The Elton John Record Shop

 Elton John – Do call in if passing through Wiltshire

Vinyl Collectors and Sellers
Unit 11, Cross Keys Arcade, Salisbury SP1 1EY
01722 410660

The first thing you notice when you walk in to Paul Smith’s shop is the large black sign painted on the wall proclaiming, ‘We Love Vinyl’. I think Paul needs to change it to ‘We Love Vinyl and Elton John’.
No record shop in the world can have such an incredible collection of Elton related product and memorabilia. Besides vinyl and CDs, he also sells
Posters
Programmes
T-Shirts
Photographs
8-Track Cartridges (These were once a rival to cassettes)
Concert programmes
Stamps
Scarfs

Pride of place goes to four large size 70 page books in which Paul keeps all the press cuttings he has collected of Elton John since become a fan aged 8 years old after watching Elton perform on the ‘Royal Varity Show. These wonderful books are a delightful read. If you ask Paul he is pleased to let customers share his appreciation of Elton being welcome to have a perusal through them.

His own collection includes over 400 CDs and 300 pieces of vinyl. Many are the same titles but are either pressed in different countries, have slightly different track-listings. The rarest being a CD from 1990 when Elton recorded a concert he gave on a boat called ‘The Siram’ for family and friends. Only 50 were manufactured, each being numbered. Paul has copy number 9.

He has been to over 70 Elton concerts including twice flying out to New York to see him play ‘Madison Square Garden’.
As well as running a Facebook group Paul was the subject of an episode of the TV programme ‘Collectors Lot’ were he could show items from his Elton collection.
He is also an expert on Elton’s early recording career which involved him singing on many budget compilation albums.

In the 1970’s before he was famous Elton was a jobbing musician performing vocals for many budget albums of the day. The albums were incredibly popular and were released under brand names including Chartbusters, Hot Hits, Top of the Pops and Hits.
They featured current recent Top 40 chart hits re-recorded, by nameless 'sound-alike' performers. These albums were called budget compilations for a reason. They were cheaply, produced cheaply recorded and sold to the public cheap. I do recall in the early 1970’s them being displayed on spinner racks in Boots selling for 49p.
The first release was in 1967 on the’ Music for Pleasure (MFP) label titled ‘Hits 67’ featuring cover versions of the songs of that year.
Soon MFP had a major rival as in 1968 the ‘Top of the Pops’ range of cover version albums were released. They had the bright idea of featuring of featured clantily scad girls on the cover MFP responded by changing the name of their series to ‘Hot Hits’ which  also featured scantily clad models. It seemed that the record companies cared more about the model on the cover than the music the album contained.
The standard of the cover versions varied greatly. Some versions were laughable others sounded impressively like the original version. It is fair to say Elton’s covers were amongst the best.
They sold in massive quantities. In 1971 three of them made it to number 1 in the album charts.
These budget albums did cause immense disappointment to children of my generation. I recall waking up one Christmas Day when one of my presents was one of these albums. I excitedly opened it and rushed down to play it on the record player. You can imagine my disappointment hearing these songs I loved listening to on the radio not being the original versions. My experience was no doubt repeated thousands of times as relatives bought these records for children thinking they were purchasing original versions.
The end was nigh for the budget labels when in 1972 two companies Arcade and K-licensed original songs from the record companies and issued them on compilation albums which they advertised on television. ‘Arcade’s release was titled ’20 Fantastic Hits’ whilst K-Tel’s was ‘20 Dynamic Hits’, both albums went to number 1.

This was a staggering area of incompetence for record labels. Instead of releasing the product themselves they were licensing it to third parties. It was not till 1983 with the launch of the ‘Now That’s What I call Music’ series that the penny finally dropped.
It is something they should have latched on to 10 years earlier.
The series name has been shortened down to ‘Now and is the most popular compilation series ever even spawning its own TV station where you can watch videos of the songs featured on the albums.’
If you would like to listen to Elton John’s cover versions they were compiled for an album titled ‘Chartbusters Go Pop’ I am sure you can purchase a copy off Paul who is such an expert on this subject that he once did a two-hour radio show talking about it and playing tracks from ‘Chartbuster Go Pop’.
The is a good chance when you walk in Paul will be playing ‘Tumbleweed Connection’. This Elton album released in 1970 he rates as a masterpiece yet is not one of his famous releases as it contains no hit singles. Rolling Stone magazine shares his view rating it number 458 in their ‘Greatest Albums of All Time’ list. Paul has sold dozens of copies just by paying it in the shop which arouses the interests of customers who ask him what is playing? Due to Paul’s passion for the record it is almost certain they will end of leaving the shop having purchased a copy.
It is important to stress that this shop is just not all about Elton John.

 Paul has an excellent range of other stock. The vinyl is displayed in wooden crates. With the shop being painted white it looks extremely clean, bright and airy.
Paul likes nothing better than chatting music with his customers. He is also a natural salesman as on my last visit the postman called in to drop some mail off and a few minutes later was walking out having purchased an album.

His background is in construction but was always a massive record collector. In 2016, he had one of those now or never moments and decided to pack it all in to open his own record shop. He has not had a moments regret.

Elton John has been a massive supporter of record shops all his life even working at ‘One Stop Records’ in London during the 1960’s. In 2017, he was appointed the ‘Record Store Day’ ambassador. If the is one record shop that would appreciate his custom more than anybody then he would find it tucked in between TK Max and the ‘Skate Shop’ in an arcade Salisbury.

The books of Graham Jones are available in record shops or online. The latest book The Vinyl Revival and the Shops that Made it Happen has been turned in to a film. It has just been released on DVD and is available in record shops or online. Distributed by Proper Music.

 

Each week I record The Vinyl Revival Record Shop Podcast. It contains lots of funny tales from the crazy world of record retailing. It is also available on Spotify.

Twitter: @Revival_Vinyl

My blog has over 100 features on record shops and vinyl.

grahamjonesvinylrevival.blogspot.com

For film screenings and talks contact Graham. 

As the person who has visited more record shops than any other human, I often get asked my advice on buying turntables. I always say do not purchase a budget model. What is the point of buying one that costs the price of a few albums? The sound will not do the recordings justice. For a long time, I have recommended Rega Turntables as they are superb quality at great prices. They got more brownie points for sponsoring 'Record Store Day' and manufacturing limited editions just for record shops.