By Sharon Oliver, Contributing Writer
REGION – Streaming a song or two can be done quickly and easily. But for some hardcore music fans, nothing beats spending time at a record store combing through bins filled with albums. Reading jacket covers and lyrics, admiring artwork, learning the names of the musicians and producers were all part of an album’s important representation. Vinyl lately has been making somewhat of a comeback, both for used albums and new releases.
However, there was nothing like the experience of a record store during its heyday, which included scoring tickets for concerts, artist appearances, and in-store concerts. One business that met the needs of Massachusetts music lovers was Strawberries Records & Tapes (later Strawberries Music & Video), founded in 1972.
Top music store in New England
At its peak in the 1980s, Strawberries was one of the top ten music store chains in the country, and the leader in the New England market. Top recording artists like Blondie and Bruce Springsteen made in-store appearances to sign autographs and meet fans. With 81 stores of the record chain spread throughout the region, the one formerly located at 10 Front Street in Worcester was perhaps one of the most visited and beloved. The upstairs resembled a typical retail record store while the downstairs was sort of like a nightclub operating during daytime hours but also housed an assortment of cassettes and older recordings that had been deleted from record companies’ sales catalogues.
The disenfranchised were particularly drawn to a table offering an eclectic selection of indie punk rock albums. Whenever a customer chose a cassette tape, they dropped it onto a conveyor belt which carried the tape to a cashier.
Reviewers from the Worcester Telegram stopped by the store often to double check correct spellings of band member names as well as the proper names for songs. Due to the number of big-name performers at E. M. Loew’s (now the Palladium) and the Centrum, the Worcester Strawberries hosted quite a few in-store promotions with recording artists signing albums for excited fans. This included notable artists like Kiss and Poison.
Former employees reminisce
Craig Davis, a former employee, wrote in the Facebook group Veterans of Strawberries Records and Tapes, “I worked seasonal one year at the store in Westborough, on Route 9 next to where BJs used to be. Remember the tapes that they played in store with music and announcements? To this day when I hear ‘Cherub Rock’ by Smashing Pumpkins it makes me think of those days.”
Dana Lemoine also shared her memories on Facebook. “I was working at the Providence, RI store one day, helping with inventory, and this scraggly looking man walked in. I went up to him in his slightly grimy blue windbreaker, baggy tan pants and three-stripe K-Mart Special-looking sneakers and explained we were closed for inventory,” she recalled. “One of the managers welcomed him into the store, then spun on his heels and told me it was Morris Levy. True story! Will never forget it. He looked like a bum! How was I to know!? Ha!”
Controversial owner
Photo/Wikimedia Commons/Richard Carlin
Morris Levy, who owned the Strawberries chain, was also a record executive with reputed ties to New York City mob figures. He was widely known for allegedly swindling artists out of their royalties at his New York City label Roulette Records by hiding profits or falsely claiming writing credits. Levy’s 1986 arrest at the Boston Ritz Carlton Hotel was televised nationally.
Once one of the most sought-after part-time jobs by local teenagers, Strawberries Records and Tapes closed its doors in 2006. The controversial Morris Levy died in 1990, of cancer at age 62. At the time of his death, he was facing a $250,000 fine and 10 years in prison for a May 1988 conviction on two federal counts of conspiring to extort $1.25 million from a Pennsylvania record wholesaler.
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