HIGHLIGHTS OF RECORD STORE DAY 2026
GIANT STEPS: By all indications, the 2026 celebration of Record Store Day underscored an atmosphere of healthy growth within the industry. Blitz Magazine - The Rock And Roll Magazine For Thinking People's Editor / Publisher Michael McDowell celebrates some of the highlights below. Pictured above are some of the most acclaimed new Record Store Day releases, including 45s by Olivia Dean and Taylor Swift, along with albums by Bruno Mars, John Coltrane and Francoise Hardy (Click on above image to enlarge).
I JUST MIGHT:
HIGHLIGHTS OF
RECORD STORE DAY 2026
By Michael McDowell
As always, Perry Como was right.
In his November 1954 monster classic Home For The Holidays single for RCA Victor, the beloved composer, vocalist and Canonsburg, Pennsylvania native asserted that being in one's hometown for the celebration of Christmas was the ideal way to spend that particular holiday.
When applied to other holidays, Como's observation continues to bear much fruit. To that effect, within the world of record collectors and musicologists, the record store is so much a part of the regular agenda, that the store itself often feels like home.
That analogy was borne out exponentially during the 2026 Record Store Day celebration, which took place on Saturday the eighteenth of April. Once again, the faithful across North America flocked to their retail establishments of choice for the holiday.
True to form, North America's front running record outlets were well prepared for the occasion. To wit, the Hollywood, California branch of the vaunted Amoeba Records chain augmented their impressive selection of nearly four hundred limited edition vinyl releases with deep discounts on turntables, books and clearance CDs.
Across town, the venerable Bob Say's Freakbeat Records in the San Fernando Valley kept pace with vintage collector demand via both a ten percent discount and by consistent restocking of the bins. Freakbeat has long been hailed as a prime source of hard to find vinyl releases, boasting as it does an inventory of rare singles that numbers in the thousands.
Meanwhile, the Dearborn and Farmington branches of the Detroit area's Dearborn Music (which celebrates its seventieth anniversary in 2026) appeared to be on pace to break all previous records set on the holiday. To that effect, more than two hundred customers were lined up outside of the entrance of the Dearborn branch an hour before opening.
"We also had more than one hundred people waiting in line at checkout within a half hour of opening this morning", said one insider at the Farmington branch.
Not surprisingly, adventure was also the order of the day at Royal Oak, Michigan's esteemed Solo Records. CEO Heath Craig took the unprecedented step of foregoing the option to carry any of the limited edition Record Store Day titles; instead focusing on the store's vast and formidable array of high end collectibles. The faithful nonetheless turned out in droves.
"It's been a great day so far", said Craig.
However, Solo's propensity towards altruism took an unexpected turn at midday, when a sudden windstorm carried away a table near the entrance that was loaded with coffee and complimentary snacks for the store's clientele. A protective canopy concurrently took to the air, landing in the parking lot several yards away. Thankfully, there were no injuries, although one Solo staffer's quick action managed to salvage the firm's antique Maxwell House coffee brewer before it hit the concrete.
As for the selection itself, Solo Records once again led the way with a diverse selection of material that included everything from mint condition copies of Rod Lauren's If I Had A Girl, the Beach Boys' Getcha Back and Jimmy Dean's Big Bad John singles (with picture sleeves) to near mint condition mono pressings of Jan And Dean's Ride The Wild Surf album, Terry Knight And The Pack's groundbreaking 1966 debut album for the Lucky Eleven label and the prolific Post label's two-LP hit sampler from Chicago's WCFL-AM, which features thirty classic singles by Terry Stafford, James Brown, the Surfaris, the Ramsey Lewis Trio and others.
As for the current Record Store Day releases, rich diversity and world class quality continue to be the primary attributes. By far, the most highly anticipated such release at day's end appeared to be The Tiberi Tapes, an album of heretofore unreleased material by the visionary saxophonist and composer John Coltrane.
Released in tandem with his one hundredth birthday celebration, The Tiberi Tapes features material recorded during Coltrane's tenure with Impulse Records in the early 1960s. Coltrane's output for Impulse, Atlantic, Blue Note and Prestige was so prolific, that several new releases of his work have surfaced within the past decade, despite the fact that Coltrane tragically succumbed to a battle against cancer in 1967.
