The Record Shop - Big Spring TX
N 32° 15.179 W 101° 28.618
14S E 266650 N 3571170
The record shop where a young struggling performer named Elvis Presley sold a box of his self-promoted 78s to shop owner Oscar Glickman, who would become world-famous in his own right as a purveyor of rare records.
Waymark Code: WMJKGQ
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 11/29/2013
Views: 9
The history of Elvis and The Record Shop in Big Spring is preserved on Scotty Moore's website: (
visit link)
"Music has always been an integral of Big Spring area life, first in the Honky-tonks where many soon-to-be-famous performers played and then in the Municipal Auditorium and the amphitheater in the city park.... On April 26, 1955 Elvis, Scotty and Bill made their one and only appearance in Big Spring with a performance at the Municipal Auditorium. It was the second night of a five day tour with Capitol recording artist Dub Dickerson and TNT artists Chuck Lee and Gene Kay that had started the night before in Wichita Falls.
Stanley Oberst wrote that having arrived in Big Spring earlier in the day, Elvis met and ate with Oscar Glickman, the owner and operator of The Record Shop at 211 S Main St., not far from the auditorium. Promoting his Sun recordings, Elvis attempted to sell Glickman copies from the trunk of his car, a practice of self promotion not uncommon for many artists in those days. Though reluctant and with little faith in the boy's future as a performer, he was won over by Elvis' charm. He bought a box of 78s and reputedly put one record on the shelf and the rest in the basement. . . .
[Oscar's] practice of overbuying stock, offering no discounts and never returning unsold records resulted overtime in a virtually unrivaled stockpile of collectible and hard to find records and he became renowned the world over by record collectors and vinyl enthusiasts. His store also became "the place" to stop at for musicians passing through. . . .
In 1974 Oscar cleaned out his basement after a buyer heard the rumor of the pile of 78s for sale. Oscar told him he'd sell them for 10 cents a piece. At about 22,000 records that came to $2200. The buyer went down to the basement and looked for about an hour and came back and gave Oscar the money, then spent three days getting them out.
. . . . Stanley Oberst wrote that forty years later, Glickman's grandson stumbled across the Sun label 78s that Elvis had sold him. Evidently they were overlooked by the gentleman that bought out the basement in '74."
The additional waypoint is for the Municipal Auditorium, where Elvis performed in 1955.