SAM THE RECORD MAN

[misfish]

Sams was a big part of my early years.

 

RIP SAM

 

Thanks for the memories.

 

TORONTO - For many music-lovers who flocked to downtown Toronto’s iconic Sam the Record Man store, the owner’s retirement marked the day the music died.

 

Now, after a career that spanned seven decades, people everywhere are paying tribute to Sam Sniderman, who died Sunday at 92.

 

“Sam the Record Man,” who had branches across the country, “was the last of the great Canadian showmen that were able to establish themselves as household names purely through the force of their personality,” close friend Brian Robertson, chairman Eemeritus of the Canadian Recording Industry Association, said Monday.

 

“He was a mentor to literally hundreds of Canadian artists and musicians and the Yonge St. record store and Sam’s presence there was the centre of the Canadian music industry’s universe for over three decades.”

 

In addition to new releases, the savvy businessman’s upper floors overflowed with foreign, classical, ethnic-theme and small-release platters.

 

The high school dropout and savvy businessman also befriended and mentored performers — whose photos were everywhere.

 

Anne Murray, Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell and The Guess Who were among the regulars who chatted with fans and signed autographs.

 

“It was like a mecca,” said songwriter and guitarist Steve Campbell, publisher of County Magazine and producer of Quarter Moon Cafe music nights in the Bloomfield village hall south of Belleville.

 

He and his late brother Rick, also a musician, regularly visited Sam’s in the 1960s and ’70s, when Campbell often heard Sniderman’s booming voice and met him once.

 

“We were looking for a new Beatles record and he said ‘tomorrow, come back tomorrow at 9 o’clock,’ so we did and there were hundreds of people scooping it up ... for $1.99,” he said.

 

“The prices kept people coming back,” Campbell said, recalling stacks of new-release records priced at 99 cents or $1.99, at a time when other outlets asked $4.95. “Sam was larger than life … a retailer’s dream, always in the store.”

 

Among many tributes, Sun reader Alev Hashalom wrote Sniderman “supported and encouraged Canadian musicians and helped careers.”

 

Sharon Russell recalled meeting him in the ’70s, “when The Great Rufus Road Machine was launching its album.

 

“He was wonderful ... made you feel right at home ... always had time for you and he had great stories to tell,” she wrote.

 

“Thank you for the dusty fingers I cherished after spending hours flipping through your collections,” Daryl Faulkner added.

 

Born in Toronto, and raised in Kensington Market, Sniderman first sold records in his brother Sidney’s store, Sniderman Radio Sales and Service, in 1937, where he also installed car radios.

 

He opened a second store 22 years later on Yonge St. and launched franchises in 1969.

 

“I don’t know why the hell I chose records,” Sniderman told an interviewer in 1995.

 

With radio so popular before the Second World War, pundits predicted no future in records, but his mom, Gertrude, let him install a record bar.

 

Expanding from wax to vinyl, from 78 rpm records to 45s, 33s, then tapes and CDs, until retiring in 2000 and turning the business over to relatives, “I never looked back,” he said.

 

“Through his unique and successful business, which became a national enterprise, he brought energy and excitement to Yonge Street, and through his passion for music he provided encouragement and support to a generation of Canadian artists,” Ryerson University president Sheldon Levy said in a statement.

 

“We are proud to be developing our new Student Learning Centre on the site of the former flagship store on Yonge,” Levy stated, adding the purchase by the university for $23 million “will be revitalized as a hub for this and future generations of young people, and retail.”

 

A Member of the Order of Canada, Sniderman was inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame, the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame, received the Governor General’s award and cofounded a sound recordings archive at the University of Toronto, with his wife.

 

He is survived by sons Bobby and Jason, their wives and four grandchildren.

 

A service on Tuesday at Benjamin’s Park Memorial Chapel will be followed sometime next month by a memorial service.

[Joey]

May aunt actually worked for Sam for many years.

 

He will be missed.

 

RIP!

[Handlebarz]

Dang did not know he was still alive until yesterday we made many trips down to T.O. From Sudbury to look for the many awesome bootleg copies of Slayer,Venom and much more heavy metal thrash metal as no one else had it at the time. I always looked forward to the big records to mark the end of our trip.

 

Yes we did hit the smaller shops but SAMs was the place to start.

 

RIP Sam

[blaque]

Dang did not know he was still alive until yesterday we made many trips down to T.O. From Sudbury to look for the many awesome bootleg copies of Slayer,Venom and much more heavy metal thrash metal as no one else had it at the time. I always looked forward to the big records to mark the end of our trip.

 

Yes we did hit the smaller shops but SAMs was the place to start.

 

RIP Sam

 

Ha, We used to drive up from buffalo on many occasions for the exact same reason. He always had bootleg cassettes that made me the envy if all my friends as they had no idea where I was getting them from lol

[Moosebunk]

Sam, HMV, CD Warehouse and in my teens Shake Records were all like a second home once getting a license to drive and a paycheck.

 

Funny but, was in CD Warehouse in both Orleans and Nepean in the past month... later told friends this at a party and they laughed at me! "Who buys CD's now?"

 

Apparently.......

 

 

RIP Sam and days gone by...

Edited September 25, 2012 by Moosebunk

[Raf]

Yep, SAMs is missed truly an icon. I'd always check them out in my teens but always ended up at the Record Peddler for my music needs.

[backbay]

They had such a wide variety of music in the store.

Like most have mentioned, there were other stores I would shop at as well, but Sam's was for sure the starting point. He mad a great contribution to Toronto.

[Headhunter]

Sam's was my first job when I moved to Toronto from London in the late 80's.

I worked there for just under a year. There is no arguing that Sam's had everything that was avaiable, in his flagship store on Yonge... yes he was an icon in Canadian music, but he was not a very good person to work for. Perhaps that's why he had the level of success he had...

His business model was quite interesting... the flag ship store almost always lost money, but since he owned the distribution company that supplied all Sam's stores with product, he made money hand over fist selling product to his stores and franchiese coast to coast.

Interestingly, his brother Sid actually owned multiple properties on Yonge Street, from Queen to Gerard. If your talking money, Sid had Sam beat handily.

HH

[ccmtcanada]

Memories of a teen....

 

Hopping on the Go Train from the burbs and walking up Yonge street excitedly towards Maple Leaf Gardens to see a concert.

 

Go into a few "head shops", grab some food from a street vendor and walk ao Sam the Record Man.

 

An icon that will be missed for sure.

[Handlebarz]

Tag hit it I could not come up with the Record Peddler that was a great place for any underground bands or death metal I still have some venom records from back then

[misfish]

Dating myself here,but I enjoyed my walks home from the city hall ice pad, up young street on friday and saturday nights. Sams was always packed.

 

 

Sam's was my first job when I moved to Toronto from London in the late 80's.

 

He couldnt of been that bad Joe,if he hired you right off the boat.

[Headhunter]

lol Brian....

Remember, this is the same guy who heard the Beatles being played in his store and told them to take it off as the stuff will never sell! LMAO!

Sam was an expert in what was called Pop music... except Pop music to him was the Rat Pack, Tony Bennett etc... he had no clue what so ever as to anything produced after 1965!

RIP Sam...

HH

[lew]

he had no clue what so ever as to anything produced after 1965!

 

 

My truck radio is always tuned to 50's rock on Sirius and my wife always jokes that I know every song and singer from that era, but couldn't name a single one after 1969.

 

Must be an old guy thing

[Headhunter]

lol Lew... I think Sam had a few years on you... and some of the best music written was done in the 50's... heck, it's the basis on which everything afterwards is based...

HH