Record Store Day April 21st: Tuesday edition

This may come as a surprise to no one that I chose this, but today's edition of what is coming out on Record Store Day is a Paul McCartney release of "Another Day" and "Oh Woman Oh Why"...I've never uttered those words before and nor have I ever heard of this McCartney song. It has a great rhythm guitar opening and continues throughout the song.  Listen to it at the end of this bit.

Here are the details of the release on April 21st,but what is even more exciting to me is its just the beginning...this is just a preview for the re-release of Ram that comes out on May 22nd with a bunch of unreleased tracks and some documentary footage much like when he re-released Band on the Run a few years ago.

DETAILS

Format: 7" 45
Label: MPL / Hear Music

Tracks:
"Another Day"
"Oh Woman Oh Why"

A classic Paul McCartney vinyl single reissue manufactured exclusively for Record Store Day! "Another Day" was originally recorded in 1970, during the sessions for the album Ram. It was the first single of his solo career. It was originally released February 19, 1971 with "Oh Woman, Oh Why" as the B-side. Upon its release "Another Day"/"Oh Woman, Oh Why" reportedly sold over a million copies worldwide. It was a number one hit in France and Australia, in the U.K. it reached number two, in the U.S. it reached number five. This exclusive reissue single is taken from the forthcoming Paul McCartney Archive Collection edition of Ram coming this spring!

What do Peaches,Paul McCartney and Atlanta all have in common?

I remember all my friends' and their cooler older brothers and sisters having Peaches Records & Tapes t-shirts and of course they kept  all their albums in this "peach" crate.  I can still remember being confused at the artwork on the Steely Dan cover of Aja leaning up against a crate in one of their bedroom floors as we were snooping around.  Ironically in my adult years its one of my favorite albums.

Peaches Records & Tapes was a music store that was on Peachtree Road right down from Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta,Ga.  It was the place to buy records back in the the 70s and into the 80s.  They had stores all over the country and began opening in 1976 and at their peak there were approx 35 branches...of peaches...sorry I couldn't help it.

Part of the Peaches tradition was to have large concrete squares along the sidewalks surrounding their stores. Musicians would be asked to sign and put their hand prints into the quick drying concrete squares and then they'd be displayed like Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
Besides having walls of albums and cassette tapes and probably 8-tracks (I cant remember and I'm not that old), they sold crates for storing albums that looked like old peach crates with the Peaches logo labeled on the end of the crate.

In my mind I can still see Peaches logo t-shirts everywhere and everyone wanted one.
Peaches went out of business in 1985 and other stores like Turtles and Record Bar may have lasted into the early 90s,but eventually got bought up by the group that owned Blockbusters.  It is speculated that Peaches downfall was that they gambled that consumers would not buy a thing called a Compact Disc.  If they could have just held on until present day...it only took 35 years for vinyl popularity to come back around.



One of the best stories surrounding Peaches and their famous concrete wall of stars involved Paul McCartney and Wings when they were in concert at The Omni in Atlanta in 1976.  As you can imagine it would have been crazy to try and bring Paul to the store so the staff at Peaches got creative.  Read the story from this great blog called Meet The Beatles For Real.

Paul McCartney and Wings and Peaches concrete wall

Another story about The Allman Brothers and Peaches Records & Tapes in Atlanta.  Allman Brothers attempt to play at Peaches store

Lastly the Godfather of Soul gets a Peaches t-shirt.

ZZ Top making their concrete prints

James Brown & Peaches store director Lee Berman-1976

Mike Smith, The Showbiz Kids