# Why do record stores, thrift shops and flea markets have a glut of Streisand, Manilow and Alpert? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 6, 2009, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560 "2009-11-06T13:33:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560/41 "2009-11-07T22:04:20Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > In 30 years or so, the glut in these places will be 90’s grunge artists. Stacks and stacks of Nirvana CDs, with kids wondering why they should buy them when they can just think about the song hard enough and their brain implants will download it and play it, and run a banner ad across their visual cortex. Around here I already see a lot of their music and others from that era in the used record stores. You have a good chance of finding: _Last Splash_ by The Breeders One of the last two Replacements albums Several 10,000 Maniacs albums Some Frank Black albums _Tubthumping_ by Chumbawumba A later Echo and the Bunnymen album At least one album by The Cocteau Twins Some Morrissey albums _New York_ or _Magic and Loss_ by Lou Reed _Starfish_ by The Church Some of these are great albums, and really easy to find used around here. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560/42 "2009-11-07T23:02:52Z")
> [@Talon\_Karrde](#): > > Around here I already see a lot of their music and others from that era in the used record stores. You have a good chance of finding: … Used record stores are a whole 'nother beast from thrift stores. The better stuff ends up in the used record stores, the rest ends up in thrift stores. The two are basically not comparable. * * * While “media is dead” means that the future of used vinyl/cassettes/cds is dim, there’s something satisfying about contemplating the utter and complete destruction of a Kenny G CD collection I stand to inherit. Watching cds melt is going to be a whole lot more enjoyable than just hitting the delete icon. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560/43 "2009-11-07T23:15:34Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Used record stores are a whole 'nother beast from thrift stores. The better stuff ends up in the used record stores, the rest ends up in thrift stores. The two are basically not comparable. That is true. And in both types of places you find a lot of the crap (unless it’s a small used record store that is selective about what it takes). I’ve thought about buying a bunch of the weird records you see at thrift stores and other places and starting a website about them, but I don’t think I’ll ever get around to it. I’m sure there already are websites where people review weird obscure music. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560/44 "2009-11-07T23:19:18Z")
Although I should point out, I didn’t really have record stores in mind when I listed the music I find. That stuff is actually in used book stores that also sell music, like [Half Price Books](http://www.halfpricebooks.com/index.html). ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560/45 "2009-11-07T23:19:25Z")
Usually the websites are mocking the cover art, and not actually listening to the music (unless it’s the audiomasochism blog). ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560/46 "2009-11-07T23:44:45Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > When I hear _Spanish Flea_, I associate it with a Honda commercial from the early 1970s. > > _It’s Honda’s great little car > It’s Honda’s great little car > It gets you forty-five M-P-G, 35 M-P-G, waaaaaa! > It’s a great little car!_ > > Consider that I must have been six or seven years old when these commercials aired; that’s the kind of staying power this ditty has. I remember that, too…but it was for a Mazda – the GLC (which stood, of course, for “Great Little Car”), which was the predecssor of the 323 / Protege model for them. The GLC was introduced in '77, so that ad would have been no earlier than that. Edit to add Wikipedia link to that model: [Mazda Familia - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_GLC#1977-1985_.28Mazda_GLC_and_323.29) ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560/47 "2009-11-07T23:51:04Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Used record stores are a whole 'nother beast from thrift stores. The better stuff ends up in the used record stores, the rest ends up in thrift stores. The two are basically not comparable. > > * * * > > While “media is dead” means that the future of used vinyl/cassettes/cds is dim, there’s something satisfying about contemplating the utter and complete destruction of a Kenny G CD collection I stand to inherit. Watching cds melt is going to be a whole lot more enjoyable than just hitting the delete icon. The problem with that, however, is that once the Kenny G CDs are rendered even more unlistenable than they were in their original state they’ll still be taking up landfill space for untold millennia. That melted plastic