Val Shively and his five million discs 💫

 

Val Shively is a legendary figure among record collectors. He owns more than 5 million records. He has a store called R&B Records in a rough neighborhood beyond West Philly. The building leans like the Leaning Tower of Pisa because there are five million records inside. It's probably the biggest record store in the world and collectors fly from all over the world to buy from Val. But if they say something wrong or don't like their attitude, he kicks them out of the store.

He's a man who went crazy for music at a young age. He's the most authoritative collector of doo-wop records on the planet and one of the greatest record collectors of all time, even though his genre is narrow.

One day in 1960 Shively turned the dial on his transistor radio all the way to the right and tuned in a black radio station for the first time. "I was shocked to hear Etta James, Baby Washington, 'Valerie' by Jackie & the Starlites," he said. “I like a lot of white music, I love old country, but to me, black music has more power, more originality, and more longevity. And once I got into black harmony bands, that was it. Nothing else has ever sounded so good to me.”

A sign on the door of his shop says “Do Not Enter” and in small print “Unless You Know What You Want!” Another sign says, “New Rules. 5 Minutes and You’re Out.” Val doesn’t allow snooping. Most of his business is mail order, and if you come as a customer, you have to have a list of what you want. And if you haggle over prices, complain that he doesn’t have something, or act even a little rudely, you’re out the door.

There, among an estimated five million vinyl records, on a small island of space, sitting at an old desk filled with Rolodexes, 45s, crumpled junk, and random novelty items, sits the white-haired emperor of this extraordinary domain.

Matt Barton, curator of recorded sound at the Library of Congress, has expressed keen interest in seeing the collection, and Shively is eager to catalog and price the records in preparation for Barton’s possible visit later this year. “I’ve never had kids because my records are my kids. It’ll be nice to sit down and get to know them all again.”