With the rise of CDs and MP3 digital music, most of this legacy record shop is now devoted to antiques and military items that sell well. However, in its day, this store was famous worldwide for hard-to-find vintage recordings. In 1974, a man bought the entire store's basement storage of old 78s.
The history of this store is best told on Scotty Moore's website: (
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"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. Performers like Lefty Frizzell, Bob Wills, Ernest Tubb and Slim Willet... 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 started his career during the twenties in Breckenridge when that area of Texas was in the midst of an oil boom. At a time when three companies—Columbia, Victor, and Brunswick—had a virtual monopoly on record manufacturing, Oscar was already in business selling 78 rpm records from juke boxes over the counter. By the forties he had established himself in Big Spring.
His 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. Lefty Frizzell used to drop by to learn the words of his latest record before a show. Lawrence Welk, Bob Wills, George Jones, Jimmie Rodgers, and Ernest Tubb all stopped in to pick, chat, or buy at Oscar's. Jimmy Reed loaded up on discs, then hit three cars backing out when he left.
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.
By 1977 the record industry was selling well over 200 million singles and 200 million albums annually and Oscar's place was one of the few remaining mom-and-pop operations left in the state. Today few people buy records and the digital age changed everything.
The Record Shop is still there, operated by Oscar's grandson, though much of the business is devoted to Antiques and Military memorabilia. 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 Record Shop proudly displays a historic marker from the local historical society. That marker reads as follows:
"THE RECORD SHOP
Oscar Glickman and his wife, Bobbie, opened the Record Shop in this historic building in 1942. The building was erected by J. M. organ in 1916 to be used as a storehouse. Today it is world famous for its collection of records.
The shop is unique in that the Glickmans never returned records that did not sell. They kept them. As the accumulation of old records grew, the store became a collector’s paradise. They supplied records to customers from as far away as Australia and France, and to celebrities like Lawrence Welk and Ernest Tubbs.
Today the tradition is carried on by their son Jake."