takes a looong time to decompose. As for other once-popular artists whose records are now commonly found in thrift shops, I recall seeing a lot of [Ferrante and Teicher](http://www.ferranteandteicher.com/home.htm) the last time I was in one. [QUOTE=Ichbin Dubist] Used music bins used to to be full of big-selling but largely forgotten 50s LPs like Jackie Gleason’s Music for Lovers Only and Harry Belafonte albums that are not Calypso. As any perusal of the singles charts or bestsellers from fifty years ago will show, a lot of popular culture gets forgotten. [/QUOTE] That makes me wonder about the popular non-rock n’ roll albums from the 50s and 60s that are rarely found in thrift shops or, if they are, get snapped up fairly quickly. I would think that Sinatra’s albums usually don’t stick around long enough to gather dust. Likewise, titles from people like Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, and Nina Simone. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560/48 "2009-11-08T02:34:28Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > As others have said, it’s simply their demographic dying off and their stuff ending up in these places for sale. > > In 30 years or so, the glut in these places will be 90’s grunge artists. Stacks and stacks of Nirvana CDs, with kids wondering why they should buy them when they can just think about the song hard enough and their brain implants will download it and play it, and run a banner ad across their visual cortex. I can still see Nirvana being popular with young people 30 years from now, in the same way that Jimi Hendrix and the Doors still have a lot of teenaged and twenty-something fans. Anything associated with angst that also happens to have a genuinely tragic story behind it is bound to inspire devotion among a certain subset of music fans. What you are likely to see a lot of in the thrift stores years from now are artists like Kenny G, Michael Bolton and Celine Dion. Like the people I mentioned in the OP, they never had much of a hipness quotient and never had many younger listeners even in their heyday, but still managed to sell a shitload of albums. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560/49 "2009-11-08T02:48:35Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Used record stores are a whole 'nother beast from thrift stores. The better stuff ends up in the used record stores, the rest ends up in thrift stores. The two are basically not comparable. I agree. The albums at the thrift stores and flea markets are basically the stuff that no one could get any money for. You can find Andy Williams, Barbra Streisand, and the other people I mentioned in the OP at used record stores. But record shops also have a much greater variety and quantity of albums, and the above mentioned artists don’t make up near as big a percentage of their stock as they do the music sections at thrift stores. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560/50 "2009-11-08T04:48:19Z")
> [@Talon\_Karrde](#): > > Although I should point out, I didn’t really have record stores in mind when I listed the music I find. That stuff is actually in used book stores that also sell music, like [Half Price Books](http://www.halfpricebooks.com/index.html). God, yes. The worst at Half Price is the stacks of $1 LPs, which I have a habit of going through. True, you can mine some interesting and hard-to-find stuff, but for every good album there’s about 400 examples of dreck which include horrific veins of Barbra Streisand\* and oodles of drippy easy listening and soft rock. I can subscribe to the theory that numerous Streisand fans have passed on and their kids are hauling the records down to Half Price for resale, but what of the gazillion Carly Simon albums and all the '70s and '80s slop that winds up in the $1 bins? The Boz Scaggs fans can’t be that ancient. Maybe it’s the nature of the soft rock/easy listening beast - the embarassment factor sets in more quickly than it does for rock fans\*\*. Also, while there seem to be new admirers of the Beatles and Stones, new Neil Diamond aficionados are a rarer breed (are there star-struck teens who beg their parents to take them to Vegas or wherever Neil does his shows these days?)\*\*\*. \*including the one with the repulsive cover of Barbra about to perform slo-mo lizard sex with Kris Kristofferson) \*\*There of course are exceptions - for instance, at some point Supertramp devotees decided to dump their albums en masse. Or else “Breakfast In America” has developed the capacity to reproduce at will, along with certain Styx albums. \*\*\*if my kid started grooving on “I Am, I Said” I’d insist on hauling them in for therapy. \*\*\*\*it is clear from the album covers that Mitch Miller was actually Satan, and the audience never caught on. ---
