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It's Record Store Day – Here Are Pictures To Prove It

In the music world, today is all about bricks and mortar. It's the annual Record Store Day, when music fans are urged to get out to support their local shop.

From new releases to vintage finds, people have been posting photos of beloved albums and record stores Saturday.

Music companies are putting out dozens of limited-edition releases for the occasion. One example: Johnny Marr doing a live version of his old band The Smiths' song "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want."

If you're still looking for a way to celebrate, our pals at All Songs Considered talk about the records they're eager to get on their turntables in this week's mini-podcast. On the list: the Grateful Dead's Wake Up to Find Out live album, featuring a 29-year-old Branford Marsalis.

Hear The Discussion

The Record Store Day website has a full list of releases — for example, you could snag a 30th anniversary reissue of the 1985 A-Ha song "Take On Me" — printed on a 7" vinyl picture disc, no less. And we'll remind you, the idea is that you track it down at a store.

The Foo Fighters got into the spirit of the day by putting on a surprise concert close to where band leader (and 2015 Record Store day ambassador) Dave Grohl grew up in Ohio. They played an in-store show "at the Record Connection — an independent record store nestled in a nondescript shopping plaza in Niles, Ohio," Rolling Stone reports.

We've collected some of our favorite images and messages:

In another sign that physical music formats have a future, our friends at Weekend Edition Saturday note the renewed attention given to flexi discs, the flimsiest of formats that is popular with collectors – and is also gaining ground among fans of metal.

Today also brings the induction of the 2015 class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in Cleveland, Ohio. Our earlier post on this year's group includes samples of their music. Here's the official list of artists and who'll be inducting them, from the Hall:

  • Paul McCartney is inducting Ringo Starr
  • Stevie Wonder is inducting Bill Withers
  • Patti Smith is inducting Lou Reed
  • Peter Wolf is inducting the Paul Butterfield Blues Band
  • Fall Out Boy is inducting Green Day
  • John Mayer is inducting Stevie Ray Vaughan
  • Steve Cropper is inducting the "5" Royales
  • Miley Cyrus will induct Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
  • Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

    Bill Chappell is a writer and editor on the News Desk in the heart of NPR's newsroom in Washington, D.C.