misses. “Try to get a record by Nick Lomikin anywhere,” he challenges. Nick Lomikin? A local musician long forgotten — except by Paul.
Paul remembers buying 500 copies of a rare album made by Porky Chedwick, the famed local DJ of the 1950s. With the record backed by a funeral home, he remembers buying a casket full of them from Mr. Chedwick at 11:30 p.m. The deal was done in a graveyard, appropriately enough. As he trods through the neatly lined rows of shelves of his collection, the memories kick up like dust and the spin into stories.
Paul Mawhinney is the founder of Recordrama and the creator of Musicmaster.
That was his business. Years ago, I used to do corporate videos and for one event back in the 80s which had a patriotic theme, we wanted to use Ray Charles' version of 'God Bless America'. That cut had been out of production for years and none of the normal chain record stores had it or would even try to get it. I called this guy at Record Rama, and he had it --- one copy. He wouldn't sell it but he let us rent it.
His store was very well organized and he could put his hand on any title you wanted in an instant. Odds are, if he didn't have it, it didn't exist.
Yep. Forty years running a record store.
" .... closed his Record Rama store near Pittsburgh yesterday after 40 years."