**Author:** ![jasonh300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@jasonh300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasonh300)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560/51 "2009-11-08T04:49:17Z")
Strangely enough, I’ve never seen [this](http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/F/frivolous_sour.html)album in a thrift store. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560/52 "2009-11-08T05:19:36Z")
When I was a kid in the '60s, everyone’s parents owned Whipped Cream. The cover practically screamed “We’re hip! We’re incredibly risque! We read Playboy! We watch Love, American Style! We drink daiquiris, and someday, we’ll even try smoking marijuana!” The music was so much better than all the Mitch Miller and Jack Jones that came before it; it was genius by comparison. I listened to it for weeks, and my summer camp counselors had us do a dance routine to “A Taste Of Honey” which I could probably still do today if I thought about it. Every single song on that album was a winner. Whenever I see that album in a 2nd hand store, I get depressed at how much people are missing. I can’t believe this is the first time I ever heard that Herb Alpert was Jewish, not Spanish. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Don’t forget about Ed Ames records. They’re a little more rare. They’re behind all the BeeGees records. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560/53 "2009-11-08T05:26:59Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Also, while there seem to be new admirers of the Beatles and Stones, new Neil Diamond aficionados are a rarer breed (are there star-struck teens who beg their parents to take them to Vegas or wherever Neil does his shows these days?)\*\*\*.\*\*\*if my kid started grooving on “I Am, I Said” I’d insist on hauling them in for therapy. I have a friend who fell in love with Neil Diamond music long after it was cool. He went to a Neil Diamond comeback concert when the singer came to town, and while he was there, he ran into his mother. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560/54 "2009-11-08T05:31:27Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Edit to add Wikipedia link to that model: [Mazda Familia - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_GLC#1977-1985_.28Mazda_GLC_and_323.29) Thanks for the correction. Now all we gotta’ do is find the commercial, and we’ll have that earworm stuck in our heads for another 30 years. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560/55 "2009-11-08T05:38:56Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Drew Carey and the Horndogs covered “A Taste of Honey” quite a few times on the _Drew Carey Show._ Both Herb Alpert’s and The Beatles versions of the song [were both covers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Taste_of_Honey_(song)), too, though. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560/56 "2009-11-08T17:12:14Z")
Speaking of covers, apart from the Streisand/Kristofferson album cover, the one that makes me the most nauseous (and naturally one that highly infests used LP bins) is [this loathsome album “art”](http://rgcred.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/styx-pieces-of.jpg) from Styx. Gives a new meaning to “boogie till you puke”. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560/57 "2009-11-08T17:24:23Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > I can still see Nirvana being popular with young people 30 years from now, in the same way that Jimi Hendrix and the Doors still have a lot of teenaged and twenty-something fans. Anything associated with angst that also happens to have a genuinely tragic story behind it is bound to inspire devotion among a certain subset of music fans. Agreed. If you’ve ever looked at the t-shirt wall at Hot Topic, Nirvana always at least two or three shirts up there. Other bands come and go, but Nirvana endures, even among teenagers. And is there a better predictor of teen culture than Hot Topic? I think not. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560/58 "2009-11-08T17:51:11Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > \*including the one with the repulsive cover of Barbra about to perform slo-mo lizard sex with Kris Kristofferson) The album I always see is the one that has her wearing a Superman shirt and nothing else. ---
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560/59 "2009-11-09T00:07:58Z")
The one I wonder about is Peter Lemongello - anyone remember him? I never see his records anywhere. Like Lemongello’s, many of the artists in the OP were pushed on late night TV IIRC… ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560/60 "2009-11-15T15:59:44Z")
Well, I went to a yard sale over the weekend where they had a box full of records. And sure enough Barbra Streisand and Barry Manilow were in there. I am sad to report however that they did not have _Whipped Cream and Other Delights_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-record-stores-thrift-shops-and-flea-markets-have-a-glut-of-streisand-manilow-and-alpert/516560.md?page=4)