"That Coltrane album sold out in less than a half hour after we opened this morning", said the aforementioned Dearborn Music insider.
In addition to Coltrane, many other vintage greats were well represented with new Record Store Day releases. Among the highlights were live collections by the Ramones and the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, a highly antipated set of concert recordings (at the Fillmore and Winterland) of Cream's 1968 masterpiece Wheels Of Fire, a 1964 summit meeting European session, Town Hall Concert (featuring bassist Charles Mingus and saxophonist Eric Dolphy), a second installment of 2025's collection of outtakes and rarities from the Doors' 1967 sessions for their Strange Days album for Elektra, a white vinyl limited edition of the great Francoise Hardy's Vogue label In English album, a career spanning live set recorded in Los Angeles in April 1975 by Pink Floyd, and Rare Blasts, an extraordinary collection of 1979 - 1985 rarities by Southern California's beloved rock and roll heroes, the Blasters. Essential offerings by Yes, the Thirteenth Floor Elevators and McCoy Tyner rounded out the highlights.
Over the past two years, the state of so-called new music has likewise reascended to great heights, in part via an explosion of songwriting acumen that is championed by a diverse cadre of up and coming artists. Their ranks were also well represented as part of the Record Store Day 2026 celebration.
Most welcome among them were A Matter Of Time Live At Madison Square Garden, a complete concert performance of that acclaimed 2025 studio album by composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Laufey. The studio version of the A Matter Of Time album was also concurrently reissued with bonus tracks in honor of the occasion. A Matter Of Time features the instant classic single Lover Girl, which earned top honors from Blitz Magazine - The Rock And Roll Magazine For Thinking People in 2025 as Best New Single of the Year.
Despite the massive current success of his utterly stupendous I Just Might single, composer, vocalist, avid record collector and Honolulu, Hawaii native Bruno Mars is still primarly seen among the rank and file as a duet partner for hire. Atlantic Records has taken a giant step in putting that phase of Mars' ongoing legacy into perspective with Collaborations, which features his fan favorite studio ventures with Cardi B, Lil' Wayne and others. Most encouragingly, Collaborations also brings together in one package his most recent such team efforts, Die With A Smile (his magnificent high drama gem with Lady Gaga) and the sublime Apt. with Blackpink's Rose'. Their wonderfully screwy Apt. single took top honors from Blitz Magazine - The Rock And Roll Magazine For Thinking People in 2024 as Best New Single of that year.
While not as prominent in numbers as their album counterparts, vinyl 45s also made their mark during Record Store Day 2026. Foremost among the essentials was Elizabeth Taylor, the latest single from Taylor Swift's October 2025 The Life Of A Showgirl album. London's Olivia Dean (whose current Capitol single, So Easy To Fall In Love is a remarkable nod to Scepter-era Dionne Warwick) followed suit with a cover of James Taylor's You've Got A Friend, reoorded live at the BBC with Jools Holland.
If indeed there were any drawbacks to this year's Record Store Day celebration, it was with a long standing presumption of a lack of interest in certain top drawer artists based on such periphery as geography. To that effect, one of the highlights of Record Store Day 2026 in Europe has been the highly anticipated collection, The Hits, which features classic singles by the beloved Dutch vocal supergroup, Luv'. Although Luv' (whose original line up was comprised of Jose Hoebee, Marga Scheide and Patty Brard) only saw their groundbreaking signature single, Trojan Horse released in the United States (on Polydor in 1979), such essential tracks as Casanova, You're The Greatest Lover and Saint Tropez irrevocably and indisputably put them far above the herd as one of the greatest exponents of vocal harmony euphoria of the twentieth century. Most disconcertingly, The Hits remains (for the moment) unavailable through conventional retail channels in the United States.
Nonetheless, with stores continuing to host capacity crowds well into the day, the state of the industry appears to be quite healthy. When asked if the occasion would prompt his return in the near future, one Dearborn Music patron (whose total tab for his efforts neared the four-figure mark) responded with both a smile of approval and a bit of verbal inspiration from Bruno Mars:
"I just might".
posted by BlitzMagazine at 3:06 PM
