I grew up in what is considered to be the golden age of record stores between the mid seventies and early eighties and as a lifelong record collector, I have a special place in my heart for record stores.

I worked in a small independent record shop in throughout my high school years and worked in record shops throughout the entire decade of the eighties. This was back in the day when there were record stores on every other corner and they were all unique. Anytime I was visiting someplace I hadn't been before, the first thing I did was look to see where the record shops were.

Bleeker Bob's is one of the most iconic and beloved record stores that ever existed. In 1967, Robert Plotnik originally opened a shop at 149 Bleeker Street specializing in doo-wop, R&B, soul and vocal-group records. Plotnik was a serious doo-wop collector and legend has it that he opened the store to get cheaper records for his collection. A friend gave him the nickname "Bleeker Bob" and eventually this became the name of the store.

In the early 70s the store relocated to MacDougal Street and had since developed a reputation for promoting new and emerging artists, and by the late 70s they had become a driving force in the punk and underground music scene. The shop developed a reputation as the kind of place where you could discover music before it became mainstream.

Sadly, Bleeker Bob suffered a serious brain aneurysm in 2001 and the Greenwich Village store continued operating under manager Chris Weidner. By the 2000s, however, independent record stores were facing enormous pressure from CDs, online music, downloading and changing retail economics, and the the store closed in 2013 after nearly 45 years.

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