#FlashbackFriday: A Pictorial Album of the Exchange’s Vinyl Record Past

This Saturday, April 20, is Record Store Day, which inspires Flashback Friday to look back at the Exchange’s own vinyl past.

From 1956: The Music Bar at the Aberdeen Proving Ground Exchange. The Music Bar and other AAFES consumer electronics departments of the day offered the latest in radios and records. Radios dominate this photo, but note the record players on display as well as the vinyl albums in the background.

In 1958, the headline of a brief June Exchange Post story read, “Army Trainee Helps Boost Record Sales,” which is a bit of an understatement, considering that the trainee was Elvis Presley. It wasn’t the real Elvis, but “a photo display of the Soldier-crooner and his records,” that greeted customers at the Fort Hood (now Fort Cavazos) main store. But the store reported that sales were up while he was assigned to the post—especially for Elvis records, which customers would buy and then try to find him on the installation so he could autograph them. And sometimes they found him—Fort Hood officials reported that Pvt. Presley was mobbed by autograph-seekers whenever he visited the PX or cafeteria. Unfortunately, the story was not accompanied by photos of Elvis, real or fake.

From the August 1958 Exchange Post: Service members shop at the Record Corner in the Hi-Fi and Camera annex of the Thule BX. Research at the time indicated that record sales were above average in isolated areas such as Thule, which is now Pittufik Space Base, in Greenland. At the time, the Exchange was the largest buyer of “phonograph platters,” as an Exchange Post story put it, spending at least $15 million a year on records. Jazz and rock-and-roll were popular, but the era’s crooners and vocal groups—Frank Sinatra, Joni James, Johnny Mathis, Pat Boone, Doris Day, Theresa Brewer and the Four Lads—remained popular, even overseas.

From 1967: Customers record-shop at the Andrews AFB Exchange. You can spot copies of the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour, released in November of that year, on the bottom row. Also visible (but you have to look closely) are the soundtrack to The Graduate, the Beatles’ Rubber Soul, a Herman’s Hermits album and, on the wall, a recording of Handel’s Messiah.

This photo of the music department at the March AFB Exchange is undated, but it’s no earlier than June 1973, which is when Sly and the Family Stone’s Fresh (at upper left) was released. Albums by B.B. King, Buddy Rich, Jethro Tull, Pete Townshend, Edgar Winter, Led Zeppelin and more are also visible.

From the May 1977 Exchange Post: Associates at the Eastern Distribution Center Records Distribution Activity prepare albums for delivery to Exchanges worldwide. The center also shipped cassettes, 8-tracks and reel-to-reel tapes.

From the July 1977 Exchange Post: Shoppers line up for the opening of the Music Box, the Exchange’s first free-standing record store, at the Nuernberg Area Exchange. The store was introduced to feature the personal touch customers got from better record shops back in the States. It had the largest selection in Europe, with 1,500 titles. Opening-day sales more than doubled the $7,000 goal.

From 1996: An American Soldier browses the compact disc selection at an Exchange in Hungary. By the late ’80s, CDs had taken over as the music format of choice.

As streaming became more popular during the 21st century, records and CDs were phased out from Exchanges. Except for a few stores selling CDs of local interest, the Exchange stopped selling the album formats around 2018. Audio equipment, including turntables, is still available, as vinyl records have seen a resurgence in recent years.

Sources: Exchange Post archives, Exchange Associate Flickr.