MERLE’S RECORD RACK Celebrates 60 Years of Music and More

Merle’s Celebrates 60 Years of Music and More

WRITTEN BY: KAREN SINGER

When Merle’s Record Rack opened in New Haven 60 years ago, vinyl was the only game in town. Today, it remains an important part of the independent record store’s business.

“I’ve always sold vinyl,” says Michael Papa, who opened a franchise in Derby in 1984 and moved the store to 307 Racebrook Road in Orange in 2003.

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Over the years, Papa has expanded Merle’s products and services. He buys and sells new and used LPs and CDs, repairs and sells vintage stereo components, and transfers and digitizes audio and video content from LPs, cassettes, VHS and 8mm tapes to CD, DVD, or USB.

Customers appreciate the personal attention Merle’s provides. The business has blossomed with customers seeking to preserve family memories by repairing or refurbishing beloved treasures. Papa has many handwritten thank you notes from satisfied first-time customers, loyal patrons, and university professors looking to preserve history.

Merle’s is chockful of T-shirts, pins, memorabilia, and collectibles. Rock ‘n’ roll posters, original artwork, and framed prints adorn the walls.

LARGE CLIENTELE

A constant presence on top lists of Best Vinyl Record Stores in Connecticut, Merle’s attracts customers from around the country and “all over the world,” according to Papa. “Some, from Japan and China, have their own stores and are on buying trips,” he says. Merle’s also sells select merchandise online.

“Our customers cover a wide-age bracket,” he says. “There are twentysomethings searching for Steely Dan and 60-year-olds looking for Sinatra, Jonny Cash and Elvis.

THE RETURN OF VINYL

A firm believer in the superiority of vinyl’s sound quality, Papa has watched the ebb and flow of newer music formats, and he is especially pleased with vinyl’s recent resurgence. “We’ve come full circle,” he says.

In 2021, vinyl album sales in the United States (41.72 million) topped CD sales (40.59 million), for the first time in three decades, according to MRC Data, which began tracking music sales in 1991. Top-selling vinyl last year included a new Adele album and reissues of Abbey Road (The Beatles) and Thriller (Michael Jackson).

THE STORE’S NAMESAKE

Merle’s Record Rack is named for the late Merle Shaw. She opened her first record store in MA in the late 1950s and brought Merle’s to CT in the early ‘60s. She opened Merle’s Record Rack on Chapel Street in New Haven in 1962. Shaw produced Connecticut’s Greatest Hits album that featured singles by popular ’50s and ‘60s groups, including the Majestics (“Up on the Roof”), the Chosen Few (“Hey Joe”) and The Five Satins featuring Fred Parris.

“Freddie came here all the time,” Papa says of Parris, who died last year and is best known for his classic doo-wop ballad, “In the Still of the Night”.

NEW OWNERSHIP

“Joe Gaetano and Wayne LaSalle bought Merle’s in 1972 and opened

Michael Papa repairing the Technics 1200 turntable, which was used by DJs at popular nightclubs years ago.

Photo: Paula Severino

stores in Wallingford, Milford, Derby, Middletown, East Haven and Guilford over the course of the next decade.” Papa says. “I got my first job at the Merle’s store in the CT Post Mall in Milford.”

Papa worked his way up from salesclerk in the New Haven store to being the sole owner of Merle’s Record Rack. In 1984, Papa left college where he pursued a degree in business finance, to become Merle’s first franchisee, opening his own Merle’s Record Rack in Derby.

ANNIVERSARY EVENT

A 60th anniversary celebration took place at the store on September 3rd. A steady stream of people enjoyed live music by local bands and sifted

Artwork created by Bob Masse, an artist from Canada, who Papa hired to design the piece in honor of the store’s anniversary celebration.

Photo: Paula Severino

A large selection of music in vinyl and CD, with equipment displayed in the background.

through vinyl album and CD bins, looking for treasures.

Among them was a Yale graduate student researching 1950s elevator music for her dissertation and a pony-tailed man clutching a fistful of Motown CDS, who fondly remembered buying concert tickets in the 1980s at a Ticketron outlet in Merle’s in Milford.

Papa believes COVID-19 renewed interest in vinyl. At the outset, “People were locked in their homes listening to music,” Papa says.

The pandemic also has fundamentally changed the way he does business.

“I used to be open six days a week and cut that to four days—Wednesday through Saturday,” he says. He wasn’t sure the strategy would work until, when he initially reopened with plexiglass and other COVID protocols, he saw masked people lined up outside the store patiently waiting 40 to 50 minutes to enter. “I didn’t realize their schedules were so flexible,” he says, noting so many people were working from home.

What Papa has since learned is the store is “very busy” when it’s open. “People come in and love what we do,” he says. “You’d like to think you’re doing something right.”

Papa always looks for vintage vinyl albums, preferably in pristine condition with original art. His wish list includes jazz,’70s and ’80s pop, rock, heavy metal and psychedelic bands. Call 203-795-9033, or merlesrecordrack.com. 